06:00 PM : The Art of the Sharpie @ Reading Frenzy

Visual Arts / Architecture Flyered by sturge

Male pattern baldness and hummingbirds
The art of sharpie!

First Stop, Portland Oregon
July 7th – 31st Opening reception Thursday July 7th 6pm – 9pm
Reading Frenzy 921 Oak St. Portland OR 97205

"So I had this superb idea to do a sharpie powered show at Reading Frenzy (those of you in town know reading frenzy as one of the worlds best shops for handmade zines and comics) here in Portland this July. I thought, yeah invite a few friends, and we will make some sharpie pen art, but no, I can't just do something that simple. Instead I am inviting 50 friends to bust out something really beautiful with sharpie pens, and I will make a little handmade zine with all the artists involved that will be available at the opening." - Bwana

Bwana Spoons is also the curator of “Plushtastrophe” A traveling artshow of plush creations that started in Portland, then moved on to San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago, will finish up it’s U.S. tour in September at BLK MRKT gallery in Los Angeles, and then moves on to Belgium, and possibly France, and Australia. “When I created Plushtastrophe, I had no intention of traveling this little show of stuffed creations, but it just took off and kept growing.” Bwana.

So... running forward with seemingly ridiculous ideas that turn out to be big hits. Bwana is putting together a Sharpie show. “So many contemporary and young artists are already using them for their sketches, and even in their gallery work, and with the explosion of new Sharpie colors it seems the next logical step is to make a big fuss about it in the art world.”

About the title.
“It’s no fun to just throw a bunch of random art together. I like to give the artists both a challenge, and some directed focus.”

But why why why male pattern baldness. “not everybody wants to draw pretty birds. The sharpie is perfect for drawing balding men, and you get the added bonus of doing patterns, also, by the way, perfect for sharpie.”

We have confirmed emerging and established contemporary artists from Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, NYC, Japan, Australia, and the UK. It’s only the beginning, and getting off to a great start.

Aaron Renier Portland/NYC

David Wien Portland

Jessica Lynch slowshirts.com Anacortes

Jessie Rose Vala Chicago/

APAK! Aaron + Ayumi apakstudio.com Tokyo/Portland

Justin “Scrappers” Morrison scrapperstown.com Portland

Bwana Spoons grasshutcorp.com Portland

Shawn Smith shawnimals.com Chicago

Jo Jackson Portland

Lart Cognac & Nathan Burazer San Francisco

Will McCurtin San Francisco

Rodney Greenblat whimseyload.com NYC

Kiyoshi Nakazawa Los Angeles

Maja D’Aoust Los Angeles

Sun-min and David Horvath Los Angeles/Seoul

Dave the Chimp visualrockstars.com U.K.

Martin Ontiveros Portland

Gary Taxali garytaxali.com Toronto

James Jean Los Angeles

Cupco cupco.net Tokyo/Sydney

Eric Broers phoenticontrol.com Chicago

Nate Beaty brainfag.com Portland

Amy Rupel amyruppel.com Portland

Brendan Monroe brendanmonroe.com Los Angeles

Michael Paulus michaelpaulus.com Portland

Trish Grantham trishgrantham.com Portland

Guy Burwell Portland

Luster Kaboom Phoenix

Ryan Jacob Smith ryanjacobsmith.com Portland

Mark Nagata marknagata.com San Francisco

Koa koadzn.free.fr France

Jilf mytuckus.com Seattle

E*Rock audiodregs.com/erock Portland

Muju mujuworld.co.uk

Souther Salazar southersalazar.net Los Angeles

Alec “P7” Longstreth alec-longstreth.com NYC

Mark Todd funchicken.com Los Angeles

Esther Pearl Watson funchicken.com Los Angeles

Fay Ryu fayryu.com NYC

Sakura Maku sakuramaku.com NYC

Jordan Crane reddingk.com Los Angeles

Patrick Fong doservewell.com NYC

Josh Simmons New Orleans

Ben Claassen the III D.C.

Shawn Granton Portland

Brian Kruse Portland

Luke Ramsey Victoria B.C.

For more information and updates contact:
Chloe Eudaly chloe@readingfrenzy.com 503.274.1449
Bwana Spoons rainbowmaster@earthlink.net