He's 81 years young today. And going strong! In honour of his birthday, I have unearthed The Captain's Blog, the archive of posts I did in support of The Shatner Show, a book that we published in 2007.
76 illustrations of his life and career by 76 talented illustrators. Buy the book!
Follow Shatner on Twitter. He's trying to reach 1,000,000 followers for his birthday.
In celebration of the release of the latest issue of the magazine for the creative and curious, UPPERCASE presents "The Touchy Feely Letterpress Exhibition" and "The Perfect Match Miniature Label Montage".
The current issue features a Letterpress Sampler in which an actual letterpress item like a card, art print or other goodie is inserted randomly into each magazine. You can see (and feel) all the submissions at the exhibition in the gallery, read about all the letterpress printers in the magazine, and view their work in our online gallery.
We're giving away a dozen complete samplers, each containing over 50 amazing items. Stay tuned to the blog through the month of February for details. Come down to Art Central this Thursday to win one in person!
Also on display are vintage matchbox labels; have your own free label that comes with a purchase of the magazine or a subscription.
A must-see show for lovers of letterpress and those enamored with ephemera! Join us this Thursday, February 3 from 5-9pm for a warm reception.
Here's our wall of book cover self portraits! I'll post a few more photos soon. (But you'll have to see these reproduced in the magazine to appreciate their details!) I will email everyone next week and let you know if your work made it into the magazine feature.
It is going to be a laborious weekend, as I concentrate on finishing up issue 7 before it heads off to the printer!
I am so impressed! We have received about 60 submissions for the latest open call in which we ask our readers to interpret themselves as a book cover. This was a challenging concept, but you took me up on it and did an amazing job. The majority of them will be published in the forthcoming issue 7 of UPPERCASE magazine (alas, a few people forgot to follow our size requests or otherwise have unpublishable files—please note that when creating work that might be printed, it is important to build the file to the proper specifications: web resolution doesn't work for print. Print = 300dpi).
We invited some very talented professional book designers to participate as well, and I am thrilled with their work. I will be printing out the best of everyone's submissions for an impromptu exhibition in the gallery for the month of September, so please join us this First Thursday for the show!
Vancouver-based artist Andrea Armstrong did a great cover illustration and even made a mockup:
Andrea writes:
I am a picture book. Not too wordy; likes to hang out with kids; colourful but simple. The thing about a picture book is you can read the words quickly, but to get to know the story well, you have to keep coming back to it to spend time with its images.
I am a picture book about a girl and her chickens. The girl is an introvert; she would rather hang out with chickens than real people most of the time. She’s creative – now don’t laugh, but she invents songs to sing to them, and even wrote a poem about them once. She has a favorite chicken, whose name is, in fact, Favorite. And she’s a little bit odd (hello, she’s best friends with chickens and writes poetry for them.)
I am an autobiographical picture book about a girl and her chickens. True story.
There's a nice mix of illustrations, design and typography in the submissions. Great job, everyone!
By the way, check out Andrea's blog for some great depictions of a drawn version of herself interacting in the real world. Love it!
Thanks to everyone who participated in the crowd sourcing show. Thanks to you, my gallery walls weren't neglected! You can view some pics from the show here, and above are images of the collage that visitors worked on throughout the evening.
June 3, First Thursday
One night only from 4-9pm
refreshments will be served!
A creatively uncurated exhibition of works by friends of UPPERCASE and one communual canvas collaboration!
Taking our cue from the popularity of social media and crowd sourcing, let's give this a try in a gallery setting: bring your work to UPPERCASE on Thursday, June 3 between 4-6pm for display. It can be a painting, drawing, sewn item, photograph, sculpture or you may even read from your latest poem or work in progress. The only stipulations being that the work should be ready to hang and be family-friendly. (If you'd like to sell your work, the split is 60% to the artist. Please price accordingly. Work doesn't have to be for sale.)
We will also have a canvas for those who want to have some hands-on fun and play with our collection of letraset, rubber stamps, and other inspiring goodies.
A creatively uncurated exhibition of works by friends of UPPERCASE and one communual canvas collaboration!
Taking our cue from the popularity of social media and crowd sourcing, let's give this a try in a gallery setting: bring your work to UPPERCASE on Thursday, June 3 between 4-6pm for display. It can be a painting, drawing, sewn item, photograph, sculpture or you may even read from your latest poem or work in progress. The only stipulations being that the work should be ready to hang and be family-friendly. (If you'd like to sell your work, the split is 60% to the artist. Please price accordingly. Work doesn't have to be for sale.)
We will also have a canvas for those who want to have some hands-on fun and play with our collection of letraset, rubber stamps, and other inspiring goodies.
June 3, First Thursday
One night only from 4-9pm
refreshments will be served!
I look forward to seeing your work! Drop me a line if you plan on participating or just show up on First Thursday!
Renata Liwska's new show opens Thursday! We'll be open from 5-9pm. Here's a preview (thanks, Mike and Renata for hanging the show.)
Thank you to everyone who came out last night! What a busy First Thursday it was here in UPPERCASE. I've just finished posting the remaining letters from Mike Kerr's show of letters. You can view them all in detail in the online shop.
Here are some images of the paintings; the majority are original acrylic works painted on square boards. There are also a few framed prints.
Mike is a VERY prolific sketchbook artist and he let us leaf through his books, much to the delight of all!
Please come down to Art Central this evening for First Thursday festivities! Mike Kerr's Show of Letters was hung last night and it is looking great. (UPPERCASE will be open from 3pm - 9pm today.)
I've got one month to go before the baby is due, so I will be working from home more and more (it is getting more difficult to walk/waddle/breathe these days!) So tonight is really the best time to come see the show (and purchase some affordable, original paintings) in person. There are plenty of First Thursday festivities (plus the opening of my landlords' newest development project, Fashion Central, just a block away.)
The show will be posted in the online shop by the weekend.
Mike Kerr has been busy getting the artwork ready for his upcoming show in UPPERCASE. When you set out to create a show based on the alphabet, you automatically have your work cut out for you! Here are some pictures of his work-in-progress and a finished piece below. Click here to view more images from the upcoming show. (We'll be putting all the pieces in the online shop, so that link will be posted following the opening next Thursday.)
There's still time to enter your illustration and photography in the annual competition held by Applied Arts. For all the details and deadlines, click here. Congratulations to Mike Kerr (image above) for his inclusion in last year's annual. Congratulations to other UPPERCASE friends: Renata Liwska, Dushan Milic, Valery Goulet and Zina Saunders who were selected for 2009.
UPPERCASE is pleased to host a show of Mike's new work, opening the first Thursday in February. More details and previews coming soon, but here's a teaser of the show:
Lisa Congdon's original painting and many other fiery works are available from the Bonfire show.
It's always a pleasure to include Lisa Congdon's work in the gallery. Her creative abilities are quite astounding and it is great to see how her career has taken off of late. The painting, above, is an original created for the Bonfire exhibition and article in issue 3. The painting is available for $350 Canadian - just send us an email if you are interested. info (at) uppercasegallery (dot) ca. Click here to see the rest of the show.
Here are some of my current favourites in Lisa's Etsy:
The Bonfire exhibition is now online, featuring works for sale by Doug Fraser (above), Lisa Congdon, Mariko Paterson (Guy Fawkes Day teapot below) and others. Click here to view all the works and for pricing details.
Now accepting submissions for our November/December exhibition!
Clever designs, pretty packaging, zany wrappers, colourful names and elegant detailing have as much appeal as the tasty treats tucked inside. The Confections show celebrates the fine art of candy packaging. We invite artists to illustrate and design their own wrappers. Come up with an irresistible cover for a novel treat or create a new design for an old favourite. Send us your eye candy!
The best designs will be featured in the winter issue of the magazine. Submit your artwork file via email info–at–uppercasegallery.ca (images should be at least 6 to 8 inches wide at 300dpi).
Also accepting candy-related artwork, photography and suggestions.
Deadlines:
October 23 (for inclusion in the exhibition, Nov 5 - Dec 31)
November 1, 2009 (for possible inclusion in the magazine)
Thanks to everyone who came out to First Thursday! It was a good one. Here are some shots of the current show, curated by Margot at Pitch Design Union. I set out some papers and sharpies so that people could draw their own ampersands, too. The show's up until the end of the month... come "AND" see it!
It's been a BUSY day: the new show "And, The Typeface" is up, magazine designing and proofing is in progress, store tidying, new books on the shelves and Deidre's off getting some First Thursday treats. Come on by from 4-9pm!
Tomorrow is the deadline for your art to be considered for the Bonfire article in the fall issue. We have already received some photography submissions, as well as a painting by Lisa Congdon and a print by Blair Kelly. I know there are plenty of Bonfire works-in-progress out there and look forward to seeing the results of this call for submissions. More details can be found here. (Email me if you have questions or need more time to finish your piece.)
Snoop on mail from the past! Send a vintage postcard to a friend. Create art from old; make and tell new stories.
Cover by Christy Batta
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UPPERCASE is a quarterly print magazine inspired by craft, design and illustration. A playful exploration of creativity, an affinity for vintage ephemera, and a love of handmade are some elements common in each issue. The magazine boasts high-quality paper and printing, a unique design aesthetic and incredible attention to detail.
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