A Plethora Of New Goodies

I got so many goodies for the gallery today that I wet my panties a little. The video above should give you a little glimpse of all the new fun toys. Some of the items are just restocking things that have sold out, but I also have some brand new products that have never been available in my shop before. Here's a little run down of the new goodies.


Masterpiece Marker by Molotow

Look at the crazy tip on that thing. You can make some pretty awesome calligraphic lettering with this marker.



The Stencil Cap

This cap attaches to the top of your spray can and allows for some ultra thin lines. It's pretty awesome. And it gets a little messy. It basically acts as a blockade. You still have the regular tip on the can so this stops a lot of the paint, allowing only some of the paint to go through the hole. So, all that extra paint is caught and pools up on the top of your can. It's not as bad as it sounds considering you will never get a thinner line with a can of paint.



Krink K-60 and K-66 markers

I've had both these pens in the shop before, but have been out of them for over a month. However, I have never had these colors available.



Awesome Red Sketchbooks

I've wanted to get sketchbooks in the gallery for a long time and I think these are great. For one, red is awesome. You don't always see red sketchbooks. And two, I'm a big fan of the elastic band to keep the cover closed. It reminds me of my trusty little moleskin I carry in my pocket.



On The Run Paint Pens

These are a favorite among the artists that come in the gallery, so I'm happy to have these new colors. Also, I've actually never had the pocket size paint pens before. They're dope.



Smash Ink

This is a great refill ink and this is the first time I've had baby blue available. I've also never had the big jar in the pink before, so that's cool. The small ones are 2.7 ounces and the big one is 8 ounces. This ink works great in the OTR Soultip and any of the other refillable OTR Pens. You can also refill your Krink Markers with it. It's awesome stuff. I've even used it with a paint brush on gallery pieces.



On The Run Graphic Twin Marker Sets

And yet another product I've wanted in the gallery for a long time. This pens are amazing. If you like prismacolor markers you'll love these. I have them available in a set of 12 or 24. Awesome colors. Great for pieces in your sketchbook. Also good for coloring in any drawings that you might frame. These are two sided markers, so you've got a fine tip point on one side and a broad chisel tip on the other.



Graffiti Documentary DVD's
A couple DVD's I've never had available before. I'm slowly building up a collection of art movies. Rock Fresh I've never seen, but I'll check it out in the next day or two. Style Wars, however, is a classic. If you only watch one graffiti movie in your life make it Style Wars. It's super awesome.

Gots To Vote by MNKR

My friends that run MNKR Clothing just released their newest shirt, "Gots To Vote". It's a very limited run, only 40 shirts were printed in total. I have been granted the honor of being the only store selling the shirts. If you are in or around San Luis Obispo CA you can come visit my shop and pick one up or you can buy them directly from the MNKR website. You won't see these shirts anywhere else.












New "GOTS TO VOTE" shirt by MNKR Clothing
Very Limited Edition - only 40 shirts printed
$25 each, available in Mens & Womens, sml, med, lrg, xl
available sizes are very limited so get yours now!



Sold exclusively at:
The Claassen Gallery
1118 Morro St
San Luis Obispo CA 93401

www.jeffclaassen.com
www.mnkr.com







Thanks for looking!
- Jeff

twitty twit twit

I just signed up on www.twitter.com. It seems like a nice quick and easy alternative to posting traditional blogs. If you're not familiar with it, check it. You sign in. You answer the simple question, "What are you doing?". Then you're done. If all your friends, family, and whoever else signs up then they can keep tabs on you. And you can track them too if you want to find out "what they are doing." So, feel free to twitter me, twitter.com/jeffclaassen. The site seems pretty pointless if nobody you know is on it too. All in all, you do get a small profile page which is yet another place to post your URL. Enjoy.

Late Night Doodling

Last night I totally geeked out and made this video of myself drawing with a Krink marker. I've been wanting to do a BIG drawing for awhile, so it was nice to finally do it. Also, I sell these markers in my shop and I've done little things with them in sketch books to test them out, but now I feel like I've "really" put it to use. I hope you enjoy.

The Amazing Service Of U.S. Postal

I'm amazed. The Postal Service (and I'm not talking about the indie rock band, whose website happens to be extremely annoying) amazes me. On close inspection of the above photo you can see that this mailing tube was stamped for delivery on February 5, 2008. You might also notice the lovely "air mail" stamp. And if you're super observant and have any experience at shipping anything outside of these great united states of ours than you'll have surely noticed the bar code of the "customs form". If you're sitting there wondering what's so gosh damned amazing about shipping overseas you'd be on the right track because that's not what amazes me. What does amaze me is that this mailing tube arrived at my gallery a couple of weeks ago. And here it is photographed exactly as it arrived.





That's right. It arrived in that condition. Yes, approximately seven months after I shipped it. Seven months! So, here's the story. I sell things on ebay (Sweet! I'm up to 154 feedback now). Shamless self promotional plug, I know.* Anyway, back in February I sold this screenprinted Sam Flores poster.





I mailed it off to a flat in London and that was that. Or was it? Sadly, it wasn't. An email arrived a week and half to two after I shipped it asking if the order has been shipped and when could it be expected. According to the trusty folks at USPS it should have arrived by that point, but (there's always a "but", isnt' there?) once a package arrives in another country it is out of our hands. "Our" referring to The US Postal Service (again not the band with the annoying website). Once a package arrives on foreign soil it is in their hands and we have no way of knowing what they do with it or how long they take to do whatever it is they do with it. Essentially, there is no way to track it. So, I asked my buyer to please be patient and explained the best I could that it might be another week or two. She was understanding and did wait patiently. After two weeks of waiting (this makes a total of four weeks since the package was shipped) the poster had still not arrived. This situation was very uncomfortable for me. I pride myself on over the top customer service, but given the risk involved when shipping internationally I felt I had done all that I could. There was no way to track the package, but I was able to offer the customer a scanned photo of the receipt as proof that I had indeed shipped the item. Sadly, the customer was out the price of the poster and the shipping cost. I felt bad. Very bad. But I also felt that I had done all that I could do. I said that already, didn't I? Well, I really felt bad. The customer was disappointed, but very understanding to our predicament. Fast forward seven months. THE PACKAGE ARRIVES AT MY SHOP. As damaged as the mailing tube was, as evidenced in the photos, the poster was undamaged inside. My thank you note, button, and stickers* that I include in shipments were also still in the mailing tube. It's amazing that all of that stayed in the tube given the fact that the protective cover on one side of the tube had completely disappeared. So, after all of this, I have the poster back and I was able to refund the customer for the poster. All is good in the world. I'm amazed. Thank you USPS.

The poster has now been framed and hangs happily as part of my current window display.







* Well, I actually do feel a little shame about that pesky self promotional ebay link. But not that much. And not enough to not post it again. See. http://stores.ebay.com/jeff-claassen-gallery.

** Don't hold me to that "stickers in every package" thing. Sometimes I tape up the package and then realize I forgot to include stickers. However, I usually do remember to at least toss in a button.

Nature's Wrath?

I came across this poor little innocent soul of a bird while walking back to the gallery after picking up my daily Orange Dream Machine from Jamba Juice, where, I might add, I no longer have to say my order because all the awesome employees now know what my smoothie of choice is. I switch my free boost on a whim (in case you're wondering I either go with "immunity", "daily vitamin", or "energy") so I still have to mention that, but most of the cashiers could pick for me and I'd have no complaints. Anyway, back to this gut spewing bird. At first I thought it was just your standard text book "nature's wrath" sort of thing. After some analysis I have formulated a completely new theory and one that I think is much more accurate. If this poor bird's life was taken due to the wrath of Mother Nature there should be nothing left of the bird. Nothing except a few scattered bones. If a predator, say a hungry cat, got hold of this bird they clearly would not have left all the meat. I can't imagine a cat or another bird predator killing for sport. Murdering just for the fun of it. Killing for killing's sake. And if that was the case you'd think the killer would take some sort of token trophy to proudly hang above their mantle. Like the bird's beak. Or the whole head for that matter. They would no way leave the entire carcass on the sidewalk to rot in the sun. Nope, this is tragic case of Intentional Bird Suicide. This poor little precious bird was not a kamikaze pilot either, if that's what you're thinking. This tender innocent little bird's final resting point happend to be right in front of a Barnes N Noble display window. So, my theory, which I feel can not be argued is that this frail good natured feathered hero of ours saw the enormous stack of "Story Telling" by Tori Spelling books on display in the window.





Sickened by the sight of all that wasted paper the little bird felt he could no longer go on living in this world.

Amen, birdie. I love you. May you rest in peace for all of eternity.

Against The Grain

I apologize about late notice for the show tonight. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it for the opening, but it will be an awesome show nonetheless. The theme for the show is "wood". Paintings on wood or incorporating wood somehow. Of course, when left to interpret the word "wood" you can only assume what some of these artists will come up with. Pun intended. Pervy jokes aside here are the paintings I'll have on display.



"Be My Wet Dream"




"It Makes Me Nervous To Say So"




"Farewell"




"Pick Your Fight"




"Make Music With Me"



To purchase please contact Alpha Cult at 562.432.9144
www.alphacult.com
408 E First St
Suite #102
Long Beach CA 90802

New Graff Board And New Addiction And They Are In No Way Related

It's that time again. I have a new fresh board up so come on in and help decorate it. Look at it. It's so nice and clean. Get dirty on it!



In other news, I'm currently addicted to Cold War Kids. Here's one of my favorites. We're talking, like on repeat for three days straight. It's that good.

New Envelopes

Right on, brothas and sistas!

Since starting up "The Envelope Art Project" again I have finally received the first two submissions. Check it. The first one was submitted by Raquel and mailed from Sanny Franny (gross term for San Francisco, huh?)






The second envelope was submitted by Peenloon and was mailed from Hollywood. Florida, that is.








Oh yes, I should mention something for all you future submitters. I do not have the time to photoshop out your return shipping address, so if you do not want your address on the internet I suggest not writing your return address on the envelope or simply write it on the back. Other than that, go nuts!

New Feed To Subscribe To. Please Update.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention in a previous post that I started a new feed for all of you that subscribe to this nonsensical gathering of gibberish gibber. Please update the feed to this new address, http://feeds.feedburner.com/jeffclaassen .

Thanks much and I'll try to post a better, more sexier, blog later.

G'night.
- Jeff

The Envelope Art Project

Awhile back I started this "Envelope Art Project" in which people would decorate an envelope and mail it to me. Every single one I received was featured on my website at the time. I eventually accumulated about 70 before I called it quits.

I've decided to start it up again. I set up a dedicated "photo set" on my flickr page to showcase the submitted envelopes.

You can send your artistically enhanced envelope to:

The Jeff Claassen Gallery
1118 Morro St
San Luis Obispo CA 93401

or to

Jeff Claassen
PO BOX 14157
San Luis Obispo CA 93406

If you would like to send more than one please do so. And feel free to include a website if you'd like me to add a link when I post your envelope. Also, for your envelope to be included it MUST be mailed. Do not drop off artwork at the gallery.

Thanks all! I'm anxious to see your envelopes.

Here are a couple examples for you to check out.









To see more please visit the flickr envelope set that I set up.

Two New Prints Available

First. There are two more days left of the Stenzskull show. The gallery will open from 2pm to 9pm today. Tomorrow hours will be 12pm to 9pm.

Second. I have two new prints available!


"Waiting To Be Plucked"
5.5" x 7.25", on wood with epoxy resin coating
$30 each
click photo or visit the shop for more info or to order.




"I Own This Town"
4" x 5.5", on wood with epoxy resin coating
$20 each
click photo or visit the shop for more info or to order.



And here's an installation shot of the two new prints.




That's it for now. As always, thanks for looking.

Cut & Paste Walk Through

I'm just messing around with the flip and did a little walk through of the Stenzskull show. This video is totally unedited. Well, I cut off about two seconds from the end of the shot, but that was it. It turned out a little grainy in parts, but I think that could be fixed if I saved the file in a different format.

The Joys Of Speed. Ball, That Is.

A couple of weeks ago I was at Nic's house and when there is india ink and paint brushes around it's useless to fight the urge to play. If you're a painter and you haven't messed around with india ink I highly recommend it. I started using it a year and a half ago and haven't turned back. The only time I use black acrylic paint now is if I need to fill in large sections or to paint the edges of paintings. Acrylic is just so clumpy and thick. Take a look at those little teeth on that face above. I could never do that with acrylic. Here's the stuff I've been using.



It's only two ounces, but a little bit goes a long way. After a year and a half of using this stuff I have never used a whole jar. The only reason I've had to buy it multiple times is because I end up spilling it all over myself. I've ruined at least two hoodies now and a couple of shirts. Anyway, you can find this at practically any art/craft store. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Blog Post #80

The last twelve hours of my life could best be described as "geek day 2008". Not only did I geek out more than usual, but I managed to check something off of my "to do" list that's been haunting me since the first time I ever posted in this blog. If you look to the right sidebar and scroll down a little you will now see a "subscribe" section with a list of links that will guide you to specific "readers". At least that's what I think they are called. Basically, if you read a lot of blogs and find it, for lack of a better term, a royal pain in the ass to visit each specific blog you can now visit one site and all the blogs you like to keep tabs on will show up on this one site. It will actually save you a lot of time. Of course, if you have been in this world of blogging for awhile you already know about these "readers". Anyway, since the inception of this site I have wanted to have a list of different places that my readers might use to see all the blogs they subscribe to. You should now be just one click away to subscribe to this here blogtastic masterpiece. I, myself, have been using www.bloglines.com since my interest in blogging has grown over the past six to nine months. Also, today I signed up on www.feedburner.com so that I can get a better idea of who's reading this gibberish nonsense. And if that isn't enough, I have been super addicted to my flip and iMovie all night. I am currently working on a little "movie" that I hope to post on here later today. And because I think blogs should be visually pleasing here is a photo of a goat.