For Breakfast

, originally uploaded by fjordscape.

There is a lot of good art to discover on the internet. Some of it is made by people born in 1985- for instance, the work of Miranda Lehman (see above). She is part of an art show of AMAZING and haunting and simple and whimsical artwork called :
We've Moved On.....

Check out all the artist in this show. I stumbled on this randomly, but love the glimpses into other people's worlds. I think it ony exists in cyberspace (Mykle hates it when I use that word! hahahaha)!

In other news, work on the new shop has stalled and slowed. We will not be in by September. I will have to reschedule some folks. Darn. We are chomping at the bit. All of our problems, great or small, seem to be remedied by "When we get into the new shop......."

I am excited about Pete and Lucia coming back. They have been gone for SO LONG. I feel like ONLY WE live in this giant house! And Jordan, who has been a great subletter, and an even greater brother.

Foggy morning in Michelle's bedroom

I guess I'm the kind of house guest who (when left alone) writes secret notes, hides pictures around, and tries on hats.

I found this randomly when looking for a surreal image to leave as Michelle's desktop:

Mysterious collection of old defaced photos



I am going to breakfast with Orion. I think I drunkenly convinced him last night to buy a house with Mykle and I in SF *after the next big earthquake sends real estate prices plummeting* Hooray.




Do you listen in on conversations if someone mistakenly pocket-dials you? I heard a brief book recommendation from Pete Bernhard to an unknown girl in Vermont this morning. Pete recommends "A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."


Hehe.

Primary Concepts: Part II

Oh YES!
THE NEW SHOP.

After torment and tedium, we have found a perfect space for us to expand into. Finally we will all be able to work together, at one time, and Kai will have weekends off! Yay! We will be able to do appointments and walk-ins (that's me) and piercings for a lucky 9 hours a day. We have opted to all take the same days off, even though we will all be working together, so that we can hang out not at work.

The space is a former yoga studio, two buildings over from our present location. It is an upstairs suite above a sort of horrible bro-bar. The yoga studio is moving two spaces over, to be in a more sunny location. We tattoo people don't need the sun, we like shade and the darkness and besides, sun fades tattoos (wear sunblock on your tattoo! 50 spf!).
The shop is about 5 times as big as the space we are in now. There will be a seperate office, bathroom, lobby, piercing room, and the tattoo studio, which will double as an art gallery, with different shows up on the walls every couple months. We feel that art on the walls makes for a more pleasant tattoo experience, since it gives you something to look at while you are in horrible pain ;) We are going to have openings for each show with Djs and snacks and artistic conversation! If any of you out there who read this want to be updated on our Grand Opening or any of the other events we have planned please email my tattoo-email: primarykaiATgmailDOTcom.

I am very excited.

We are getting an AMAZING SF graffiti artist to do a giant mural on the back wall:

Reyes
is an old friend of Chris's. He's made a name for himself and and has been featured in Juxtapoz (which is sort of the barometer for underground art popularity).

The Notorious K.A.I.

Awesome!
David Allen got to it before me, but there was a front-page article written about me in this week's UC Davis Aggie (the newspaper of the university). It's totally flattering and I still have no clue how they found out about me. I don't know anyone on the paper.
I am happy with the article (there is nothing like being misquoted in a public forum) and I think she translated most of what I said well. It must've been hard since I tend to GO ON about tattooing and my opinions about it. I think I also had a lot of ice tea at that point in the day.

It's also apparent that the interviewer and I got along rather well. I think I should probably use the article as my resume in the future. Or just something to carry around at parties and give it to people and say, "Look! I'm one hell of a girl!" Haha.

Kai Smart article in the Aggie



I DO think Jessica's story of tattoo artist conception is more interesting than mine. It's surely more representative of what women in tattooing have had to go through. Mine is very abnormal;
find amazing and little-known tattoo artist (Jess didn't even have an email address when I met her.) through personal connections who actually WANTS and is looking for an apprentice but has had no luck,
meet and hit it off pretty immediately ( the day we met I recognized her because she has the exact same haircut as I. Pretty funny. I'm just a foot taller than her),
realize that I can't apprentice and live at the same time so take a contract job in Antarctica to make a nest egg of money to live off of while I learn,
begin tattooing in Antarctica with equipment I brought with me for practice,
come home and spend 7 days a week at the tattoo shop!

Jess started in a gnarly bikered-out shop in Vacaville, and basically had to learn on her own. She was put into rotation as a full-time artist only three months into her apprenticeship. She has tattooed a hemopheliac (who didn't tell her) and penises (she's got good stories, but you have to pry them out), and lived to tell the tale.
When I started apprenticing with her it was at a typical agressive all-male shop. Jess had carved out her little space there by being a little queen (in the sense that her demeanor allowed for no jackoffs or sleaze) and being a damn good artist. She put in her time with bullshit and homophobes and racist bastards, and learned to tattoo amazingly by sheer force of will. She emerged unscathed, with her own shop, a fiance that is both a piercer and a wonderful guy, and a sunny outlook on life. Other people probably would have been made bitter and hardened by this experience, but not Jess. She believes in the art of it, sincerely and purely, She still gets excited about tattoos all the time, after 8 years. We get giddy just talking about color and designs.
Maybe I will write the article on her.
Hey, that's a great idea.

On an entirely different subject, I love Creative Commons. It has allowed me to find this font based on the handwriting of Edward Gorey, one of my favorite illustrators!
Download Gorey font here