Scouliosity

Cloth Cat Doll

2012-01-22T10:52:00.001-08:00

Cloth cat doll, all in black and white fabric except front of face - hand drawn.
length: 15 - 16 inches including ears. includes black & white sun dress.

Painted Mannequin Heads

2012-01-22T10:51:00.000-08:00

Folding Cards on Etsy

2012-01-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

Drawings enhanced with an ink pen and attached to a blank folding card.
4 x 5.5 folding card includes blank white envelope.

Sacred Skies

2012-01-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

Aquarius Waiting

2012-01-10T18:22:00.001-08:00

Sagittarius 50

2012-01-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

Ask Jupiter

2012-01-10T18:20:00.001-08:00

Gateway

2012-01-09T18:44:00.001-08:00

Dragonfly In The Cosmos

2012-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Kendra

2012-01-07T09:23:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Nicko

2011-12-29T18:53:00.001-08:00

Sprinkle Star

2011-12-29T18:52:00.001-08:00

Voice Beneath A Shallow Tree

2011-12-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Solar

2011-12-28T19:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

Planets Align

2011-11-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

Angel in the Cosmos

2011-11-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

Northern Galactic

2011-11-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

Space Girl

2011-11-03T19:22:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T17:37:00.000-07:00

Scorpio

2011-10-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Libra

2011-10-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Sagattarius

2011-10-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

Virgo

2011-10-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Warrior

2011-10-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

Dream Traveler

2011-10-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

At The Harem

2011-10-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

The Human Recruiter

2011-10-10T20:31:00.000-07:00

Interview With DWLB

2011-09-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

Kim: Where did you guys meet? What made you two decide to make music together?

Chris: We met on the set of an indie film in Chicago. I was the assistant director and Joe was part of the sound team, as was Steve "Blood" Baldwin, whose legend looms large in our work. The film was not that great, but we grew to be friends after Joe made a Radiohead reference on the set one day that I got and no one else seemed to. We’ve been friends ever since.

Joe: I also ate a cow brain taco on the set of that film, which may have contributed in some way. Most of the time we were either communicating entirely in quotes from the Beatles movie "Help!" or from "Apocalypse Now," which no doubt confused the director to no end.

Chris: As I recall, he got the "Help!" quotes (a band tradition that continues unto this very day), but was kind of lost on some of the more obscure "Apocalypse Now" references. Anyway, one day after the film had wrapped, I was sitting at home watching Taxi Driver on TV and the phone rang. It was Joe asking me to come down to the studio where he worked and help him remix a track for the band he was in then, which was called Evil Genius. The track got stranger and stranger as we worked and we both decided that this was something we should pursue. We got together a couple of weeks later and recorded our first track, which is called “Cranberry Sauce” and is on our first album, Tree Fort.

Kim: Where did you get the name DWLB?

Chris: We were both huge Big Lebowski fans and the name Donny Who Loved Bowling comes from Walter’s eulogy at the end of the movie.

Joe: It's been pointed out that Steve Buscemi's character from "Big Lebowski" is actually named Donnie, not Donny. But with the "y" it just looks better.

Kim: I understand that both of you are living in different locations. How does this work exactly? Do you send each other digital files back and forth?

Chris: You bet we do. One of us will come up with a demo, then post it. As we work on it we post the latest version for the other to make changes.

Joe: In fact, our "Butcher Covers" album came about because we were field-testing that over-the-internet workflow on a bunch of cover tunes and they turned out well enough to release.

Kim: I have noticed several places in your albums where there may be an automatic, transcendental rhythm with a hypnotic beat much like a journey. I would consider this both relaxing and motivational at the same time.

Chris: Thanks! The funny thing about DWLB is that we really don’t discuss that kind of thing--anything that’s transcendental probably results from us NOT talking about it....It’s a pretty strong Collective Unconscious that we share. Anyway, since neither of us is a drummer, we work a lot with drum loops. Our demos also tend to be long grooves that we then edit down and overdub onto, and that can help with creating that trancelike state. And then we both just seem to know when the track is right.

Kim: How would you describe your music?

Chris: Well, we described our first album as “A day-tour through the world of laptops and loops.” Things have changed a little since then, I guess--I end up calling it “abstract instrumental music” when I describe it to people.

Joe: that's good; I'll have to start using that one.

Kim: Who are your influences? What inspires you to create?

Chris: We’ve always taken the tack that anything you listen to influences you--that having been said, we are both big fans of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno’s work, as well as the first four Brian Eno albums; Frank Zappa was and is a big bonding point for us; David Bowie; the Beatles; the 1970s Miles Davis albums; the mid-period Pink Floyd as well.

Joe: "Screeching and Exploding" was a big Motown trip, at least from my point of view. There's a lot of Motown on that record, whether you can hear it or not. Sort of Motown meets late 60's psychedelia.

Chris: Yeah, we found out after we recorded it that in many ways it was a tribute to the things we loved about a lot of 60s records: big chunky rhythm guitar parts, tambourines, "dit dit" background vocals....

Kim: On Screeching & Exploding you made a nice tribute to Bettie Page - Bettie (Were You There?) Can you tell us about this dedication?

Chris: Not wanting to be crass about it, but in addition to the collective unconscious ethic we also seem to be inspired by deaths--my grandfather died right around the time we finished our first album, and some recent deaths in our families have inspired some of the music we’re working on now. We’ve also done memorial tracks for people that inspired us as they passed, and one of those people was Bettie Page. The way that particular track worked was that I recorded a basic track of bass, drums and rhythm guitar and posted it for Joe. He added lead guitar and vocals and did a preliminary mix. In November 2009 I went to Chicago so we could finish Screeching And Exploding and we had our friends Steve and Jodi add the handclaps.

Joe: Bettie is predominantly seen as a sex symbol, which really mystified her. The last 50 years of her life she was very religious, so the "Were You There?" theme is just as important as the slinky groove that's underneath it.

Chris: Absolutely, and that dichotomy was way more interesting that the sex symbol stuff everyone already knew.

Kim: I understand there was a story that at one point your remake of a Pink Floyd song was considered for a movie? Can you tell us about that?

Chris: It was actually considered for a movie ad campaign, not the movie itself....We’d done a version of “Us And Them” when Richard Wright passed away for our friends Vince and Daisy’s radio show and a music placement professional heard it on our myspace page. Nothing came of it, but it was pretty exciting just the same....

Joe: Apparently the Floyd are just fine with their music being used in films, but not in advertisements. So a scene in the film that would have contained "Us And Them" could not be used in the trailer unless the music was changed. So the trailer-editing company went looking for covers. If I remember right, they ended up using a different song altogether.

Kim: Each of your albums are all unique and different, and you have successfully maintained your DWLB signature sound. Can you tell me about each of the albums, and the themes that were represented?

Chris: We don’t really go into each album thinking of a theme or a unified sound, but we have been very lucky in how that’s turned out. Our first album, Tree Fort, had a very “everything but the kitchen sink” kind of approach, because when we started it we had no idea what the finished form would be or if anyone would even hear it besides us. So it’s kind of all over the place, which when I listen to it now is both a strength and a weakness.

Joe: Yup. There's a balance to be struck between "no rules" and "needs focus." But we were finding our feet to a great extent, and trying to find where the edges were.

Chris: Our second album, Butcher Covers, started out as a way to figure out how we were going to collaborate long distance once I’d moved back to Austin. We had some cover versions lying around and decided to make a full-length project out of them, so we came up with a list of other possible covers--songs we felt we could add something to or change up in such a way that listening to our versions would not necessarily call the originals to mind.

For Screeching And Exploding, we really just had a collection of demos that we got together in Chicago to finish--as it turned out some were very close to finished and some we wrote just from a drum track. Once I got to Chicago and we got down to work, the album that had been germinating for about four years came together in five days! There’s much more real instrument playing on Screeching And Exploding than there is on the first album.

Joe: I think if there's a signature sound, it's due to the fact that the same two guys made all of those records, certainly more so than any commonality of instruments or production techniques -- because those things change dramatically from album to album.

Kim: So you are working on a new album now. How may this album be different from your other recordings?

Chris: Playing live has been something we’ve wanted to try, but because of the geography we haven’t been able to accomplish yet. So our next album, which we’ve already decided is going to be called Circus Animals, will evolve from live recordings of the music we’re working on now.

Kim: Tell us about what you have in store for the future.

Chris: World domination ;)

Donny Who Loved Bowling

Joe Griffin

Chris Petkus

Two Pirates

2011-09-11T14:33:00.001-07:00

Pirate Lady

2011-09-05T10:39:00.001-07:00

Virgo

2011-09-05T07:51:00.001-07:00

Virgo
August 23rd - September 22nd

Patrick & Megan

2011-08-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Dream Analysis

2011-08-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hugo & Samantha

2011-08-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

Parker

2011-08-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

Parker the pet pig.

Nichole

2011-08-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

Family Portrait Trade

2011-08-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Family Portrait by LSDead's Head. I just love this! You can see more of his work at: http://www.cafepress.com/lsdeadshead

We each agreed to draw each other's family.

Nancy & Sebastian

2011-08-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

Solar Mass - Interview

2011-07-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Interview with Christopher Petkus

From Solar Mass

Kim: What made you decide to call the band Solar Mass?

Christopher: Good question, this band originally didn't have a name at all, but was instead hand-picked by me to play this concert piece I'd written called "Solar Mass" for the Church Of The Friendly Ghost's 2010 NMASS festival. When it became apparent that it was not going to be a one-off performance, we needed a name. And since the piece was already called Solar Mass, I figured why not just call the group that? The Monkees have a title song, why shouldn't we?

Kim: Tell me about how you formed the band.

Christopher: They were picked from a larger pool of people, a group called Mongoose I'm involved with that does music based on John Zorn's Cobra game piece.

Kim: How would you describe the music and experience when one attends a Solar Mass show?

Christopher: It was written to be a mass-like piece. There are a lot of drones and tribal-sounding percussion in it, and they're meant to evoke the sun worship rites that the piece is about.

Kim: I understand all of your performance members are prolific artist who have worked on independent projects of their own. Can you tell me about each of the members?

Christopher: Yeah, they are all performers in their own right. Daniel Hipolito, who does tape music and plays bass, performs electronic sets under the name Smokey Emery. Eva Luna who plays percussion and sings, performs her own songs under the name Sprills Of Ore. Rebecca Ramirez, also on vocals and percussion, is a songwriter who plays guitar, ukulele and autoharp. And Matt Burnett, who plays electronics for us, is also a songwriter who's just released a new album called "things@now.good."

Kim: How do all of you collaborate with your creative ideas to develop a finished piece of music and visual art?

Christopher: Well, the music is all written by me and developed in rehearsal. I'll write a loose score telling everyone the bare bones of what I want and they we flesh it out through playing. Some pieces are more improvisational than others--our set right now includes a second piece that is not part of the Solar Mass called "The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World" where the only written piece is a two note bassline, and the rest of the score just tells the musicians when to come in. The visual part is something that's still evolving, and will hopefully continue to evolve. I like the idea of the Solar Mass being a long-germinating piece that is never quite "finished."

Kim: Please tell me about the various forms of performance art that has been included in your shows?

Christopher: We've included dance in previous shows, and for our next performance this friday at Cherrywood Coffeehouse we'll be working with a projectionist named Katie Rose Pipkin and our friend Tim Doyle--he plays an amplified bicycle wheel. For the future, we're working with the Sugar Puppet troupe to provide shadow puppet accompaniment.

Kim: What direction do you wish to see Solar Mass move forward to in the future?

Christopher: I'm actually working on material for a new concert piece for us--more drones, more pagan drumming, MANY more guitars....

Solar Mass Event

Friday, July 29 · 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Cherrywood Coffeehouse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hUOqAgvBJ4

Photo by Sandy Bowie

SOLAR MASS SCOR

Call—struck note on Vibratone

M1 (7 mins)

0:00 – 1:00 breath music—Rebecca/Eva

1:00 – low drone—Matt

2:00 – tape music—Daniel

3:00 – guitar—Petkus.

4:00 – held sung notes—Rebecca/Eva

6:00 – drone and tape music stop. Then sung notes. Then guitar.

Call

M2 (5 mins)

0:00 – intonarumori sample loop--Matt

0:10 - Eva tom

0:15 – bass/tape music

2:30 - Rebecca

Call

0:00 – Rebecca: “I’d like to tell you a story.” (sun crow story—see below)/harmonic guitar

Daniel/Eva vocal accent

Call

M4 (9 mins?)

0:00 loop/bass in E (Daniel)/guitar /drum/Rebecca freakout

Call

M5 (7 mins)

0:00 laptop drone/tape chants/held sung notes

Drop out as cued by Petkus.

SUN CROW STORY

According to a story I once heard, there were once long ago ten sun crows which settled in 10 separate suns in the Chinese sky. They perched on a red mulberry tree called the Fusang--the Leaning Mulberry Tree, in the East at the foot of the Valley of the Sun.

This mulberry tree was said to have many mouths opening from its branches, and the crows perched on their lips. Each day one of the sun crows would be rostered to travel around the world on a carriage, driven by Xihe the 'mother' of the suns. As soon as one sun crow returned, another one would set forth in its journey crossing the sky.

There were two sorts of grasses the crows loved to eat—both were grasses of immortality. One was called the Diri (or "ground sun") and the other was Chunsheng (or "spring grow"). The sun crows would often descend from heaven on to the earth and feast on these grasses, but Xihe did not like the crows forever eating the grasses that gave her immortality so one night as they slept she covered their eyes to prevent them from doing so.

This angered the crows, and they determined that if Xihe was going to keep the grasses of immortality only to herself that instead none should be able to eat from them. And that day all ten sun crows came out at the same time, causing fires and famine upon the earth!

But Houyi the celestial archer saved the day! Taking careful aim to hit their wings, he shot down all but one of the sun birds. And over time the birds healed and learned the error of their ways. And Xihe, the mother of the suns, learned to share the grasses of immortality. And the burned region of the earyh, now called Gobi, gave new homes to many forms of life, such as the gobi bear, the ibex and the black-tailed gazelle…..

Tracy

2011-07-25T19:40:00.001-07:00

The Nancy Nebula Comic Book Cover

2011-07-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

So far...

Beside Herself

2011-07-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Laura & Jonah

2011-07-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Alexander - My Nephew

2011-07-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

Demure Doll

2011-07-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

The doll that won't say what you will.

Christina

2011-07-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

Myself

2011-07-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

Which Bag?

2011-06-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago I had a sandwich at Which Wich and decorated my sandwich bag.

Recently my niece walked in and found the bag still on display.

Open Eyes

2011-04-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

Sadira

2011-04-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

Basilia

2011-04-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Mannequin Head - Brown

2011-04-16T19:57:00.002-07:00

Mannequin Head - Blue/Black

2011-04-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

Mannequin Head - Auburn

2011-04-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

Nancy

2011-04-13T17:46:00.001-07:00

The Beatles

2011-04-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Fala

2011-04-11T15:58:00.001-07:00

Yvette

2011-04-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

Petunia

2011-04-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Lidoine

2011-04-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

Tina

2011-04-07T18:54:00.001-07:00

Soul Mates

2011-04-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

Amélie

2011-04-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

Terpsichore

2011-04-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

Pilot

2011-04-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Waiting For The Sign

2011-04-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

Merged In Transmission

2011-04-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Envelope Design 5

2011-03-31T16:16:00.000-07:00

Envelope Design 4

2011-03-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

Envelope Design 3

2011-03-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

Envelope Design 2

2011-03-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

Envelope Design 1

2011-03-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

Cecilia

2011-03-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

Ms O'Connor

2011-03-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

My Backyard

2011-03-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Ms Lidwell

2011-03-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Eleanor

2011-03-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Her Haircut

2011-03-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

Camel

2011-03-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Tree By The Old House

2011-03-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Carissa

2011-03-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

Georgia

2011-03-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Arianna

2011-03-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

Abigail

2011-03-15T19:07:00.001-07:00

Brianna

2011-03-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

Ms Gibson

2011-03-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

In The Pink Room

2011-03-12T18:32:00.000-08:00

Meteorite

2011-03-11T19:13:00.001-08:00

Swimming

2011-03-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

Forest Music

2011-03-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

Fairy

2011-03-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Caught In A Spool

2011-03-07T17:53:00.000-08:00

Sister Moon

2011-03-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

Cat Story

2011-03-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

Autumn

2011-03-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

Tree

2011-03-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

Olivia

2011-03-02T16:40:00.001-08:00

Doris Daring Characters

2011-03-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

Doris Daring: Star Captain of the Spaceways
[Kindle Edition available at Amazon]

Mr Tsoukalos

2011-02-28T15:53:00.000-08:00