Records Give You what You Want.

I was going through some old vinyl this morning and found this printed on a record sleeve. Made me laugh…

I do agree though, records give me what I want. Love it!

xo

BUILT FOR SIN!!!

Hey ladies and manlies…

Please check out the latest range from my friends over at Built For Sin!!! There’s loads of awesome goodies, including a few pieces I designed last year…

All images copyright of Built For Sin.

Keep an eye on Built For Sin, S-j (the amazing woman mastermind behind BFS) has some of the best pieces yet to be released later this year..Rockin’ with an amazing artist roster, including a couple new designs from me. Shhhh….Weeeee! While you’re at it, add Built For Sin on myspace and facebook.

xo

Freak Animals Created by God NOT by The Hands of Man

(”Man”…Really?) That drives me insane. I’m not gonna start on that because that’s not the point of this post…and if I get started, I’ll never stop. Sooooo….

Anyway, let’s get serious. I’m going to show you something crazy…there are actually real freakish animals in this world who have committed such morbid sins, that! their equally freakish Gods have cursed these animal’s offspring as peculiar beasts to burn in Hell for all of eternity. Not only that, but to live that eternity on display as a Bizarre Side Show at a miniature fair in Savannah, GA circa 2003. And that is the real punishment.

So, I wanted to show you these damned animals. See for yourself….Created by God…certainly NOT by the hands of (WO)man.

I wonder where in India this guy is from…his ribs have clearly been cursed by Animal God.

Don’t look any further, Satan’s child is here, safe and sound. AND he kicks monkeys. For fun.

Some more wicked animals….

Red Eye Louie. Seriously!!!!!!??? Tears man, I wish you could have been there. And in case you were wondering what kind of life Louie leads…

Chubacabra! In person! I wish these photos were of better quality, but they’re not. Sorry.

This one actually does make me really sad. I wonder what the Animal Freak Show Ring Master looks like….did (s)he make any money with this hilariously repulsive exhibit??

Speaking of Ring Master….my 9th grade History teacher was evil and he hated me and called me the Ring Master of my friends/class. I can’t quite remember why…though my impression of him was that he was bored and excesssively insecure. That really explains a lot about human behavior.

Back to the freakish devil animals… In case you can’t see, this is a photo of a two headed squirrel, a rattle snake and even a freaking scorpion encased in resin!! Can anyone read the background bit about the born alive freakish sheep?

Can’t make it out…

Cyclopes Pig!!!!!!!!!

Elephant Trunk Pig?

Dragon Lizard or Iguana?

That’s what you are exposed to when you live in the south. Love it.

xo

Hang Out!

Come hang out with me! I’ll be showing my work at Studio Supply in Chapel Hill, NC as part of the July 10th Art Walk. Yay! Info on the flyer below. I’ll be showing drawings, paintings, prints and pen and ink line art originals that were used for various band tees. I may even have some shirts you can pick up super cheap. Rockin’, hope to see you there!

xo

Movies I’m excited about.

Zombieland

The Road

Unmistaken Child

Cold Souls (Mostly because this makes me think of Total Recall (but not really at all) which I need to watch again.)

And just for the hell of it, Total Recall. One of the greatest movies of all time and always deserves a view!

Fifty Dead Men Walking

Bruno!!!!

xo

Showbread

New tee done for my friends in Showbread….I met Showbread about a month after I moved to Savannah, GA way back in 2001/02. I went to a show in this tiny little cave like place around the corner from my apartment on 39th street where they were playing. I didn’t know who Showbread was, but I immediately fell in love with their music! One of their songs sampled The Nightmare Before Christmas and that was my que to go talk to Josh, (one of two vocalist in the band at the time). In case you didn’t know I love Tim Burton and specifically that movie. Anyway, it was a great night and we’ve all been friends ever since. Aww cute.

I’ve said it a million times before, I love working with Showbread because they always have the most bizarre ideas that will terrify your mom and things always get super magical when we collaborate. (when I don’t take ages to get things done that it.) The latest, is this super simple Pope “Fear of God” design that I believe will be making a debut on some t-shirts this August. Look at this animation I made showing the sketch to ink metamorphosis. Whoa oh. Trippy.

I thought they should go with denim jackets and do rags…Yea? I think so.

People love them some Showbread, and for good reason. They have such loyal fans that have even adorned their bodies with Showbread tattoos, some of which are based off artwork I’ve done for them over the years. ie:

(Chelsea from Houston)

&(unknown, sorry)

Based off an illustration I did for Age of Reptiles Cd artwork (2006, maybe?)

Doug K. of Pittsburgh, PA also has a portion of the Age of Reptiles artwork on his arm for life.

I know someone has one of these glass jars tattooed, but I don’t have a photo.

And who is gunna be the first to get this babe tattooed in their flesh? That would make me so happy!

Now, this guy is totally going old school with his tattoo…

Based off an illustration I did for a shirt back in 2004! Wow.

Ha! Suckersss! Totally kidding. I think it is such an awesome thing when someone makes the decision to put my art on their body and then actually go through with it. It’s the greatest compliment. Ever. Whew, thanks!

If you’ve never heard Showbread, please check them out here and here. They are one of those bands that has never lost sight of what they want to do creatively, and also who consistantly puts out amazing music even while experimenting and growing as a band. Awwwww. I’m leaving you now with a couple of their videos, which rock.

What a buncha freaks!!

xo

The More I Want, The More I Get

New debut album from Los Angeles badassers, Breaker, was released today. Weee! The album, “The More I Want, The More I Get” has a running theme of excess, love, lust, vulnerability and strength, a “seven deadly sins” sort of vibe that I can totally relate to. Leading lady, Liz Granite speaks mah language! I loved working on this artwork and am super excited to show it off. Breaker rocks.

Sketch phase.

Final.

Check out Breaker here and here!

I’m going to go eat watermelon and watch tv now.

xo

Rednecks should stay off the road and Aaron Moon is good at making the artworks.

Earlier tonight I was driving down the highway, going like 80 when this truck pulls up beside me, hovering on my shoulder kind of thing. I get the whole “someones watching me” feeling but I ignore him and slow down, then speed up again when he slows down. He catches up again, so I finally look over and he’s looking at me and gestures to his forearm which bore a tattoo. Uhhh. Really, did he really just do that? My simple reation was blurting “What the fuck?!” and scrunch up my face. Seriously, who does this? I don’t know if he was trying to say, “Derrr, loook I have a tattoo, too.” or “Derrr, I’m going to cause an accident just so I can motion to you that I like your tattoo.” People are dumb. I was already in a bad mood.

But, on a positive note, my friend Aaron Moon is not dumb. He has a rockin’ cool name and he makes the sweetest Microsoft paint artworks, he’s super talented obviously. lol I’ve been saving these gems for the past few years and when I came across them tonight, I laughed a whole whole lot. The “You” would be me…He makes fun of me, but really I know he lub me.

I don’t remember the story behind this one….

This is just scary and was inspired by a true story. No, it’s not what you think.

Aaron hates unicorns and I do not, so….of course he makes fun of me again.

Don’t be fooled, I don’t get wasted on the side of the road. And, my car doesn’t look like that at all. Jeez Aaron. A few years ago, I found I had a flat tire…Conveniently, I was just outside Weaver Street Market where other people were enjoying the weather and having drinks on the lawn. As I waited for my ride,  I called Aaron so he could entertain me but instead he was inspired to make this masterpiece.

The Christmas one of my favorite and so typical.They act like they hate xmas, but they still want presents. Jerks.

Aaron Moon, if you are reading this..please make me more artworks. thanx

xo

Design. Grab. Bag.

Hi. I was just doing a “spring clean” on my Mac and found some older work that I thought I would revisit and post! Some of these never made it into my portfolio, some were up at one point, only to be taken down….there are heaps and heaps more but these are some I still think are relevant to my work now.

I mentioned the blank Mightly Muggs in my last post, so I figured I’d make a little post about a blank dunny I painted a few months ago. Since it was the first blank I created, it was an experiment, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.

But first, I started with a clean blank.

Started sketching out an owl, the dunny’s ears didn’t quite fit what I envisioned so I cut them off!

Filled in the empty ears with some mesh cloth and plaster, then later smoothed it out with sand paper. Still rough here.

Last photo, the final painted dunny. She doesn’t have a name yet, maybe someone could name her for me. Or I’ll just call her Gwen.

It turned out ok, but I’m not super stoked on the result. I used acrylics and I think I prefer waters colors or gouache. But my natural choice is keeping it classic with black and white pen & ink.

And,  a poster I made for the “Demand In DC” art show that opened on Inauguration Day in DC this past January. I wanted to do something super simple and iconic. I’ve never put an American flag in my work with the intent to give off a positive vibe. Go Obama! The top is the poster, bottom is a bit of detail.

And some random old shirts that I would still rock.

And a suuuuuuper old CD design, I think this is from 07′? Something like that, but I’m still happy with it. Daniel Bon is an awesome guy.

That’s about it, for now. I need a website again. Badly. One of these days I’ll have some free time to do it up. Maybe…

ps Last night my sister took me to see No Doubt. I never got into their music, but they were so good! Gwen is so adorable, the whole thing was really fun and inspiring. I had to wait in line for 10 minutes to pee though, amphitheatres suck.

xo

Wow, that was long.

This weekend was a pretty good time, filled with inspiration, nice weather and buddies! Friday night, my friend Tiffany and I went to check out an art show in Raleigh, which actually wasn’t all that impressive, but we had fun anyway. There was another show going on which I think would have been better, but I was feeling too lazy to navigate over. Anyway, after our quick run through the gallery, we walked over to Jackpot and enjoyed an extremely cold beer before too many people filled in. Within 30 minutes we were riding back to Durham to pick up my friends from Boston, Anthony and Christina, we then headed to The Station where we met up with more lovelies, Allison and Leeko. It seemed like such a short night but it was sooo good to spend some time with friends I don’t always get to see.

Yesterday, Ethan and I slept in, then rocked some Wii bowling sessions before I made an escape for dinner at The Loop with one of my best friends ever, Sarah. The Loop has the best Greek Salads, mmmm. We shared these crazy “home made” chips that were slathered in melted blue cheese. As gross as that sounds, they were really freaking good and I couldn’t stop eating them, even after I was full! I think I gained 5 pounds eating those things. For. Reals.

After dinner, we went to Borders to look for books. I’ve been feeling crafty lately and was looking through various art/craft books that gave me some good ideas and have inspired me so much. Sooooo many ideas, ahhhhh!

Then, it was like my birthday all over again because Sarah gave me some goodies!! I love her. And, since we share a sickening love for designer vinyl, she gave me three dunnies. Lookie:

“Ice Cream Man” by Aya Kakeda She is adorable, I Looooove her work (follow the link).

“Mad Agent” by MAD (I think his illustration work is my favorite, love the bold line work and how “clean” his work is. His Bent World Vandals are also some of my fave vinyl figures!)

Lastly, from the Ye Olde English Series, “Mr. Frame” by Mr. Frame. I haven’t actually heard of his work until now, but I fell in love with it instantly, so inspiring!  Hope I didn’t get the name of the dunny wrong.

ps Sarah decided I should have Mr Frame because he looks like our friend, Ben Lande. lol So funny Sarah!!!

Oh and Sarah also found me some blank Mightly Muggs for me to paint on! Yay! If you aren’t familer with all this crazy vinyl talk, you need to get with the program. Just kidding, really I understand how silly it all sounds, but it’s not. It rules. The blank Mightly Muggs look like this:

They are begging for your creative hand to turn them into something fancy. Though, to be honest, I do like them “blank”, all nice, white and crisp. And warning, [NERD ALERT!!], this is an example of Mightly Muggs that you can pick up from the Star Wars series. Yeah, nerd. I don’t care.

I can’t wait to transform mine, I wonder what I should paint….I always have a million ideas and it’s hard to decide. I might just go with line work or gouache, which is one of my favorite mediums. Who knows?? Sarah, you rule and are definitely getting something custom! Yay Thanks!!!!! xo

And, today….it’s super nice out. I tried to go to Studio Supply to pick up some basics, paper, pens, etc etc. It was so beautiful out that I decided to park way down Franklin Street and walk up to Studio Supply. Well, they were closed when I got there. Doh! Oh well, it’s not the walk I  minded, it’s that their closed doors forced me to go to Michaels. MIchaels is fine, but I usually leave that store pissed off because they NEVER keep their ink pens stocked and there is ALWAYS something I need that they don’t carry. Grrr. Plus, I’d much rather support a local shop. Speaking of local shops, I did find this cute place along my walk that had lots of really pretty papers and cards and things. Toots & Magoo. I picked up some neat-o paper there and the ladies working were very helpful and friendly. Awesome.

So much inspiration, where do I start? Hope everyone had an awesome weekend!!! Love love love.

xo

Ethan is inspired and moves into DBH!!!

Hi again. So, if you look below, you’ll see that I subbed to Design By Humans for the first time this week. The same day, my son Ethan decided he was gunna have a go and create his very first tee shirt design ever, then also sub to DBH. It is such an awesome shirt, I don’t think I am biased. Look how freaking rad it is! The captions along with the Zombie’s facial expressions had me in tears yesterday. omg

Zombies Walkin’ From The Dead by Ethan Shipley

These were his original ideas and drawings, I helped his add color in Photoshop. He’s still learning ps, but will be totally schooling me one of these days… Anyway, please help Ethan and vote for his shirt! His is so much better than mine, seriously. Or copy and paste: http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/56070

Ethan says THANKS!!!!!!! xo

This week: work +1 | sleep -1000

I got sooo much done this week, yeauuuh! I actually think I’ll be able to take a break from work this weekend, which rarely happens, to catch up on my “non work” to do list. This makes me happy. But what also makes me happy is making art and here is one of the projects I wrapped up this week.

4 Panel CD art for a band called goodbye Gadget, based out of California. gG and I have some mutual friends up in Boston at the SJC headquaters, yay! Just like any job does, working in the music industry can have it’s moments of anguish, like working all nighters several nights a week and having so many friends across the world that you never get to see. BUT! One of the things that drives me and always keeps me happy is the “family ties” that built within the music and art scene. The world is already so small, but over the years while meeting tons of bands and artists, I realize we all really are connected. It’s an amazingly awesome family of creative individuals. I love it.  Aww, I feel so warm and fuzzy!!

Anyway, goodbye Gadget came to me with the focus of their CD artwork to be inspired by Alice and Wonderland, specifically representing the contrast of this bizarre world. Light and dark, evil and happy. So after watching the movie again and doing a bit of research I came up with what seemed like endless piles of illustrations. Here are a couple roughs from the initial sketch period.

Like I said before, my roughs are pretty darn rough. But it’s so much better than my neurotic techniques back in the day where I would slave over sketches until (I thought) they were perfect. I drove myself crazy!!

One of my favorite parts of this layout is the actual disc, don’t eat it though. It won’t make you grow or shrink…it will however give you little shards of plastic that will shred your throat and probably poison your guts. ?? The band was incredible to work with and they loved the art. Yes! Thanks guys and gals!

Today is super exciting for a number of reasons….Ethan starts his wicked break dancing class later…which also happens to be right across from my favorite burrito place, Cosmic Cantina. And, there are a couple art shows tonight that I’m looking forward to AND a couple buddies from Boston are in town for a wedding so I finally get to hang out with them after a year and a half of not. Yay!! Now, Mr. Rain Cloud, can you leave and come back tonight when I’m sound asleep? thanx

xo

New tee in DBH contest

Hiii! My first submission to Design By Humans has just been approved. If you’re into the design, I’d appreciate your help by voting! You can also copy and paste this link: http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/55361

Thanks!

xo

It’s fun when you have artist friends…

…and they send you their artwork on your birthday. One of my most favorite people ever, Wade (aka .5 of Team Awesome) sent me a whole box of awesome (naturally) for my birthday last week! First, he made me two custom pieces, which I absolutely love so much because he made sure to include kitties and they are even portraits of me! omg. Look at my hurrs…So cool.

“Laurie + Kittie”

“Laurie in Abstract”

Now, you can see why I was practically jumping up and down when I saw these. Seriously, they’re some of the best pieces of art anyone has ever given me. Check out more of Wade’s artwork here.

Don’t be fooled, the box full of awesome didn’t stop there. Because composing music, painting, drawing and designing isn’t enough for a renaissance man (lol), Wade also makes films. His film company is called FourEye Film Haus and he sent me a couple of his company shirts…which I also love because his logo is so dang new wave and clever. It also looks like Wade. I don’t have a photo of the shirt right now, but if you follow the link you can see the logo and you can also do yourself a favor by watching his films. You’ll think you’re trippin’. For real. AND, then they’ll make you hungry for cereal.

Yayayayay Thaaaaaaaank you, .5, you’re the best!!!!!!

xo

SJC x LS aka Yummy Eye Candies

My art and SJC Custom Drums had some more drum be bees! Just a few finished drums…I posted the artwork  a few months ago. Pretty, pretty, pretty!

I love the SJC dudes.

In other random news, my son Ethan (who is 10) is constantly saying the most ridiculous things that crack me up on a daily basis. I’ve always thought to start a journal full of his bizarre quotes, so lately I’ve been keeping them on file so I can look back when he’s like 20 and laugh some more… I’m going to start posting them here. A few Ethan Shipley quotes since yesterday:

“Mike Tyson used to bite people’s ears off!”

“Well Cops eat donuts with their coffee. They eat donuts and coffee every day.”

“Robert Smith looks like Beetle Juice.”

“Caden, you wanna touch my nun chucks now?

lol xo!