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November 18th, 2010

Stop #107 on the East Austin Studio Tour: Second Weekend

Thanks to everyone who came out to our place on the East Austin Studio Tour last weekend! Those who couldn’t make it, there’s still this upcoming weekend. We’ll be open to visitors from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday with free beer, snacks, and art.

Here’s how my studio is looking during the interstitial:

View of my Studio between the two E.A.S.T. 2010 Weekends

If you look closely on the bookshelf on the left, you can see an old broken toy Grimlock. Is that worth anything? The painting on the easel in the middle is something that I intended to finish during last weekend (working on it while people stopped by). I didn’t get very far, though; I forgot how hard it is to actually work on anything during E.A.S.T. On the right, in the background, you can see a collection of Gold County Paper Mill merch that I have for sale. On the right, in the foreground, you can see two screens that I got burned at Industry Screenprint this past week. I plan on using them to print a new Miizzzard screenprint for next weekend.

Click here to see more interstitial shots

November 12th, 2010

Stop #107 on the East Austin Studio Tour: First Weekend

The annual East Austin Studio Tour is this upcoming weekend and the following. Studios all over the east side will be open from 11am to 6pm on Sat Nov 13th, Sun Nov 14th, Sat Nov 20th, and Sun Nov 21st. Glade and I are participating just like we did last year. We’re Stop #107 on the tour (1807 E 22ND ST). We’re gonna have another Aaron Flynn installation in the garage but unfortunately Alison Kuo moved to NYC so she won’t be here to install by our couch again, but we do have one of her drawings from her solo show at SOFA. Everything in our living room will be completely different from last year – we’ll be showing all of my work that didn’t sell at my Domy show, our artwork from our show at End of an Ear, and our engagement art.

As some of you may recall, several weeks ago I went to my parents’ house in Houston and cleaned out my old room. I brought some boxes of my old stuff back, which made my normally cluttered studio an impossible-to-navigate mess. I’ve spent the last week cleaning and getting rid of stuff and I thought it would be fun to post before and after shots.

So, here they are:

BEFORE:

The View from the Entrance of my Studio before Cleaning
The View from the Entrance of my Studio before Cleaning

AFTER:

The View from the Entrance of my Studio after Cleaning
The View from the Entrance of my Studio after Cleaning

Click here to see more before and after shots

October 29th, 2010

Stuffed and Drawn Frogheads

My series of posts of installation shots of my show Hypermorph at Domy Books, Houston continues.

Here’s a shot of the western wall at the opening:

Hypermorph Installation at Domy Books Houston, Western Wall
Hypermorph Installation at Domy Books Houston, Western Wall

Click here to see close ups of the artwork

October 12th, 2010

Review of Hypermorph on The Great God Pan Is Dead

Robert Boyd reviewed my show Hypermorph at Domy Books Houston on his blog The Great God Pan Is Dead. I appreciate his thoughtful review, you can read it here.

In his review, Boyd quotes my description of the Hyperverse from the press release and then says that his “first reaction to this is that it seems pretty dumb.” Ha! I can dig that. Boyd goes on to say that, what makes my approach to genre dumb is that, unlike the Fort Thunder artists that I am (all-too clearly, I know) influenced by, my work lacks does not take genre ironically or satirically. Well, that’s true. I definitely take genre, even the most ridiculous parts of it, extremely seriously. If you want me to get all metaphorical on you, I feel like I do live in, to quote my description of the Hyperverse, “a realm filled with immensely powerful inhuman beings who battle over worlds with strange geologies and hoard advanced technologies” where “mountains shift from molten to crystal between moments and clumps of rock are inhabited by malevolent intelligences ready to hurl face-melting spells,” a cosmos of constant flux, “of constant magical warfare.”

I mean, look at these photos by Edward Burtynsky:

I’m just reflecting the world as I see it.

And I have a response to Boyd’s final question:

So, if creating boyish sci-fi worlds is an aspect of the whole Fort Thunder aesthetic, can we say that aesthetic is inherently male? And if we accept that, is there a female counterpart? And if so, are plush frog heads a part of it?

I definitely wanted Glade to be a part of my show. I’m well aware of how much of a “boy’s club” all of the collectives that I am a part of (Totally Wreck, The Gold County Paper Mill) slash admire (Okaymountain, Fort Thunder), with some exceptions, are, and it’s something that I don’t like about them. All I can say is, I am going to make sure that my first long-form comics narrative passes the Bechdel Test.

September 21st, 2010

Hypermorph Process Shots

I’ve been super busy preparing for my show Hypermorph at Domy Books in Houston. It opens September 25th from 7-9pm, y’all should come check it out if you’re in town.

Here’s a shot of the prep table, you can see the skin for the froghead pillow that Glade is making for me, Kevin Huizenga’s Fight or Run (definitely an inspiration), one of my boots, and the froghead boutinnières.

Here’s Glade stuffing the froghead pillow.

We decided to leave some of the stuffing hanging out. You can also see part of one of my drawings for the show in the following pic.

Here’s the froghead pillow chilling with my face pillow.

Here’s an in-process shot of one of the paintings that I’m doing.

Aight I gotta peace y’all and go read the prologue for Towers of Midnight, I’ll check y’all later.

April 6th, 2010

Boongoo Studiooze Presents: SPACE OOZE Installed

Last week was pretty hectic, but Glade and I managed to get our collaborative show Boongoo Studiooze Presents: SPACE OOZE installed at End of an Ear, here’s a shot:

The show will be up for all of April, and we’ll be having a reception from 6-8pm on April 20th.

March 30th, 2010

Boongoo Studiooze Presents: SPACE OOZE

This past week Glade and I have been hard at work getting our collaborative art show for End of an Ear together. We’re going to call it Boongoo Studiooze Presents: SPACE OOZE. It’ll run all April and we’ll have a reception from 6-8pm on 4/20. Here’s a shot of us working on the drawings:

In the bottom middle is an india ink drawing that I drew that Glade colored. On the right I’m working on a gouache painting that Glade is going to draw on with gel pens.

March 26th, 2010

WITCH ATTACKS Screenprints for Sale

As I’ve mentioned, the incredibly talented Rand Renfrow made some dope-ass three-color screenprints of my one-page comic Witch ATTACKS (previously featured on hahaclever). Look at these things, they’re perfect, it looks like a machine made them:

If you’re interested in owning one of these limited edition bad boys, they’re on sale at Domy here in Austin or you can just buy one from me. Leave a comment or send an email to mark p hensel at g mail dot com.

Also, check out this video interview that the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen d00dz did of me and Glade at STAPLE! alongside a bunch of other talented exhibitors. We’re the first ones in this video and there are four more that you can check out if you want to see who all was at STAPLE!:

Because I didn’t give him a shout out in the video, props to Robert Bozwell, fellow member of the GCPM, for the work that he did designing the Catch Up website!

March 5th, 2010

STAPLE! 2010 Stuff

Last nite Glade and I were jamming to some Van Der Graaf Generator and working in our studios. I was finishing up my flyer for Awthumfetht 2010 while Glade worked on cards for STAPLE! 2010, which I’m super stoked about. I got a package full of GCPM t-shirts and poetry chapbooks from my buddy Jak Cardini yesterday, so I was able to lay out most of the stuff that we’ll have on Saturday, check it out:

Dr Chuch also put together a bunch of our DVDs:

I hope to see y’all on Saturday! We’ll be at table 51A.

March 3rd, 2010

STAPLE! 2010

Another week no second post, and then I don’t post until Wednesday nite? Jeeeez I gotta get back in the GAME. Seriously though I’m going to try to post every Tuesday and Friday but sometimes I won’t make it, that’s just how it is, so I’m going to stop commenting on it.

This upcoming weekend is STAPLE! 2010. I’ll be exhibiting as part of the Gold County Paper Mill for the third year in a row!

We’ll have a lot of great stuff, including:

  • T-shirts screenprinted by Jak Cardini and Sarah Cassidy with our owl god (viewable [and purchasable!] on our etsy)
  • The Gold County Paper Mill Presents the DVD (viewable on our etsy), a collection of live performances and videos featuring myself, Jak Cardini, and Dr. Chuch (some of which can be watched either here or here), and an interactive version of the comic Impossible Objects, where I illustrated lines from Jak Cardini’s poetry
  • Print versions of the Impossible Objects comic
  • Jak Cardini Achieves the Narratological Singularity and There Is a Mars, two poetry chapbooks by Jak Cardini
  • Swimming at Work, a collection of short fiction by David Fullen
  • Screenprints of my comic WITCH ATTACKS (previously published online at hahaclever.com) done by the super-talented Rand Renfrow
  • Other digital prints of two of my one-page ATTACKS comics
  • My minicomics Masks, TRANZ, and Froghead Hangover

We’re also going to be splitting our table space with the greeting cards and fabric art of my lovely (and talented!) fiancée Glade Whitworth. We hope to see y’all there, you can see our location of our table in the Monarch Event Center (where STAPLE! will be this Saturday, 3/6/10, from 11am to 7pm) here. We’ll be at table 51A, right by our buddies the Poopsheet Foundation and the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen. Also, when you come, be sure to check out the STAPLE! Program Guide, in which I’ll have a two-page comic.

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