Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Artist's Guide Books

A couple of books turned up in the mail that you NEED to get. The Artist's Guide is a series of books (they're up to 2) that have been assembled by Matt Cassity & Sam Spratlin, with each book centered around topics such as "Making Money" (Vol.1) and "Dressing Fancy" (Vol.2). What's this have to do with DBA? Joe from Coin Under Tongue wrote some shit in them, that's what. But are these books worth buying? Hail yeah, because the prices have been drastically cut for today's economy, and the art in them alone is worth buying, particularly if you're an acid dealer looking for some blotter. These books are great to leave laying around so your sister visiting from out of town has something to flip through while she's waiting for you to wake up. Or for your dinner guests to peruse while you're frying fish. Those old issues of New York and The Believer are OK but a bit ordinary-  don't we need something special? C'mon, how easy would it be to just click "Buy Now" and then how cool would it be when a week later it shows up unexpectedly? This one girl did drawings of her credit card bills in here, right down to the fine print- she is fucked!
got to the site here: http://www.theartistsguide.net/ Although the focus of these books is the artwork (the art above is from Gunsho), here's a sample- Joe's small essay entitled, 
"STARS, HEARTS, BUTTERFLIES, FLOWERS"
"So you think you might want to work as a graphic artist in the fashion industry, huh? You're going to set the runway on fire with your unique style, inspiring a brand label of your own that will reflect the years you've spent cultivating your visual pallette? Chances are you'll be making graphics for girls because they buy more clothes, so let me let you in on a secret. If a true genius made the greatest clip art book specifically for girls' fashion graphics (and some try) the spine would read like Led Zeppelin IV, but instead of the Zoso symbols it would read: STAR, HEART, BUTTERFLY, FLOWER. If they made a Lucky Charms cereal specifically for girls, the moon and clover would have to go.
I know what you're thinking, "But how about a cute little bird? I like owls!" No, start cruising Craigslist now because you just lost your job. Like sticking your head inches from the flames of creative hell, I've held a straight face to many a fashion director as they've unveiled their fashion forecast revelations, such as "You know what's hot this year? Flowers!" Wow, you mean like those pretty plants that have symbolized beauty since the beginning of time!? Are you sure it's not those insects that metamorphisize from grotesque worms into magical winged creatures, like a metaphor for women coming of age? I don't know, I've been seeing a lot of suns from other galaxies out there, like every night, shining bright, reminding us what to shoot for- are you sure it's not those things?"