“Natural Sounds” Guitar Grips (custom guitar wall hangers)

These are my latest “Artist Series” custom guitar hangers for Guitar Grip. I’ve been painting guitar grips for several years and enjoy the challenge of painting on such a complicated 3-D surface. I’m never quite sure how it’s going to turn out, but am always pleasantly surprised with the results. These are some of my favorites I’ve painted for them so far, and I hope to continue to make many more in the near future. The title of these refers to some of the Earthy tones in the painting, but also to create the idea of making natural sounds and natural music. Making sounds from that pure spirit place within us. Where we make the “Natural Sounds”. 🙂 There were 4 in the series, but only 3 of them are in these photos. One of them sold before we had a chance to take photos! Three of them are available for sale. They are $189 each. What better way to care for your guitar and liven up any room with a one-of-a-kind custom-painted Guitar Grip? If interested in purchasing one of these, head on over to: https://www.etsy.com/listing/226116507/artist-series-guitar-grip or contact mike@guitargrip.com. I’m also interested in commissions for custom-painted Guitar Grips if you’re looking for something specific.

Big River music on Pandora : The Music Genome Project reflects back to me some of my musical influences….

The other day I had a really cool experience.  A little over a year ago I registered my music (Big River) with Pandora.  They put my music through their Music Genome Project process, and about a month after submitting my songs, they were part of the Pandora Radio library.  “The Music Genome Project is an effort to “capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level” using over 450 attributes to describe songs and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them.”  I made a ‘Big River’ radio station, and it would play my songs as well as others it deemed to be similar music.  I listened to the station a couple times, but wasn’t all that intrigued with the results it would play along with my tunes and I’m not on Pandora that often so I sort of forgot about it.  Then the other day I decided to try listening to it again and was amazed by what I started to hear.  It played back a consistent stream of some of my biggest musical influences growing up that shaped my style of songwriting and playing.  They played Bob Marley, U2, Peter Gabriel, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Radiohead, and Pearl Jam, pretty much back to back with some other artists in between.  It was playing multiple songs by each of these bands that were a big influence on me.  So the Music Genome Project had taken the attributes from my own music I had made, and was playing me back other music that it sounded like, which included all these major bands that had shaped my own musical identity.  It really blew my mind and made me quite happy.  It was mirroring me back my influences that it had picked out from the characteristics of my music.  Now if I can just get some love in terms of spreading my music to the masses, all shall be well. 🙂

3 “Roots of Change” Paintings

I finished this set of 3 paintings toward the end of last year.  The wooden panels I painted on came from an event put on by the local interior design community in Seattle, where artists were invited to come and pick through unused materials from local companies.  I bought the wood to frame the paintings at Ballard Reuse and they informed me that it was salvaged from one of the oldest homes in Seattle.  I created all three backgrounds with the idea that I’d be painting an “emblem” over top in white.  I really like the warmth of the wood frame and the background colors together.  Even though these are somewhat small, they are special paintings to me.  They represent a time where I wasn’t making a lot of artwork, and the power of creating in times when it’s most needed for the soul.  They are all for sale in my Etsy shop, feel free to ask any questions.  Click on images to enlarge.

“A Cauldron Of Love & Life”
13 1/2″ x 13 1/2″

“The Medicine Spirit Sings It’s Song”
13 1/2″ x 13 1/2″

“Following The Call Into The New World”
13″ x 17 1/2″

Mikro Kosmos – a new hard cider from the Northville Winery & Brewing Company

I recently completed this label for the Northville Winery & Brewing Company.  It’s for a hard cider made with Winesap apples, and aged in Hungarian oak for 9 months.  The inspiration for the design came from it being aged in Hungarian oak.  My friend at first suggested naming it “Bela Bartok” after the famous Hungarian composer.  Then suggested that we name it “Micro Cosmos” after his compositional workbooks.  We added the “K’s” to the title to make it more Hungarian 🙂  I thought of drawing a picture of Bela above a piano, but after looking at Hungarian folk art, thought of using a bird instead.  So the style of the drawing was inspired by Hungarian Folk art.  This was also the first label where I started blocking out a rough design in Photoshop before making the final drawings.  It helped with the flow of the process, and I think it helped give a fresh feeling to the final product, because usually I don’t start working the design until I bring in the final drawing elements.  This way I kept some of the initial ideas I first came up with.  I like how it has a collage feel to it.  I really want to do more labels with this style in the future.  Hope you enjoy it.  And if you’re in the metro Detroit area, stop on by their tasting room to drink some cider!  You can also call to have them ship it to you.  Click to enlarge the image.

8 New Rekindle Stones

 

Hello fine people of the world.  Here are 8 new Rekindle Stones I made for my current show at Anima Mundi in Ballard, WA.  Some of them are still available for sale on my Esty site.

Brett deVille label for the Northville Winery & Brewing Company

Here’s the new label I made for Brett deVille, a cider made through “spontaneous fermentation with brettanomyces, blackberries, and aged in oak.”  If in the metro Detroit area, swing by their tasting room in Northville and pick up some Brett deVille.  Click on the images below to enlarge.

4 new labels for Northville Winery : Bourbon Barrel hard cider, Rhyme Or Riesling, Meditative Merlot, & Half Nelson hops hard cider

New Rekindle Stones & Others Revised

I just finished painting 4 new stones, and revised 4 others that I thought could use a fresh look.  Along with these I also brought 4 others over to Wellness On The Hill, a massage and therapy center in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.  It is a fitting place for Rekindle Stones and I’m happy to have them there and am interested in how they will be received.  These are all available for sale on my Etsy shop.

Here are my 4 new ones:

here are the 4 revised:

& here are all 12 that are on display at Wellness On The Hill:

Loomer Eclipse – new label design for Northville Winery

It was a bit of an evolutionary process to get this one done.  At first, the name of the new cider was to be called “Heirloom”.  Rob wanted it to have a bit of an “old timey” feel, and  I was drawn to give a nod to old produce and heirloom seed packaging designs that I’ve always loved.

Here’s what I came up with for the first round when it was still called “Heirloom”.

Then Rob decided that he wanted to change the name a bit to “Loomer Eclipse”, which called for a bit of a change in the feeling of the design.  I wasn’t sure if the original design would be salvagable, but it turned out it was and I was able to rework it into it’s new design.  It also marks the first time we’ve done a bar code on the actual label.  The Northville Winery recently placed it’s products with Hiller’s Markets in the metro Detroit area, and soon with Bush’s Markets of  the Detroit area, and with Whole Foods in Ypsilanti, MI.  Congrats to Rob and Carina and the winery on their success!  Here’s the final design for Loomer Eclipse.  Click on either image to enlarge.  

My First Kickstarter Project – Recording At Empty Sea Studios In Seattle

I had been thinking of starting a Kickstarter project for awhile to record at my friend’s studio back in Michigan.  Though I also wondered if the budget needed to fund such a project might be a little high for my first attempt using Kickstarter.  And then I met Jordan, an audio engineer at Empty Sea Studios (one block away from my apartment), who was looking for projects to bring in to the studio.  So I decided to have my first Kickstarter be a local recording project, and record it at Empty Sea.  And in the process I’ve met two really nice people who are also really good musicians.  There are 11 days left of my 21-day fundraising campaign.  Below is the video, and you can view my Kickstarter project page here.  Please share my project with anyone that might be interested, I really appreciate it.  Every pledge is helpful.  And even if it’s $5, you will still get a digital download of the EP.  Thank you:)