Justin Simoni - News

Civic Peculiars - Live Screen Printing/Collaging of a Community of Drawings!

2010-06-30T16:54:17Z

TONIGHT is the opening of many, many, many art shows - the one I've been helping in my small way is Objectophillia - lots of going up and down ladders and putting holes into walls and attempting not to break anything.

I will also be at the opening with a little project called, Civic Peculiars! I've asked people in the Denver Community to make a drawing about something in Denver - whatever they wanted, pretty free form. I'll be bringing almost 20 different designs to print on shirts and some larger areas to cover.

Facebook Event RSVP!

Stop by around 7:00 - 10:00pm (1900 16th Street) TONIGHT (Wed. June 30th) to see the spectacle. There's so many things that are going to be happening. It'll be as if Disneyland was real, or Burning Man was a little less fuzzy pink boots and naked people... and drugs and... free love, but in the middle of downtown and not in the middle of the desert. OK - I'll get naked for you (at least!)

Civic Peculiars

Denver Drawings Printed and Collaged to Construct Impossible Spatial Relations
Large/Small, Real/Imaginary, Popular/Obscure, Personal/Public
Colorful. Diverse.

SHIRTS
Unique Collages - $15

LARGE PRINT COLLAGES - $100

Robert Atkinson
Nicole Banowetz
Justin Beard
Brandon Borchert
Erin Lea-Dougherty
Avery Flinta
Ishmael Hallin
Tyler Jacobson
Derek Keenan
Lauri Lynnx Murphy
Mariah Raymond
Justin Simoni
Alex Skazat
Harry C. Walters
Wendy York

THANK YOU! Everyone that submitted a drawing! I couldn't have done the project without input from our Fair City of the Plains residents. See you at the opening, tonight and get a shirt!

Call For Volunteers During the Objectophillia Opening. Yeah!

2010-06-28T04:47:29Z

I will be in need of one or two volunteers during the Objectophillia show that opens this Wednesday at 1900 16th Street in Denver, CO, between 7:00pm and 10:00pm. If you can come a few hours before, that would be awesome! And a little after would rule, too, but whatever you can swing.

We will be screen printing t-shirts LIVE with the drawing submissions everyone has giving me (there's been a ton of them). We will be collaging the drawings together in any which way we want. We'll have people freakin' out with the designs. Kind of like this:

It would be incredibly rad to have:

A Messy-Hand, helping me with screen printing shirts. Bring some clothes you don't mind getting messy. I'll be happy to supply gloves and an apron thing.
A Clean-Hand, handling purchases, picking out blank shirts, helping people with what's up - that sort of thing.

Perks include being in the center of an event that's estimated to bring a few thousand people to hang out, perhaps a custom t-shirt for your troubles and lots of booze, either from the opening, or I'll swing by the package store and get some stuff. Do a rad job and let's split any tips we get. Sound fair?

Please, if you're interested, get in touch with me, either via email: me@justinsimoni.com or give me a call: 720.436.7701. It would be wonderful if you're into the Denver Art scene, want to learn about crazy performances, screen printing, like hanging out with a few thousand people - that sort of thing.

Let me know as soon as you can and please do not be a flake!

Word! Justin!

ART SCHOOL LOSER shirts available exclusively at the YesPleaseMore Popup Store!

2010-06-27T01:18:57Z

I just dropped off a new batch of hand-pulled ART SCHOOL LOSER shirts and delivered them via bicycle to the YesPleaseMore Popup Store. They look, a little bit like this:

They'll be available exclusively at the YesPleaseMore Popup Store, so get yourself down there and get one, my little Art Stars! Here's what YesPleaseMore says about themselves,

YesPleaseMore is a temporary retail store that sells 100% Colorado designed goods. We believe in supporting the local creative economy by offering free co-working space, workshops and starter grants for creative entrepreneurs.

Visit us at our retail store and co-working space located at the Denver Pavilions, 500 16th Street Suite 252.

The money the retail store takes in is directed toward starter grants for artists and designers that people can apply for and other people vote for - the most popular idea gets the grant. Brilliant!

The YesPleaseMore also has a small, co-working space, where you can stop by, utilize their free wi-fi and get some work of your own done. I was writing an article about the PRESSED! exhibit that's just next door and this space came in handy to work on my piece. Brilliant! (Again!)

Nativeyewear Live Screen Printing: Total Success!

2010-06-09T04:42:49Z

Last weekend, I loaded up a borrowed truck with a portable screen printing studio: nine designs on nine screens, nine colors, nine squeegees and hundreds of really nice t-shirts to Vail and set up shop at Nativeyewear's lounge at the Teva Mountain Games area to screen print t-shirts to anyone and everyone that wanted one - whatever t-shirt, whatever graphic, wherever they wanted - and how every many they wanted of each design.

We had some fun. Actually, we had a smash hit.

That line formed about three minutes into starting to print t-shirts and didn't relent until we ran out of them. Actually, not even then! As I was more than happy to screen print whatever people were wearing. In one case, we attempted to screen print a kayak!

Printing custom t-shirts takes a little time to do. To my surprise, my extremely patient t-shirt fans did not mind the wait - or my goofing off, while we wait for a design to cure onto the t-shirt. A pleasant experience and wonderful to talk to all the people who came for the event.

A Nativeyewear team member shows off some enhancements to a previous Native shirt!

Above is custom design whipped up! Mounntains on the front, tire treads and a mountain biker over the seam! Sweet!

Another happy custom t-shirt owner!

Hard at work!

Thanks has to go out to Nativeyewear for supporting me and letting me do some great designs for them, taking me up to Vail and letting me have fun with all the people who came round for a complement-of-Native shirt! Awesome people to work with and I feel pretty lucky to play a small part in all the fun they put together. Let's do it again, guys!

Find my this weekend in Vail at the Teva Mountain Games - custom shirts complementary of Native Eyewear

2010-06-03T17:48:00Z

Nativeyewear has so graciously invited me to Vail to work with them during the Teva Mountain Games - find me at the Nativeyewear booth, where I will be screen printing t-shirts on Friday June 4th and Saturday June 5th, from 11:00am to 5:00pm.

Check out their fancy and sexy sunglasses, and design a custom t-shirt with me out of 9 different designs Nativeyewear has commissioned that we can mix and match in any way imaginable. If that wasn't sweet enough (and it is), Nativeyewear tells me the shirts will be complementary!

Don't forget to tip the fine artist, but seriously, stop by visit, grab a custom t-shirt for free and leave the Teva Mountain Games super happy. Locate us at the Vail Village, "Gear Town" - won't be hard to find, this event is basically taking over Vail.

Here's what they say about the Teva Mountain Games,

The Teva Mountain Games are the country's largest celebration of adventure sports, art and music and they return to Vail, June 3-6, 2010.

Professional and amateur athletes from around the world converge upon the mountains and rivers of Vail to compete in eight sports and 24 disciplines for more than $100,000 in prize money. This year's sporting events include kayaking, rafting, mountain biking, road cycling, World Cup Bouldering, amateur climbing, fly fishing, stand up paddling, trail running and a half marathon.

Lifestyle components include the Mountain Click Photo Competition, the Serac Adventure Film School, Outdoor Reels Film Festival, Mountains of Music free concerts and the Teva Mountain Ball. The weekend is rounded out by the Gear Town and Green Light District expo areas and the interactive family zone, Adventure Village.

The Teva Mountain Games are a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

Nativeyewear has been super nice to work with and any company that treats and supports artists like Nativeyewear does is a great company in my book. The sunglasses are pretty sweet, too.

Saturday, May 22, 2010 - Food Not Bombs 30th Birthday Benefit Extravaganza! - Art Auction!

2010-05-21T19:55:46Z

I'll be helping doing a little part for Denver's Food Not Bombs 30th anniversary fund raising event - I'll have fun, fancy prints in the silent art auction.

Kathleen St. John Mary of the Onion A.V. Club sums it up quite nicely:

Give peace--and free vegetarian food--a chance: The Denver chapter of Food Not Bombs is celebrating the organization's 30th anniversary tomorrow at The Other Side Arts (1644 Platte St., 303-561-3000). FNB volunteer Alex Dismore says it'll be a "feast for the senses," with art and live music from local acts Paper Bird, Paper Bear, and Princess Music, as well as food and drinks.

With chapters all over the world, FNB's mission is to spread its anti-war, pro-food message through the public distribution of free meals. "Each chapter collects unwanted food that would otherwise be thrown away, and cooks vegan or vegetarian meals and serves them in public places," Dismore says. "The idea is to keep overhead low and operate with all-volunteer labor and almost no budget, and serve in a place that everyone can access."

The event runs from 6:30pm - 11:00pm at the Other Side Arts on 1644 Platte St. between 6:30 - 11:00pm. There is a sliding scale door cover to help with the fundraiser, but no one will be turned away. There's some more info on the Facebook event page.

See you there!

Pressed: An Exhibition of Letterpress Printed Ephemera - Fundraiser!

2010-04-25T05:00:02Z

Rick Griffith, designer, artist and general man about town in good standing is holding a fundraiser for a wooden letterpress art show. In his own words:

We will be presenting an exhibit of letterpress printed works, in Denver including the Hamilton 10th Anniversary show, Prints from Hatch Showprint, Nashville, TN and Works produced at the TypeLab/Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection at the University of Texas, Austin. This exhibit is also open to printer/designers elsewhere, we expect to have projects from Amos Paul Kennedy Jr, Columbia Center for the Book, and other influential institutions and individuals.
The call for entries is still open.

This exhibit, curated and organized by Rick Griffith will be staged for the first time May 29, 2010 through July 4, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. This exhibit is organized in collaboration with The Design Council of the Denver Art Museum and co-presented by AIGAColorado.

This, is our first round of funding, is to provide material support for the exhibition, the building of large movable wood type walls, paint and, feeding volunteers whilst in construction. We will not be charging for the call for entries, or for curatorial fees, or for publication in the catalog.
The catalog will be funded with advanced purchases.
The traveling show will have its own capital funding campaign. Once the show is complete.
Organizers in potential host cities should contact me directly...lets see if this baby has legs.

Our Funding Goal here is designed to succeed (this is our bare minimum) we would simply make a better exhibit with more. Feel free to give as little as you have to, and as much as you can. We'll appreciate everything. Our hope is to show solidarity and raise 200% of our goal.

Anyone who can figure out the significance of the funding goal number will receive a free catalog.

Type First, Ask Questions Later.

Rick (Griffith) (303) 893 0330

Visiting Rick's printing press studio is always a pleasure and I hope that, if you can, you can help out with their fundraiser. I wouldn't ask you, unless I also helped out a little (I did). I'd love to be a part of this show, but my reason for helping is really that I love to see neat things happen in town and this would be a really quite interesting thing indeed. I'll have to ask Rick if I can help paint some walls, or somethin' -

Here's the link to the kickstarter fundrasing page:

http://kck.st/dzvGpW

As well as more information about his strange and wonderful studio doings:

http://designartartdesign.com/enter/

I will see you at the opening!

DENVER! Free School Screen Printing Classes Starting April 5th, 2010!

2010-03-29T05:37:44Z

I'm teaching screen printing classes starting April 5th, 2010, through Denver Free School. If you're interested in taking classes, please RSVP by emailing me. There's more information over here about it all. Yeah!

DENVER: DOPPELGANGER DREAMS

2009-12-04T02:19:32Z

And... if you so happen to rather be in Denver, CO, USA, go see, DOPPELGANGER DREAMS and Rhinoceropolis, please:

BERLIN: Berlin Everyday on Saturday

2009-12-04T02:01:46Z

If you just so happen to be in Berlin this Saturday, please check out Tattiya and Lëla's exhibit:

Links for you:

How I Almost Died: Traveling sparsely and the creative process

2009-10-28T00:56:23Z

This is the video from Ignite Boulder #4 that I did a few months back (in April?) At the time, I didn't think it went all that well - the slides were all out of order, so my carefully crafted narrative was torn to shreds.

But, looking back, it went alright.

A similar talk was done at Pecha Kucha Denver, with a different (correct) slide order. Although I don't have a video of that, I really wish I did.

Thanks to both Pecha Kucha Denver and Ignite Boulder for having me speak!

Dirty Fake French Velo T-Shirts are back! Order for $15

2009-09-26T22:49:19Z

The entire world may now rejoice! We are reprinting the Dirty Fake French Velo T-shirts one more time and changing up the colors: Boys-Style gets "Royal Blue" and Grrls-Style is, "Avocado Yellow". Yes.

Why the reprinting?

I'm journeying to France with my bike for the rest of year! It's true! These shirts proved popular in the small D.I.Y. run we just did earlier this year that we're gonna... do another small, D.I.Y. run! Yeah!

So order away and help me offset the costs of me having to box up my bike and send it with the airline (it's not free anymore, ugh!)

FEMMES - $15

HOMMES - $15

"Avocado Yello" Grrls Style

"Royal Blue" Boys Style

ONE-COLOR PATCH - $3

White on Black

Here's the CATCH:

You only have until NEXT THURSDAY to order. Why? Because after that, I will be in France! Sorry hurry up already and put a little double entendre on your poitrine and show your amour pour votre vélo!

CMYK+RGB Show This Friday

2009-08-21T03:04:52Z

I've been pretty lucky be able to take part of so many awesome shows this summer and this event coming up this Friday is no exception:

On Friday, August 21st 2009 Illiterate brings its mission of creative collaboration to Denver's Space gallery with "RGB + CMYK", an interactive arts event exploring the interactions between print and digital media. With print and digital installations, live screen printing, a conceptual fashion show and a print exhibition by some of Denver's most prolific contemporary artists and designers, "RGB + CMYK" places two forms of reproduction side by side asking the question on every newspaper publisher and online entrepreneur's mind: are these formats complimentary or in competition?

In my usual style, I've side-stepped this issue, by doing a piece that deals with some thing I'm really interested about, namely: Sex. Or, Love vs. Sex. I mean, let's drop the whole analogy game and get right down to brass tacks on these Important Issues. And yes, I understand that, "brass tacks" is also an analogy. Onward!

Here's the kick-ass flier from Illiterate:

Here's also some in-studio shots of my process. I had just set up the studio to make posters, since my last show was nothing but posters, so this show was perfect for me to contribute to. Here's the four screens I used to print with:

Burning screens always gets me nervous, even though I have almost every part of this craft down and if I run into problems, I know how to correct them. this bunch came out perfectly.The only colors I used were, in fact, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. I don't use pre-made screen print ink (ever, really), but rather, I use acrylic paint, mixed with various mediums. This helps me control the consistency, transparency, drying time and most especially, the color properties very tightly.

Printed out:

Far away, these look almost photographic, but up close, they break down into beautiful patterns, pretty well:

Sweet!

I have some stuff on the Illiterate site, if you want to check out here and their blog is pretty sweet to.

See you at the show! This Friday, August 21st, 2009 8pm - 2am at Space Gallery - 765 Santa Fe - Ten Bucks. I'll be selling these prints for cheap, because I love you all and want you to go away with something beautiful.

French Velo T-Shirts are Now Available - $10

2009-07-30T02:15:00Z

I've been up to quite a lot of no good, down-and-dirty fun, drawing up and designing some t-shirts for you to wear. Because of my love of language and my love of cycling, I give you the French version of the venerable, "Put The Fun Between Your Legs" t-shirt.

Like France, they're distinctly, well, French and makes little sense outside of the context of themselves. And that's what I love about 'em. So go grab a shirt as they're currently only $10, shipping is included and you get a FREE patch along with the order:

http://justinsimoni.com/procure/dirty_french_velo_shirts

They're available in boys-style and grrls-style and if you like the design, well, that's available under a CC license as well. Spread the love, give a handlebar ride for someone you fancy and go order a t-shirt for your favorite Francophile Cyclist Enthusiast.

Denver Pecha Kucha on July 21st

2009-07-10T05:04:15Z

Denver's Pecha Kucha is going to be going down this month! (July 21st) Here's the fancy flier:

I'm definitely going to be here (if you come, come early! It fills up!) if I'm not on some sort of secret outrageous art mission trip super adventure - as I sometimes get myself into. Every time I've gone, I've had a wonderful time and the people who run it, were nice enough to have me talk about my adventures on bicycle. And how I almost died at age 27 in a flash flood.

Last Pecha Kucha was one of the best themed talk nights I've ever been to, so I have high hopes for this night.

Here's some links to check out: