Sarah Utter

Sarah Utter Painter/Designer Olympia, Washington www.sarahutter.com www.sarahutter.blogspot.com I'm a painter/designer/zinemaker from Olympia, Washington. My studio space is located in a loft that looks down upon a punk rock emporium- the building houses a vintage clothing store, a record shop, a bike co-op, and an amazing community printmaking studio.. it used to be a giant pawn shop when I was growing up. I go to my studio five days a week and work on paintings, read books about owls, and design t-shirts. 1.My desk is a mess. I don't really use it so much as a work space, but more of an area to store things I like to look at. Here you can see some of my past and current projects: a small owl painting, a poster I designed for Olympia's annual Artswalk, a painting of my dog Otis that was turned into a cd cover for local label Kill Rock Stars, a page of photostamps and corresponding pink owl wallet I made for Poketo.com, 40 ounces of green tea (inspiration), my old library card from Los Angeles (double inspiration), ibuprofen, pens, and a 'vitality' aromatherapy candle from the local hippie shop. 2. This is the painting I'm working on.. a tiger, flags, fleur de lis, a crystal ball. I paint on paper and then mount the finished piece onto stretched canvas, using heavy gel medium as glue, then make everything glossy and bright with a final coat of polycrylic. It's kind-of a ridiculously stressful mounting process that my mom and I invented, but it works. 3. This is my easel and the pile of assorted acrylic paint and medium that lives below. I generally paint on the floor, laying everything out on an old piece of masonite, but every once in a while I'll clip my painting to the easel and work on it that way. This poster of the tiger and leopard is from another Kill Rock Stars' release that I did the artwork for.. they have been incredibly supportive of my work. I also design tshirts and hoodies for K.R.S. 4. Here's another pile of stuff.. shirts I designed for the incredible hometown website Buyolympia.com. I generally sustain myself off of tshirt sales and the occasional odd job, so that I can go to my studio and paint every day. In this photo you can see a newish one, 'Future Librarian', that seems to be a hit. And a baby onesie, 'Raised by Wolves'.. I also make buttons, bags, stickers, and an instructional fanzine on how to play electric guitar. Under the shirts is a copy of the wonderful free art magazine, ANP Quarterly. Very inspirational! 5. I make all of my tshirt designs on copy machines. If I'm not working with my hands, I feel really weird, so while doing graphic design via xerox can be time-consuming and limiting, I favor it over computer-y stuff. I like to collect random graphics and patterns, and then store them away for future experiments. 6. I love the library, particularly the childrens' non-fiction section. They have the best books on animals.. just big, bright pictures and minimal text. I hang out in the kids' section often, gathering reference material for future paintings. Right now I'm working on tigers, but I often paint birds-- owls, woodpeckers, and crowned cranes. 7. I adore this painting. My photographer friend, Joanne Kim, brought it back for me from her travels through Korea. The colors are intense! 8. This is a project I made for a benefit show in Los Angeles. I lived there for the past two years, and in that time I adopted a dog from a rescue group. Her name is Rosebud. Last August she came down with a terrible bacterial infection in her chest cavity that nearly killed her, and I spent everything I had (and then some) trying to save her.. after 9 days in the doggy i.c.u., she pulled through! I feel very fortunate to have the supportive, generous friends that helped me organize a benefit of music, art, and vegan cupcakes. 9. Rituals are really important to me. Every day when I get to my studio, I change out of my street shoes and into my working shoes, a la Mr. Rogers. I think it helps me focus and treat my art-making like a job. It's hard to find the right studio shoes though... I would definitely recommend the slip-on variety. 10. This is the Great Spirit Owl who watches over the studio and sends out positive vibes. I cut him out from a painting that wasn't working, and he's been the guardian of the workspace ever since!

Toniduran

Toniduran, Graphic Designer & illustrator Cherbourg, France www.toniduran.ouvaton.org "Hello, I'm Toniduran and I usually work as a graphic designer & illustrator. With these pictures, I will try to show little parts of my personal world. I live in Cherbourg, a small town in France, a beautiful landscape near the sea. And in fact, I have no particular place for working. When I'm beginning a new project, I just have to sit somewhere in my house and start." "Sometimes, I'm just drawing on my big white table : a large place to put a lot of sheets, pencils, etc. For example, you can see on the left of that table (above and below) some wood characters I recently painted. They will probably be made into a mobile in a few weeks." "It's not so original, but I also use a eMac for a lot of projects. " "But for me, it's nothing else than a very useful tool. But if I have to make an object, and not a simple picture, I must use different tools for cutting, fixing, etc and I go into my bric à brac where I stock a lot of objects I have found: wood and plastic pieces, old metal, etc." "And in the same place, here's my little printing house, which I use for typography and linocut printings. I often use wood & metal caracters such as those ones, and the press is an old 'Deberny-Peignot' from 1967, still perfect for the printing" - TD

Mark Osberg

Mark Osberg, Animator, Brisbane Australia, http://toonhoon.blogspot.com/ "Hello one and all, my name is Mark Osberg and I'm a freelance animator. I live and work in the downstairs garage of a mate of mine located in sunny Brisbane, Australia. It's here that I spend an unhealthy amount of my time animating, illustrating and surfing the interweb and yes that wall is garishly yellow." "Here's my old analogue lightbox. It's there mostly for sentimental reasons these days." "A new fangdangled digital lightbox. Hooray for not having stacks of animation drawings everywhere. Note the high tech elevation device which is held in place with blue tack." "A signed postcard from Bill Plympton." "Here is where initial ideas are thumbnailed and where I have some various art and computer books" "This is what I'm currently working on." "And finally this is where I try to find inspiration whilst consuming copious amounts of alcohol. Thanks for letting me share my space." -OM

Cypher 13

Cypher 13, Illustration, Web Design, Graphic Design and Brand Consulting Boulder, Colorado USA www.Cypher13.com "Here is a better pick from the other side of the glass that divides the conference room from the rest of the office. If you look real close, you can see the mini photo booth we use to shoot our product for the online store. We like to keep the space full of art to keep the vibe good." "This is a close shot of one of the work spaces. As you can see there is lots of artwork, vinyl toys and half empty coffee cups keeping the thirsty designers company." "On the right side of the office we get a better look at the back of one of the designer's vintage 1962 Vespa. On the top half off this photo you can catch a glimpse at sound system that keeps our ears happy throughout our days and nights. Music is always an essential part of our day here at Cypher 13." "On the left side of the office we caught Lucian crankin' through his lunch break to finish up some work for a client. A lot of the art you see on our walls are by local artists and friends. We try to circulate artists as new ones come around or as a new one has an art opening. We show a new artist's work every month in order to give them a little exposure and introduce new people to the studio and what we do." "This a full shot of the design studio. We try to keep its clean and organized so that our time spent at work doesn't feel like work at all." "And finally the cliché logo shot as we step backwards through the door with the end to our photographic adventure through Cypher 13's office space."