Thursday, December 31, 2015

CANCELLED

So in 2012, after a pretty lengthy break from working on rock posters (although I did a few here and there), I asked to be included in The Detroit Cobras 2012 poster series for the canadian leg of their tour. I was given their show in Edmonton and as soon as I saw the name of the venue - The Pawn Shop, the gears in my head started turning. Back in college I had been working on an idea for a graphic novel, inspired by some things going on in my life, about a fallen angel and her descent into drugs and ultimate destruction. In fact that time in my life was the inspiration for a lot of my angel imagery. But one of the scenes in my story involved the angel, having become hopelessly addicted to drugs, going into a pawn store and selling her halo. Not too long after this scene she would hack off her wings with hedge trimmers and eventually jump off a building while attempting to fly using crudely made newspaper wings. Here's a couple illustrations I did at the time involving various scenes from the story. I just remember at the time it felt like my brain was bombarded with ideas and imagery...it was a really cathartic experience.
But unfortunately I had difficulty turning it into an actual story...sometime I'll compile all the sketches I worked on for it but at the time it just felt really overwhelming..... I did however take different ideas and scenes from that story and would pepper them among different projects I did over the years. here's some examples....a piece for a fake movie poster contest.....
A Get Up Kids double side poster I collaborated with Drowning Creek on depicting her wings before and after
and A Built to Spill poster depicting the scene where the main character cuts her wings off....
So when that Detroit Cobras poster came along, and seeing the name of the venue was The Pawn Shop,I saw another opportunity to depict another scene from that story. Unfortunately while it was in process of being printed that entire leg of their canadian leg was cancelled, but I'm glad they exist. I still have copies left if anybody is interested - 18" by 24" 3 color silkscreens for $20 + shipping and handling. Available here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love to hear the stories behind the ideas...great stuff Jason!