I got the idea to do stenciled wine bottles from ReadyMade Magazine when I was trying to figure out what I would do for holiday gifts last year. The idea was doing letter stencils on cheap wine bottles after taking off the original label. These two were done for the two biggest wine lovers in my family (whose initials are on each bottle). Certainly they are more appealing than what comes on the bottle (Papyrus? Really!? Avatar!!).

This Saturday I will be showing artwork and playing music with Tiger Tank Euphoria at COME•UNITY hosted by {open} in Long Beach. This will also be Feed The Feeble’s EP release show. The event is free so come by for an evening with artists, designers, musicians and others. The event starts at 8pm, more info here.

On a side note, I took a little time to create the above poster for the event. You can see the alternate dark version here. Hope to see you out!

I am taking part in ISM’s Instant Gratification show at the Copro Gallery in Los Angeles which opens this Saturday, January 9th. 2000 Polaroids from over 200 artists will be on display from floor to ceiling and there will be live music throughout the night. After the show is over a jury will select a collection of these photos to go into a book that commemorates the event. Should be a great show! Especially for those who are still in love with the instant film medium.

The show opens at 7p and lasts until 11p.

Playlist Number 2 is here for your listening pleasure. A lot of this music has been played while I’m either A) driving around in my car, B) designing or, C) about to go to sleep for the night. Personal favorites at the moment are The Flaming Lips who’s entire album is killer even after listening to it for two months straight and Deastro who’s album Moondagger recently blew me out of my mind even though I’ve had it in my iTunes for a while. Of course acquiring it on vinyl helped to get intimately re-acquainted with it and I haven’t stopped listening since. And while we’re on the year’s best, I should point out the tracks by A Lull, Modest Mouse, Fever Ray, BEAK> and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (sorry Moderat, if I had gotten to you this year you’d for sure be here as well-I promise next time you’re in) all of which blew my mind in 2009.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Unmarked Vehicle (which means yours truly, Michael J.)…here are a few shots of this year’s cards, a pretty simple stencil/spray paint/marker combo.

2009 has been an incredible year! Let’s hope 2010 is all the better.

One thing I’ve always wanted in a website is to be able to share music. Consequently, this is the first time in the history of the internet that I am able to do so, and I’ve created Unmarked Playlist Number One. All of the music on this list is the stuff I listen to while I’m working, so I felt it was appropriate for the first. I will likely create a new one every one to two months and I’m not sure yet if they will stick with the “music while I work” theme or jump off into other directions. Either way I hope you enjoy the listen.

Hello and welcome to the new Unmarked Blog!

If you look at my old Blogspot site you’ll notice my last post is dated January 15, 2009…so much has happened since then that I’m just now getting around to having my new blog live! I’ve totally switched over to WordPress which gives me a huge palette to work with in terms of functionality and design. I was inspired by reading blogs like ISO50 and Graphic ExchanGE as well as friends like Ryan Myers aka 2twentysix who started using WordPress long before I did.

This blog (like my old one) will serve as a collection of writings on art, design, music, literature and any and all things related. I think it’s important for any designer or artist to be in the practice of writing about what informs you or inspires you or excites you about what you do. It may give you a sense of purpose but ultimately it makes you think a little harder about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. If you are able to articulate ideas (without over-intellectualizing them) for a group of people you’ve taken one step further in your practice and your profession. So, with that rant, this is another step in the process of what I do.

A couple of new features I’ve included are a playlist and a shows/events section. The playlist I’ve selected from some of the music I listen to while I work; there is much more where this came from and I hope to have a new playlist every month or two. The shows/events section includes any shows I’m playing or events I’m taking part in.

A huge THANK YOU goes out to Steve Coy for helping me get the blog up and running, without him I’d be lost in a mess of CSS and other code I’ll never quite understand (or have the desire to). You can see more of what Steve does at his site Post Modern Sublime.