Something old, something new: Letterpress posters

Bon Iver poster, from thequeso.com
My first encounter with letterpress was in the mid-90s, at a craft fair. It was a poster by Yee-Haw Industries (then known to me as the cool stuff that my college roommate’s sister made). And while I don’t remember the exact poster, I suspect it was of Loretta Lynn. What I remember was that I loved the posters because they were totally different than any other band posters I’d seen. (more…)



Artist and designer
We often think of the muse as a single-minded inspiration. It (she? he?) brings songs to songwriters, colors to painters, shapes to sculptors and images to photographers. Or something like that. But it turns out that art begets art, and many of the artists we know best as musicians are often inspired, themselves, by dabbling (sometimes as a hobby, sometimes as a profession) in multiple mediums. Some (like Michael Stipe and Melissa Auf der Maur) capture images of the musicians the admire. Others, like Richard Butler and Victoria Williams, paint about subject matter completely separate from their music yet though their visual art seems to find its way onto album covers as well as gallery walls. Here’s a look at five musicians and the artwork they pursue off stage. 



