At the Women 2.0 co-working afternoon last weekend Willo O’Brien introduced me to Vince Pacheco’s work, and it’s been a challenge to remove it from my browser ever since. The local collector’s stack of cheesecake, kitsch and classic country records were becoming too much to deal with when, along with his crafty girlfriend/handbag designer Nicole Vasbinder, he started turning them into spiral journals. After receiving positive feedback during his first craft season, Pacheco, who sells his wares on Etsy’s Vinyl Frontier, now searches thrift stores for materials after burning through his personal collection.
Journals featuring popular artists and musicals go quickly (including Dolly Parton, Sound of Music, and the Beatles), although there are requests of all kinds (Steely Dan and Barbara Mandrell among them). The frontier man doesn’t only rescue and reuse board games and library books—many of his journals contain recycled paper and all can be sent back and refilled for a small fee.
The lovely new website celebrating New York-based artist Mira Nameth’s creations covers a broad range of illustrations and images broken down by prints, commercial, personal, fashion, vector, and hand drawn work. (And you thought you had a lot on your to do list.) In addition to Rorscharch flowers and “florafauna” commissions for Coke, Nameth’s imaginative contributions include charcoal-colored dresses with shoulder and chest armor (armor being the operative word—many of the details on the clothing are actually created with silk folds). The rust and deep gold colors of her new clothing line reflects her admitted “restrained, or at least concise, color palette.”
When asked to reflect on why she’s passionate about her work across mediums and continents, Nameth said that one reason is the visual aspect of illustration and design. “A lot of the work feels sculptural and flat at the same time to me, and crafting that is very fulfilling.” On illustration, she said, “I like to surprise the person looking at a piece with something a bit unexpected, like the wing growing out of the multi-species plant or the peacock, where I wanted to create a new kind of peacock drawing with elements integrated into the tail.”
Meeting artist and self-proclaimed “geekyfantastic” entrepreneur Willo O’Brien at today’s Women 2.0 co-working day quickly became a proclamation of phases that started with “I like your”…angel wing earrings (she makes them by hand), “Eat. Sleep. Rock. Repeat.” t-shirt (she sells them on the WilloToons online shop, laptop bag (reviewed in one of her recent blog posts, et al. The local illustrator and graphic designer said she was tired of making pretty things for other people and wanted to put her creativity and illustrations into her own products when she opened up shop two years ago. Using expressions she and her friends followed with “we need to put this on a T-shirt,” O’Brien’s baby onesies and adult T-shirts featuring octopi and rocker squirrels have been a hit.
O’Brien, who recently sat on a South By Southwest panel about “Snappy Strategies for Selling your Art & Crafts Online,” opened a site for first-time business people kicking off their e-commerce efforts. I admired her ability at the co-working event (which was well-attended by smart cookies) to give off-the-cuff business advice in addition to music recommendations–Thao & the Get Down Stay Down and Starf*&^r are new additions to my list.
Facing many of the same issues that are confronting cultural and arts organizations the country over (aging audiences and decreased interest in ticket purchases during a recession among them), I’m impressed to see the San Francisco Ballet introduce a slew of great programs to build community interest. The Fridays at the Ballet evening performances aimed at young professionals and the Nite Out series for members of the LGBT community start with pre-show talks with choreographers and company members and close with cocktails at the War Memorial Opera House. The evening presentation of three brief works for $50 or $60 ensure that even if you don’t love one of the pieces, you and your friends are bound to find something that makes you want to do fouettés all the way home.
I’m excited about that the work the Ballet is doing not just because the theater is classic, the costumes and dancers are stunning, and I have repressed dance fantasies (fill disclosure: I never moved up from the part of rat in the Toledo Ballet’s Nutcracker, but I’m trying not to think about that too much anymore). I admire their efforts to reach students and educators with discounted ticket sales and their creation of multimedia content distributed via the SF Ballet YouTube channel and a dancer-contributed blog. I was surprised when one of the principal ballerinas started following me on Twitter after the Friday night performance I attended. Between the focused programming and regular online content updates, arts organizations the city (and country) over should take note.
Tomorrow marks the second international Support Women Artists Now (SWAN) day, a commemoration and series of celebrations to raise visibility for women artists around the world. Whether you’re in Austin, Jerusalem, or Nairobi, there are a series of events from jazz fests to Girls Write Now Days that you can find on the SWAN Day online map. The project, which was started by San Francisco’s collaborative network Fund for Women Artists, also has a local partnership with the upcoming SF Women’s Film Festival to highlight filmmakers behind and in front of the camera.
Thanks for the great submissions to my “send an entertaining link, go to Web 2.0 Expo” contest. I’m happy to announce that Gwen Bell of Kirtsy community, Chicks Who Click conference and Denver fame has won with her video of a flight attendant rapping. More content to come from next week’s conference, although no promises on it being of the musical variety.
Also, I’ve switched hosts to the locally-based Laughing Squid–please let me know if you notice any changes that don’t suit your fancy. With a tagline like “art, culture and technology from San Francisco and beyond” that hits on four of my favorite things, I couldn’t resist enlisting their services. And the fact that they called me (yes, on the phone, after they were closed for the day) to answer a question I had really sold me.
Smiles are sure to abound for SF audiences of Playing for Change as the musical extravaganza goes on tour this week with stops in LA, Seattle and New York. The multimedia, artist-driven effort is working to promote peace and music education through collaboration and live performances of world music. You can take in the tunes, including a rather irresistible rendition of “Stand By Me,” at Slim’s tonight. Should you miss the opportunity to see Grandpa Elliott, Mohammed Alidu, Jason Tamba of Afro Fiesta, and their counterparts performing together live for the first time, the film looks to be a promising second best (after showing at Tribeca, it won best song at the Roxbury Film Festival–no surprise there).
If, like me, a Marketplace Money daily listener, you’re seeking solace from news about buyouts and our tanking economy, look no further than the Recess Sessions. A project by the Morgans Hotel Group, the “series of videos that seek to capture the creative spirit and collaboration that drives independent musicians and filmmakers” shows artists performing on site at Morgans properties in New York, London and LA.
Local filmmaker Susan Stern tipped me off to “Che: A Graphic Biography,” a recently published book by her cartoonist husband Spain Rodriguez. While Steven Soderbergh’s film “Che: Part One” has gotten mixed reviews on the festival circuit, the biography is one piece of media that provides an indisputably great snapshot of the Argentine Marxist revolutionary’s life and death.
Rodriguez, one of the original members of Zap Comics with Robert Crumb, lovingly illustrates the life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara in the tradition of underground political comics. You’ll find details on parts of his life you’ve heard about (Latin American motorcycle adventures, leadership in Fidel Castro’s revolutionary movement) and many you haven’t (severe bouts of asthma, extensive African travels).
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the San Francisco Women’s Film Festival, the annual Bay Area celebration of recent contributions to documentary, LGBT, and dramatic film. Participants of the fifth annual festival will no longer just be audience members with the introduction of Indie-Fest, the recently opening online screening competition sponsored by the film forum and marketplace IndieFlix. While the festival begins on the 1st of April, voting is open for five shorts until the end of the month and the winner will screen at SFWFF. Characters in the shorts include a soldier going AWOL in the Iraqi desert, a child dressed as the Hindu god Ganesh, and exotic parrots (why not?).
Scarlett Shepard, founder of the festival and the Women’s Film Institute, said that “between the Festival, the Internet and audience engagement, this is a great platform for people around the globe to see great indie films made by women.”
When asked to reflect on why she’s passionate about her work across mediums and continents, Nameth said that one reason is the visual aspect of illustration and design. “A lot of the work feels sculptural and flat at the same time to me, and crafting that is very fulfilling.” On illustration, she said, “I like to surprise the person looking at a piece with something a bit unexpected, like the wing growing out of the 
Meeting artist and self-proclaimed “geekyfantastic” entrepreneur Willo O’Brien at today’s 
Local filmmaker 
Scarlett Shepard, founder of the festival and the Women’s Film Institute, said that “between the Festival, the Internet and audience engagement, this is a great platform for people around the globe to see great indie films made by women.”