JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

51 toys have been delivered for customization.  9 more ship tomorrow.   Then we hit up the homies and distribute locally.  100 handmade custom toys, fully customized at the Plastic Chapel on September 13th, 2008.  Gonna be hot… Damn, did that Shitty kill that logo!!!

Markham stopped by this afternoon.  In typical “Shitty” fashion, he rolled through with a wicked pen & ink illustration of DOO that he whipped up between pulling screens this afternoon.  Markham’s imagination is really the stuff of legend.  His ability to travel conceptually never ceases to aMAES me.   According to Mr. Maes this illustration is a bit of a warmup for a painting or 2 he’s gonna crank out for the S&F™ show at the  Plastic Chapel in September.  We can’t wait!!!

Markham “Shitty Kitten” Maes took week #8 (the FINAL week) of the S&F™ logo/identity design contest.  Week #8 was a tricky one, we (cypher13) received some pretty amazing identity concepts, but in the end decided that Markham’s characteristic over-the-top creative interpretation of what the S&F™ project dreams to be, seriously stole the show.  We’re in the midst of reviewing the eight winning logos a little closer to see who’s gonna get the gold.  We’ll be choosing the big winner soon!!!

As usual, Markham “Shitty Kitten” Maes crushed his latest show, this time at Josh & Tran’s, Shoppe (a first of its kind cereal & cupcake bar chock full of the most coveted art & design books available).  Markham pushed the Sculpey around a bit further than usual, painted a number of albums, album covers, panels, skate decks, and kept it rollin’ all night long live painting both a large panel and a handful of models for The Fabric Lab’s fashion show at the Super Fresh Block Party later that evening (pics and details soon).  Saturday night was a must see Denver evening.  Thanks go out to all those who made it happen.  It sorta… ruled.  Nice work team!!!

Yep.  We’re doin’ it.  SBD and I.  Ridin’ fixed gears to Lefavor’s to celebrate our independence - from oil, or something like that…  This may be my last blog post.  So, Happy 4th!!!  If we make it… we’ll be meetin’ up with Alex and Mr. Shaeffer and takin’ in 7 cities worth of fireworks from Scot’s roooftop deck, Hopefully… droppin’ in on DJ Z Trip, hittin’ up Shitty’s show at The Shoppe, poppin’ in on Andenken, kickin’ Saturday at the “Super Fresh Block Party” - and gettin’ all arty with Lefavor and friends. Independence Day… hmm…

Markham “Shitty Kitten” Maes will be showing a new body of work at The Shoppe during the Super Fresh Block Party!  We’ll try to get a sneak peak of some new paintings before the show!

Markham “Shitty Kitten” Maes is a great curator, but he’s a better artist. Regardless, Shitty both curated and participated in Night Owls this past Thursday at the D-Note. Both his work, and the show were super hot. The list of participating artists was long and included, Josh Wills (who crushed!), small-but-dangerous, Keith Jive, Mike Graves, teebee, Sean Gilbert, Alex Henry, John Fellows, Anthony Salazar, and of course, Mr. Maes. We gotta say thanks to Markham, for once again curating another wicked show. While it’s great to have Shitty hosting art shows, seems safe to say, we’d all prefer him in the studio with brush in hand. Word to that.

NOTE: There was about 6x as many pieces as there are photos. Photographer… what happened… uhhh…

I got all inspired after seeing the super sick owl stencils the guys did for Shitty’s show and couldn’t help but whip one up myself. It’s obviously not stencil safe but it’s a reflection of my longing for the missed collabos from days past. I’m waiting for the next time we all get to stay up until the wee hours of the night killin’ it for a sweet promo project or a show.

In preparation for a little arty cypher13 side project we whipped up a DIY blank owl template last night and then the three of us mixed it up. We have intentions of turning these owls into super-sized stencils and breakin’ out the Krylon (they’re reversed so… the black will comprise the positive stencil, and the white will be cut to take paint). After all, Shitty does have a show tomorrow night (Night Owls at the D-Note)… and… we really oughtta be done by now if we’re gonna participate. We’ll see… Night owls, right?

Yeah, sure. I’m a little biased… the dude is my super arty homie and all. But yo, Markham Maes can draw, um, like really, really well. I found this little gem as I was browsing through the archives tonight. This is a drawing of Shitty’s daughter Lilly around the time when she was learning how to crawl. I checked the info on this file and I found that it was created on January 20th, 2005. By the looks of it, it appears that this particular drawing was done on a napkin. Which would lead me to believe that we were probably kicking it at a bar. The memory is a little foggy, but I assume that homeboy drew this with a pint of beer in one hand and a clove in the other. Which, as I now recall, means that he drew this with his left foot while the right was sending the 8 ball into the corner pocket with just the right amount of pocket speed. Dang, can’t beat that shit. Like whoa.

Mike Graves and Shitty Kitten have been pow-wowin’ on the weekends and paintin’ their arty lil’ asses off. Shitty seems to be pushin’ Graves out of his comfort zone, and Graves is inspiring the hell out of Markham. They’ve been collabbin’ on some toys for Plastic Chapel’s upcoming show, all sorts of wood panels and some other yet to be announced goodies. Shitty whipped out some samples when we hung last and they’re lookin’ tip-top… they’ve got a ways to go, but oughtta be awesome! Rumor has it that Lefavor is gonna be gettin’ involved with the duo real soon… We’ll be waiting with baited breath.

Magical Marham “Shitty Kitten” Maes will be dropping new works this evening at the Dnote in Olde Town Arvada. Shitty’s new show entitled, “The Kats Pajamas” is a bit of a mystery to us all. We’ve heard Markham talk about it(sparingly) and have yet to see any of his new works aside from the two abstract(at best) samples he sent over this morn. Bottomline is this… it’s Shitty Kitten, he’s been painting, it’s gotta be super fresh. Hope to see you tonight!

Note: A gold star goes to shitty for his foray into in the digital realm - nice one buddy - camera and email!!!  Yeah.  Blowin’ up kid…