Phish returned to Mexico for another 3 night run along the beach of the Riviera Maya. I was able to stream the shows live, and have sets of the 3 night run prints available in 11×17 and 8.5×11 sizes. Purchase prints here .
I recently finished up a new linocut for Phish’s upcoming shows in Mexico. Prints are hand-pulled, and printed on 108 lb 11×14 paper, and limited to an edition of 50 (although there will be some color variants in the near future). Prints are available for purchase in my shop, Joseeen.etsy.com.
A last minute decision, I was inspired to do something after attending their 12/28 show, as well as streaming the rest of the run. Trying to come up with something appropriate for a Mexico run poster, I recalled the work of Jose Guadalupe Posada, who’s artwork is best associated with Day of the Dead. I recently had several students choose him for a presentation in my class, so I actually learned quite a bit from them! After looking at many of his prints I took elements from two of them, El Cometa del Centenario de la Independencia (The Comet Marking the Centennial of Independence) and El Pequeño Adivinadorcito (The Young Diviner) to create my illustration.
This is my largest edition to date, and marks the beginning of year full of block prints. I hope to try some more complicated methods, as well as working larger, although this would require me to look into a printing press (and a bigger apt!) I’ll be working on some color variants soon, and will be posting those here shortly!
I’ve recently created a new shirt inspired by the Phish song Petrichor. The second in my Phish is Metal series, I’m currently taking preorders until 11:59pm on 11/8 (this Tuesday) for a small run that I will be making of the shirt. Done in a death metal style, the shirt features images in the front and back, and will be printed on Fruit of the Loom Heavy Duty cotton shirts. Shirts are available S-XXL and will produced in very limited quantity. Shirts are $24, which includes shipping.
The song Petrichor is the last track off the newest album, Big Boat. A composed, mainly instrumental song, the track clocks in at over 13 minutes and is done in a style reminiscent of their early work. Even more amusing is the definition of petrichor: a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. Of course this song was ripe for the metal treatment!
The first Phish metal logos (May 2015)
What started as a shower thought, (What would Phish songs sound like done by a metal band? Is there a Phish metal cover band?) turned into a couple illustrations I ended up doing.
Growing up, it was all punk/metal/hardcore for me. My best friend veered towards Phish in our junior year of high school, but I was reluctant to surrender to the flow. It wasn’t until the summer of 2000, when we both graduated, that I finally got it. Since then, Phish has been a constant in my life, but I haven’t forgotten my roots. To this day, I occasionally still attend a metal show, along with my wife. (The fact that she loves Phish and metal is probably why I married her!)
I’m not sure what inspired the initial sketches, but they happened. I actually find it very humorous, since Phish is often abhorred by many metal fans. (Not all though, as I have met some at quite a few shows).
I even made a Metal band shirt in a Grateful Dead style!
I enjoyed this project, since I’ve always had a fascination with the logos that metal bands use and the complexity that they employ. It was tricky, since most logos are often unreadable, and I wanted the “Phish” to be noticeable. With the final design, I felt that I managed to get as abstract as I could while making it readable. To the chagrin of most, I only made 3; one each for myself, my wife, and my friend, Jeff, who was the one that introduced me to Phish.
That one time we wore the same shirt out…how embarrassing !
I’ve since been working on a couple other songs that I want to draw in this style. I just finished the Harry Hood, and have been sketching out some other songs, so I definitely will continue working on these, although I have no immediate plans to make shirts (although its possible for the future). I look forward to exploring other styles of metal logos to create new songs, and figuring out which songs are most appropriate for the metal treatment (or least appropriate!) Stay tuned for more!
Mike teased Sit Still, Look Pretty before Water in the Sky. I Always Wanted It This Way featured Trey on Marimba Lumina. Piper contained a Woman from Tokyo tease from Trey.
I’m happy to present my latest poster, this time for Phish’s 2016 Fall Tour. Printed on multiple blocks, these prints are hand pulled, printed on 11×14 paper, and limited to a small edition of 20.
I hadn’t planned to do any posters for this tour (aside from the illustrated setlists) after having created 13 posters for each show/run of summer tour (having summers off gives me a lot of free time). With school back in session, and a bunch of new responsibilities (guess who’s mentoring the gifted students!) I didn’t think I’d have time to work on anything for this tour. That mentality didn’t last too long. I ended up creating this poster idea, inspired by the song “Cars Trucks Buses”. I wanted to try something new for this poster, the summer tour ones being ink and watercolor as well as digital. I decided to go back to block printing, having enjoyed working in that medium for my 2016 Riviera Maya posters.
I decided to try something new for this poster, so I opted for a multi block linocut. I had never done this before, so it was a bit of a challenge. I used 3 blocks, first one for the background, a second for the color of the car, truck, bus, and the banner, and the final for the linework. Registration was the trickiest thing, trying to make sure all the blocks lined up on the final print.
I had some fun with the background color, mixing around colors in the yellow-red range, the end result being that every background is unique for every print. Registration issues made the edition small, but I now have lots of freebies to give out with orders! I might also do a small color variant edition, as well as some hand colored version if there is a demand for them. Prints are available at www.phishart.com, as well as my etsy shop (where you can also check out my summer tour setlist posters.
I recently had the time to do some much needed maintenance to my Shop, as well as to this site. I’ve streamlined my shop, and at the same time added more items. Through the power of scroll-down menus, I was able to add setlists from previous years. I’ve also changed up this site, including updating the setlist archives. It’s now easier to go to a specific show or tour with endless scrolling.
Select a tour
Click on show to view, link on top to purchase
Click on scroll menu to select show or run.
I have previous year setlists on sale, including deals if you purchase multiple show runs! I also have 2016 show posters available for all the summer tour shows. Sadly, I doubt I’ll be able to do show posters for all of Fall tour (it’s been a busy school year so far) but I might do a poster for all of tour, possibly a block print. I’ll of course be creating setlists for fall, and with them new song illustrations. I’m also opening up commissions for any show setlists for only $25! You tell me the show, I create the setlist with header art, at a very limited edition of 10. I can also do multiple shows for a discounted price. You can contact me below if interested, or hit me up on various forms of internet (FB, IG,Twitter links on the side menu). And as always, a dollar from every setlist sold is donated to Mockingbird Foundation as a thank you for allowing me to use their setlist notes for my setlist art!
Not just reading the book, 