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Because I travel a lot, I decided to use old postcards for my Valentines this year. I sent about 480, and the cards range over about 90 years: from 1901 to the late '80s, I think. They are from all over the world and they went all over the world. About 100 of them had writing on the back and had been posted before.
Then, they're all overprinted in silver with my image, which says "From me wherever I am / To you wherever you are."
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It's that time of year again, and herewith are my 2011 Valentines. Because this Valentine thing has gotten a little out of control in a covetous way, I thought it would be nice if I was able to give people multiple valentines that were all similar but slightly different, so they could keep one or two for themselves and still have a few to give away. So I created a modular heart with which I could easily make 10 variations, and as well I made a heart that says "Remember when we were young, we used to give Valentines to all our friends." (My best friend's 7-yr-old did not get this at all, repeatedly saying "But we do give Valentines to our friends." Yeah, wait 'til you're older, kid.)
So here's the press sheet:
Each person got one of the following in either blue or pink:
And then they got 4 or 5 different Valentine hearts. As I said, they are supposed to give them away, but it seems people like to hoard them! These are Kim Berlin's at Sterling Brands:
Kirsten Skipp has added one to a shrine:
Mark Mushet might have given the rest away like a good boy ...
Nik Hafermass has added his to his growing collection:
Stanley Hainsworth has made an odd justaposition:
Darling Tan Le is ready to cash in:
But the amazing Stefan Bucher really knew what to do! ... crazy kid!!
The process for making these was documented by Lynda.com. in this VIDEO!
With big thanks to David White and Scott Erickson and all the folks at Lynda.com.
You might be wondering how you get on my Valentine list. The answer is it's tough. This is a monumental effort for me each year so I'm not anxious to expand the list. However, hiring me and paying me gobs of cash is a pretty sure bet. ;)
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Jen Beckman and Sara Distin asked me to take part in their 20x200 project: wherein they create art prints for reasonable prices by a wide variety of artists, and new work going up every few days (or is it every day? I can't tell).
The art comes in different sizes, and usually you just get a bigger version of whatever the print is. But to me it seemed that the more you spend, the more you should get ... so above is what you get in the 8x10 (inches) size for $20, and below is what you get in the 11x14 size for $50 ...
Big spenders can buy even more, at 16x20 for $200 ...
And if you have a lot of wall space, or you're greedy, or rich, or all three, you can spend $2,000 and get this 30x40 inch baby ...
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Each year, for the Alliance Graphique International (AGI) congress, members are invited to contribute something to an exhibit. This year, for the Porto Congress, the theme was "Process" and we were asked to make a map of our process. So I documented each step of a project I was working on at the time, and compiled the whole thing into a step-by-step map of my process.
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This year I had the idea to make my valentines from old Christmas cards.
I solicited my friends to send me all their used Christmas cards, and I started getting exciting envelopes of cards in the mail. Many, many cards. This must be what it’s like to be popular!
I created the design of the heart for laser cutting … I wanted most of the card image to be cut away, but there to be enough left that some semblance of image remained; that you could tell it came from a christmas card.
I then consulted with Arkwel Industries here in Vancouver about the production. They got totally behind the idea, and Nancy Lock and her boss, Bill, also sent me a huge batch of used cards.
The laser cutter is fussy, so then I had to sort the cards, discarding any with multi-layers or glued-on bits, and sorting the rest into card weight, which I did just with a primitive snap-test.
Then I trimmed them so that the heart would fall in the most interesting part of the card.
The final result exceeded my most hopeful expectations.
I simply couldn’t believe how transformed the cards were …
How these cards (most of which were, in their original state, nothing special, or even downright ugly) gained so much more from the process.
How abstracted the designs became.
And how incredibly attached I became to each and every card. They were very hard to give away.
I made about 500, and every single one is different.
Here’s Ed Fella’s card, hanging in his office:
They looked so great all together:
Cards
Vector Art / Laser cut
February 2010
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David Huyck asked me to contribute something to Vol 1. Edition 3 of his Cloudy Collection, on the theme of “Scarlet Lettering”. Printed letterpress in red plus blind deboss, this is perhaps the most difficult-to-read piece I’ve made yet.
This, along with 6 others by various artists, are for sale at the Cloudy Collection website for $40US (for all 6 incl. free shipping to the US and Canada), with part of the proceeds going to the Nature conservatory.
The original, in pen and ink, is a little easier to read. Sort of. It’s two poems, or odes regarding my complex feelings for a certain individual … though, to make matters worse, there is a typo in one of the lines. Oops.
Letterpress card
pen & ink
July 2009
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My 2009 valentines were a bit of a departure in a number of ways. They were more “conceptual” than previous years. Where previously I sent a nice or pretty something that was either straight forward or easy enough to figure out, this one is a bit more mysterious. This year I wrote 4 fragments of letters; each has no beginning and no end; and each is carefully crafted to hopefully have some resonance with most people. Each recipient got one fragment.
My expectation is that the first, predominant feeling would be confusion. I neither addressed nor signed the letters (though the mailing label said “Happy Valentine’s Day from Marian Bantjes”). They look like they could be an original, by hand. Is this meant for the recipient? Is it from Marian Bantjes? Did Marian forget part of it? Or is it some kind “found fragment”? The prose is over the top, in that love-letter kind of way … yeah, you might say it’s purple.
My hope is that the recipient will read the letter at least twice; and that on 2nd or 3rd readings they will find something in it for them, something that makes them believe that somehow through unknown means, I have known something about them all along.
Happy Valentine’s Day (belated).
... also written up on Eye Magazine’s Blog.
Letter
Pen & Ink
January 2009
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I am having the first show of my work at the University Art Gallery (Dept. Art and Design) of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, from Jan 9–Feb 20, 2009.
Oddly enough, this is the first time I’ve made a poster for myself. I originally planned to make the whole thing in fun fur, but it didn’t work out so well, so I used scraps of fun fur, including making my name … which turned an elegant hand-drawn script into something that looks a lot like a tarantula. I threw in some patterning, some vector art, some pencil drawings, including a sketch for the poster itself and a little drawing of me, and the result is kindof a mix of what I’ve done in the past plus what I’m interested in in the future. It’s precise, and a little odd, and a little funny … I hope.
The show itself has over 100 pieces, including some video, 25 or so original drawings, some paintings, posters, photos, etc.
Big, big thanks to Jeff VanKleeck, who invited me to have the show, and who is working his ass off to get it ready.
I’ll also be speaking at CalPoly on Jan 16th, 2009.
Oh, yeah … details typeface is H&FJ’s Acropolis. One of my faves.
Poster
Vector, Fun-fur, pencil
December 2008
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This is a really important piece for me. Patrick Burgoyne at Creative Review offered me one of these “Monograph” pieces they send out with subscription editions of the magazine.
For me, it was an opportunity to create all new pieces that I called “Love Stories”, because each one was an illustrated text of the story of someone I love.
I spent 3 solid weeks on it, and nearly burned myself out. But in the end, it was worth it. Some of these are easier to read than others, but I won’t “translate” them for you. Either you’re curious, or you’re not.
June Bantjes, my mother (watercolour):
Gillian Muir, my best friend (watercolour):
Debbie Millman, my best friend (ink + photo):
Peter & Tamsin, my friends & neighbours (inks):
Jan & Ken, my friends & neighbours (inks):
Michael Bantjes, my brother (pencil, photo & vector art):
Rod Bantjes, my brother (acrylic paint):
Cake (cake):
My dentist (watercolour & ink):
Dennis Bantjes, my dad (pencil):
Doyald Young, my friend (pencil):
Ampersand (pencil crayon):
All the boys who loved me back (burned wood):
The booklet is included for subscribers with the August 2008 edition of Creative Review. If you’re not a subscriber, I’m afraid you’re SOL for getting this one of mine, as it’s not in news-stand copies. But there’s a different artist/designer/photographer featured every month, and friends of mine who subscribe say the Monograph is their favourite thing.
16-page (plus cover) booklet
Mixed media
June 2008
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This was a tattoo I designed for my friends Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio, with the name of their first-born, Maya. It was a gift, in lieu of rattles or a stuffed toy.
I know what you’re thinking: will I do this for you? Sorry, No. Not unless you’re a friend of mine or you have gobs of cash. That may sound strange, but let’s just pretend I’m Joni Mitchell: “I play if you have the money or if you’re a friend to me …” Tattoos are very personal, so I either need to know you, or thousands of dollars need to lubricate the pain of a client-gets-what-client-wants job. Know what I mean?
Not that there was any pain in this on my part: that’s love for ya.
Photos by Bryony Gomez-Palacio.
Tattoo
2007/08
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For my valentines this year I wanted to do something personal, but not as personal as last year’s. I started with drawing letterforms in the shape of hearts. I was going to lay them out as “a, b, c …” etc., but decided instead to make some interesting words on the sheet.
These were printed on CT “Blush”, a gloriously pretty pink translucent, then cut into squares by my favourite printer, Lee Edwards at Printing Ink, here in Vancouver (he is so patient with me and my fussy printing projects).
I unpacked the squares, which Lee had bundled so nicely into sorted piles, and signed a whole bunch of hearts.
Then I began selecting hearts to make the names of each person, stuffing envelopes, and applying labels … over 300 names on my mailing list.
The envelopes are also translucent so this is sortof what each recipient sees.
Although the hearts go into the envelope in order, I suspect most people just dump them out. I was counting on people’s ability to pick their own names out of random and somewhat distorted letterforms. There are two styles of X, which caused some confusion with the occasional XOX. And I sent 4 names in one envelope to my brother and his family, which I gather caused an extended puzzle-solving at the table.
The image below is from Jonathan Parker:
And this is from Nik Hafermaas:
And Alissa Walker:
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Valentines
Pencil drawings
February 2008
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For 3 years now I’ve adopted Valentine’s Day as my time to make contact with people. This year I got the crazy idea to draw each one by hand. I liked the idea that each person would get something unique, with their name on it, but that there would be a larger whole that they would also be part of. It did require that I brutally slash my mailing list, but I made sure that everyone on the list knows me (although I haven’t met them all): most of the people are somewhere between friendly and friend to me. I intended to do 125, but as I remembered people I’d left out, it grew to 150. I had to cap it there: I was exhausted, out of time, and my drawing hand (which is insured for five million dollars) was nearly broken. Now that they are all done and sent, I have already thought of a few people who should have got one but didn’t, and if you are one of those people, I truly do apologize.
They are numbered, and already much has been made of what number people are on the list. Not to burst the bubbles of those with low numbers, but the order was complex and not tied to relative affection. Those living further away went out first (#1 is for Min Wang, in China), those living closer went out last. Additional sorting was alphabetical by company name. There were a few stragglers, and there were a few who I held back because I hadn’t drawn a heart that felt quite right for them yet.
And of course there’s always the worry of “her valentine is nicer than my valentine.” Well. Is it really? I don’t think so.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hand-drawn Valentines
Pen & Ink; Ballpoint pen; Pencil Crayon; Gold pen
February 2007
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I suppose I should have posted this a while back. The truth is, even though I made it and sent it, I’m not crazy about it. It’s unsatisfactory to me. But I was busy at the time, really wanted to send something for Hallowe’en, and so just forged ahead.
It has some nice details: especially the names of various phobias written in the spider’s legs, the evil clown, and the terrifying chase of zombies/not-zombies.
Small poster
Pen & ink + digital composition
October 2006
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Rick Valicenti approached me in August to do a mini portfolio of my work on Fox River Paper. I readily agreed and this 36-page + cover booklet on Fox River Sundance was born. Rick curated and designed with Gina Vieceli-Garza at Thirst. I just tried not to get in the way too much.
It includes a number of old familiars, some things that would otherwise not see the light of day (like the sketch above) and a few custom pieces I made for the project, like this lace, below.
Yummy paper, rich double-blacks, flourescent inks (below, rick gets Thirsty) ... These are “arty” shots I took of the piece, as I don’t want to spoil it for the 15,000 or so of you who will get one in your studio.
Don’t forget to feel the emboss on this sugary piece, “Indestructible,” which I also made for the project.
If you’re a designer and paper reps visit you, you maybe got one of these from a paper rep, or picked it up at a Fox River Paper table at some event.
He may just have been flattering me, but Stefan Sagmeister told me this is the only paper sample he’s ever kept.
The booklet includes some nice reproductions of pieces that I’m happy to have, as I’ve sold the originals, and I kinda miss them.
It also includes one of the pieces I wrote for Speak Up, and a fairly lengthy interview with me by Rick. Yeah, I know, it’s just massive ego overload.
And there’s this, my favourite favourite page in the whole book: black foil on black: last year’s Hallowe’en piece.
Below, a new take on an old piece—thanks, Rick, for pushing me to include it.
And for those who have been nagging me for a copy of my “Influences” piece, here it is.
And oh, so much more. Thanks to Thirst and a special thanks to Kathy Kemps and Fox River Paper for the opportunity.
Portfolio booklet
7.5×11.5, 40 pages
November 2006
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This is a map or diagram of all of my significant artistic influences to date (or all that I could think of), my styles of working and materials. It was created as an assignment to a design class I took this past summer (August 2006). I’m too pleased with it to let it sit in a drawer.
Some details:
The Themes & Materials section:
Obsessions, People, half of the Travel and Misc.:
Misc:
The other half of the Travel, Forms & Movements:
Diagram
Vector art
July 2006
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Custom art
Ballpoint pen
September 2006
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... well, because I do.
and because my peonies were wilting and sighing, and I decided to immortalize them, on a whim, one sunny afternoon.
Bonus: the room smelled of peonies all day.
Peony petals
June 2006
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FontShop likes me, I think. In this issue of Font magazine they’ve reprinted my Speak Up article, “Critique: The Alphabet” (slightly updated) which I then typeset and drew kooky drawings for.
Piles o’ fun. If you’re on their mailing list, it should reach your mailbox soon, if you don’t already have it.
Writing/illustration
ballpoint pen drawings
April 2006
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Wallpaper* magazine asked me to be one of the 10 Canadian designers represented in their 10-country X 10-designers “Global Edit” at the 2006 Milan Design Salon, on the occasion of their 10th Anniversary.
I decided to make a custom piece, and time was short. When time is short and you want to make something that will be 4 metres high, output on transparent plastic: pattern and reflect. Of course, I still had to design and build the pattern and then make matching custom text, compose the whole thing and add custom loops. A snap!
“You are in my thoughts.” Well, you are!
Banner
Vector art
April 2006
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This is one I’ve been wanting to get up here for a while because I really love it, but I’ve been waiting for it to come out in print in “Ladies & Gentlemen” Magazine. It’s out, it’s printed, and it’s available at www.lagmag.com.
Here it is in context:
The mag ships with a vinyl record … I know! Cool huh?
You can see that, right? It says “How are you”. It does!
Ballpoint Pen / Digital
March 2006
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Oh that’s what it says!
Yeah. This year for my Valentine’s Day mailout I printed on glassine again (it’s just so fun) and sent this little love note all over the world.
The original is drawn by hand in pen & ink (red) on archival paper. I recently sold it, and was sad to see it go.
Valentine
pen & ink
February 2006
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I have to say, I love this piece. Given the opportunity to write / draw over 3 spreads on the subject of Community for Fontshop’s Font 004 magazine, I took the chance to explore some “graphic communication.”
I initially wrote a fairly lengthy piece on the inclusiveness/exclusiveness of community and the varying levels of exclusivity, as well as the various potential communities to which we all belong.
And after writing, I started to draw. And as I drew, I eliminated the text as it became absorbed into the graphics.
I used 6 Fontshop typefaces in the piece, breaking most of the typographic rules I diligently insist my typography students observe. I also created 31 pattern rings made from dissected pieces of the typefaces.
The whole became a kind of organic narrative diagram, and is by far one of my favourite pieces ever.
They were going to print a poster, but never did. A great pity.
Writing and Illustration
Vector Art
June 2005
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This was the very first of my Valentines.
It was printed in pink on glassine, and send in translucent envelopes around the world.
Jan Wilker sent me a hand-written note to say that every time he looks at it, it makes him happy. That makes me happy.
Valentine
February 2005
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Exploring the potential relationships between a “you” and a “me.”
This piece is now in the collection of Rick Valicenti.
Drawing
Ballpoint pen on paper
October 2004
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Exploring the potential relationships between a “you” and a “me.”
This piece is also now in the collection of Rick Valicenti.
Ballpoint pen on paper
October 2004
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Exploring the potential relationships between a “you” and a “me.”
This piece is now in the collection of Rick Valicenti.
Ballpoint pen on paper
September 2004
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This was originally designed for a Speak Up poster competition … which, incredibly, I didn’t win.
The rules were to represent a quote written by someone who had posted to the site. I chose “Art and design are cousins. They should not go to bed together” as spake by DesignMaven.
But I fundamentally disagree with the statement, and I intended to render the poster in such a way as made it obvious that Art & Design always have, always should and always will go to bed together.
I love this poster, and some day … some day, I maybe just produce it.
Poster (not produced)
vector art
2004
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This was my first (and only) promotional poster for my then-new work. Never name anything "the first in a series" ...
and a detail:
This is printed in metallic silver-blue on 100# recycled matte coated sheet, and is way prettier than the web can ever represent.
Poster
Self Promotion
Vector Art
October 2003
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September 23, 2004: The day I met Rick Valicenti.
This is a small selection of the 26 “Letters to begin thoughts rather than sentences” which were my contribution to Rick Valicenti'’s Playground project.
"Alphabet"
Pixel art
2004
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Self Promotion
Vector Art
2004