Originally published on Mar 27, 2022
Live from Oakland, CA
[pop up photo]
Cypress was invited to show prints at its first ever, in-person pop up event hosted by Caffe 817 this month. It was a cloudless, beautiful Saturday in Old Oakland — the perfect environment to be surrounded by friends, artists, and art lovers. Huge thanks to everyone who came to hang out, pick up some prints and stickers, and buy me some pizza.
And big shoutout to MUSA for bringing this, and many other events like it, to life. Cypress is now an exhibiting artist with MUSA, who coordinates with venues and artists to bring local art to community spaces. They go out of their way to promote and validate local art makers. They’re good people, check them out.
[instagram posts]
The other big surprise to me was the amount of pieces Cypress had to display. Responding yes to the invite email was a bit of an excited impulse. I genuinely wasn’t sure that I had anything to show. But as I pulled prints from the archive to seal up in sleeves, the stack just kept growing.
I’ll be honest with you, it’s still hard for me to consider myself a printmaker. But seeing everything laid out and ready to be shown was a pretty cool moment. I hadn’t seen all of those hours poured into linoleum blocks laid out as a single body of work before.
[gathering art photo]
And of course, the trinkets. The latest Cypress fun has come in the form of stickers, keychains, postcards, and other surprises to come. So packaging those up and absolutely destroying my thumbnail to add rings to a bunch of keychains suddenly made Cypress Design Co. feel like a real brand.
[sticker packs photo]
Seeing people in person was a ton of fun. I’ll continue to find ways to do it. And in the meantime, if you’re in the Bay Area and have any fun ideas, send them my way.
Featured work
[Night]
Apparently I’ve never featured this print. But a friend picked it out of the pile on the table and it reminded me of impulsively printing it after a weekend camping trip with some dear friends. Sometimes it’s the simple pieces that give me the most joy 🙂
Playing in the studio
A recent Twitter thread got my thinking of my go-to artist when I need endless hours of focus music. A common suggestion in the thread was Kaytranada. And while of course that’s a favorite of mine, he also falls into the camp of artists that I’m so afraid to overplay that I’m constantly seeking similar sounds to.
Enter Austin Millz. This man is coming out of Harlem with some strong waves. He’s making the rounds on TikTok with some truly iconic remixes (that can be found on his Soundcloud) and with appearances at the LiveOne Breakout Awards. And he’s got music on Spotify that you can slip into your focus and party playlists. Listen to him; keep an eye on him.
If you’re interested in commissions or collaborating on an original piece together, reply to this email and we’ll start the conversation!