First screenprint ever done, for a good cause

I'm excited to tell you that I fell in love with a newly discovered artform known as screenprinting. I've always wanted to do it, but finally been experimenting with it heavily in the past few weeks. I wanted to use this old sketchbook drawing for my first one.


The hardest part about screenprinting is dealing with the emulsion/light/image. I happily achieved this, which still isn't perfect, on my third attempt.


After getting the screen made, I started messing around. I was pretty damn happy with the quality of these prints.


I then started messing with screenprinting onto spraypainted paper.





A couple weeks ago, one of my best friends Gabe talked about the disaster in Haiti on his blog. In his post he said, "...All i know is that i want to give back somehow. I really think the future will rely on people helping people." This shit made me think, I'm sitting here at home crying about not having $1000 shoes, when there's a kid on the other side of the world that doesn't have food and water and can't find his parents.

So I decided to make 25 multi-colored-background prints for $17 each, and 7 gold-background prints for $22 each. I will donate half of all sales to help the people of Haiti. To keep it fresh, I'll be donating through the NBA Cares partnership with UNICEF. The title of the print is called "Wake Up," and it's true. It's about time we start looking at the bigger picture and realizing what we can do to help.

Each print is signed and numbered by me. The screen will be destroyed as soon as possible so once these are gone they are gone forever. Anyone that buys a print from each collection will have them numbered together as long as they're available (for example 1/25 & 1/7). You can copp these prints at my new online store:
http://droop.bigcartel.com/

Thanks for reading, I love y'all!

NEW WEBSITE

Hey guys! I finally created a website to show some of the work of art that I've done so far. I know that the work might be kinda all over the place in terms of subject matter, theme, etc, but it's cool cuz I want people to see my development as an artist as it happens.

I don't know much about website designing and Dreamweaver, but I wanted to make something that was just fun and simple. Later on I'll be putting more hidden buttons all over the home page. I wanna do everything to make my site better, so feedback of any kind is greatly appreciated!

WWW.ANDREWAGUTOS.COM

Part 2: And I Wonder...

If you know, what it means...

I Wonder by Kanye West, seriously my favorite Kanye song of all time. The song has too many words that inspire and at the same time provoke me. "And I wonder, if you know what it means to find your dreams come true."

Lately, I've had tension build up in my brain because of the confusion or loss I have of meaning in my art. It was not until very recently that I started to think about this. My school, the California College of the Arts, has been described as a conceptual school for many years. I've slowly been able to find definition to the term "conceptual school." What this means is that CCA is interested in more than just teaching someone how to draw the figure or paint a basket of fruit. Instead, many of the times subject matter is completely up to the student, but the teacher pushes that student to develop an understanding for what it is exactly they are doing. The teachers want students to be consciously aware of why each mark is made, and how it truly becomes a visual representation of expression.


What I've realized after a semester and two weeks of school is that it's easy to make something that looks fucking cool really quick, but it's extremely hard to say what each of the elements of the artwork means to you. People say that anything can be considered art these days, just as long as the artist can back it up, or say something interesting about it.

Well for the record, I've gained a lot of respect for any artist that can do that, because I have a hard time articulating any of my thoughts into words at all.

Without sounding too emo, I hope that within the next few months I move towards developing my own voice as an artist. I accept the fact that there will never be a definate end to finding it, as artists always have new things to say as time and work progress.

All I'm saying is that painting has been around for over 30,000 years, so my work has to do more than just look cool if I wanna be a part of that important legacy.

April Chizzase

A few nights ago, I went to a show to see a band called April Chase. If you haven't heard of em yet, they happen to be the finest band coming outta San Josie. This show was a big deal for em because they'd be releasing their first cd "In the Midst of Sirens" that night. One of my close friends, Tim Ferguson, is the guitarist for the band, so I had to show some love and support. They're set was dope and the crowd loved em.

The night before that, Tim and I were on the way to a party when we started talking about music, art, future plans, shit like that. He mentioned an older friend of his that came from a generation or class of high schoolers that all went on to do great things after school- work on music videos, become famous producers, successful graphic designers, etc. Tim continued and said that he wished that he was from that generation too, with the possibility of him doing great things by now also. I thought for a second and told him, "Well I'm sure people from our generation are gonna go on to do crazy shit too." That's what I truly believe.

Tim's one of the people that I know is gonna go far. I've first known Tim since about 5th grade when we used to kill the fucking snare drum. I stopped playing after that one lil year, but he stayed with it as well as picked up other instruments and a camera along the way. This fucker has big things planned! He's convincing me and a lot of other people not only that he wants to be great but also that he's capable of it. I plan to be up there with him, in my pursuits as well.

Aight, so anyways haha... this is what their new CD looks like. I also posted their sampler for their album. Copp their CD here. Hit them up on MySpace, Facebook or Twitter. SUPPORT APRIL CHASE!!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: 2010

NEW YEAR, NEW DECADE, NEW SHIT TO DO! HATERS GET PREPARED, NOT JUST FOR 2010 BUT FOR AS LONG AS I'M ALIVE, I'M GONNA KEEP Y'ALL BUSY! MY RESOLUTION IS TO SLEEP LESS!

Seriously tho, I look back on the year and yeah I accomplished alot, but I didn't do that much. I did some projects, I could do more. I got into art school, but I eased my way into the first semester. I think the past year showed me that I have potential, and now I really gotta make use of it and bring out the best of myself. Being at school, reading and researching (off and online) has really showed me what's possible to achieve, and I've come up with so many goals for myself that I refuse to not reach.

If you're out there trying to put me down, or worrying too much about what I'm doing or not doing with my life, believe me you're wasting your time. I talk a lotta shit and have extremely strong beliefs in the stuff I do! ON TO THE NEXT ONE!