Category: Art

SOMArts Day of the Dead Exhibition

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The SOMArts Day of the Dead Exhibition is an annual celebration based on the traditions of Mexican culture. In this case, a bunch of arty farty types put their twist on it in a gallery in San Francisco. The entire warehouse space is transformed into a bunch of cells with some really amazing work by different artists. Some are more traditional, honoring specific dead people, but by and far the most exhibitors honor the death of ideas. Hey, they’re arty farty. This year, I was able to help my friend Lia realize her installation and it came out smashingly good.

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We made Grandma’s house, replete with decay and creepy furniture. The installation itself took shape based upon the photos included in the piece. Lia owns a couple of amazing wolf-dogs (20% dog, 80% wolf). She employed my lovely wife to be her model in a Day of the Dead version of Little Red Riding Hood. Do you want to take a trip to Grandma’s house through scary West Oakland?

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This Poster Kills Artists: King Buzzo Screen Print

Doktor Ross Sewage1 Comment

King Buzzo of the Melvins has recently released a fucking amazing solo record of acoustic tunes called This Machine Kills Artists. He’s gone on tour and I got to do a poster for the gig in Seattle. What kind of gig poster does one design for the man with the most amazing distorted tone on the planet when he goes acoustic? Naturally, you make a poster paying tribute to one of the shittiest distortion pedals ever made.

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Parodied on my gig poster for King Buzzo is the DOD FX33, the “Buzz Box.” According to lore (and King Buzzo himself) it was designed to emulate the Melvins guitar tone. DOD failed and instead designed something Buzz Osbourne described himself as “… totally worthless. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner.” It was never meant to be an officially endorsed pedal, but c’mon, it’s called the “Buzz Box.” I wanted to do a poster featuring this pedal for something Melvins related, anyway. The man himself dropping all distortion for his material seemed the perfect time to do so.

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Graveyard in Nilbog

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I was asked to do a poster for the Graveyard’s April tour series. I’m like… fuck yeah! Graveyard! Then they’re like, you’re doing Salt Lake City. And I’m like… I fucking hate Salt Lake City. Ugh. Whatever good came outta that shit burg area? I came up with precisely two things: the films Carnival of Souls and Troll 2. So, the word “good” is entirely subjective as used here. I decided to base my poster on one of those things. After doing a poll on Facebook, a Troll 2 poster won out.

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What can I say? I think the Goblin Queen, Creedence Leonore Gielgud, is fucking hot. The glasses, the wisps of gray hair, the corn… what a bad-ass babe to put on a gig poster, amiright? Okay, maybe I’m not. But I can’t do anything seriously.

If you haven’t seen Troll 2 or the documentary Best Worst Movie, check them out. You’ll understand better why this poster had to be made. And in the documentary, look carefully during the scene where they screen the movie with all the actors in L.A.; I’m in that crowd somewhere! And if you want to buy one of these fine posters (and I know you do) here’s the link:
https://www.doktorsewage.com/product/graveyard-2014-04-22/

I’m Getting Too Old for this Shit

Doktor Ross Sewage4 Comments

Or maybe the world is getting too young. As I approach middle-age, I see the dream of finally having a million dollar idea or even a couple thousand dollar idea fading. I read about company acquisitions and people making billions off ideas I think are terrible but the rest of the populace is on board for. I try to establish some kind of artistic relevancy, but I never had any and it seems unlikely I’ll get any now. This very blog now feels like a fucking anchor… tying me up, in the depths, rusting, and completely unnoticed by human kind.

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Screening for Vengeance: Ghoul Tour Poster

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I think Digestor from the band Ghoul is a fabulous artist. That’s why I decided to print, outside of my time working for Monolith Press, their upcoming tour poster. In no way did Digestor and the crew from Ghoul hold an axe to my throat and threaten to eat my family if I didn’t agree to do it. Nope, it was all because I believe in Digestor’s art. And that’s how they got this:

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Digestor supplied me with the drawing and I was violently forced to happily did all the coloring and separations. Now, just because this was a poster for a maniacal lunatic guy whose art I really like didn’t mean I couldn’t make things a little easier on myself for the actual printing. Being a printer by day meant I had a few tricks up my sleeve to ease this poster along with minimal headache.

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More Maniacal Layouts

Doktor Ross Sewage2 Comments

While I’m sure some of it had to do with the fervent fan base and maybe even partially the music, it’s nice a record I did the design and layout for was voted Pirate’s Press “Record of the Year” by Facebook voters. Ghoul’s Maniaxe LP won the prize, but let’s be honest…. it was mostly ’cause of the layout, right?

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Doing the layouts on a 10 year old record is no joke. A lot of people were waiting for Ghoul’s second full-length to be on vinyl for a long time and expectations were high. I didn’t want the packaging to disappoint. It wasn’t easy because 10 years ago no one bothered to make sure everything was prepped for this big-assed release.

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There Can Be Only One High on Fire

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Justin from Secret Serpents was kind enough to ask me again to be in on a gig poster tour series for a favorite band of mine, High on Fire. I had a wedding coming up followed by a honeymoon, but Justin said I’d get some date late in December. I thought, hey, no problem. Then he gave me my date… it was before my honeymoon ended. The only way I’d get this poster done was to cram it in-between my blessed matrimony and my drunken adventures in Central America.

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I’m happy with the result. I had maybe my goofiest idea yet for a poster and managed to finish it early and get it shipped off to Matt Pike and the boys to sell at their show. My copies are up for sale here on the site: https://www.doktorsewage.com/product/high-on-fire-2013-11-23/ Time constraints, however, meant that pen never met paper when I drew this poster. I had to get all Tron up in this bitch.

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The Dead Fuckin’ Dead Remain album covers

Doktor Ross Sewage2 Comments

The Dead Shall Dead Remain album cover is perhaps one of the most infamous pieces of art I have ever been involved in. The idea was conceived by Sean McGrath and executed with the help of every member of Impaled. I took the photo and printed it myself back when printing photos was a thing you did before you could actually see the image. 13 years later, we re-recorded the album and I was tasked with paying homage to ourselves.

tdssdrMy concept was to play off the original title coined by Leon del Muerte. It made no sense other than its emphatic truthiness. Revisiting the music 13 years later, the new title, The Dead Still Dead Remain, supports the original’s conceit that dead is dead; only it’s a tad more rotten. I’ll never understand what that has to do with a toilet full of guts, but it was gross, got us a lot of attention, and it cost nearly nothing to make.

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