Sun Bridge

Finally! A new post! Sorry for the lapse, but I'm still here. Lots going on 'round here, both art and music-wise. Here, we have the poster for Sadhu Sadhu's "Sun Bridge" tour. It's being screened as we speak by local artist Josh Davis and was designed by myself. Also in the works is the Sadhu Sadhu "Live at the Hideout" LP/Cassette release, which is also on its way to press. More on all this soon. For now, enjoy the poster design and the Cassette cover! More soon!

Sadhu Sadhu Tonight at Beat Kitchen!!

"The Temple of the Moon..." collage by David Thomas

After a string of great loft shows throughout the city, my band Sadhu Sadhu is proud to play our first bonafide venue! We'll be playing this evening at 9:30 at the Beat Kitchen (773- 281 - 4444

2100 W. Belmont Chicago, IL 60618) with local high energy garage lords Vee Dee. I designed a poster, and with printig help from my good buddy Meng Yang of Support Your Local Industries and Spudnik Press, I'm totally stoked to present the design here!

Lots going on in the area of music for me. We've got some great shows lined up for the future. Check out our myspace page for more info (myspace.com/sadhusadhu)!

Also, in art news, my good friend David Thomas recently had a stellar opening for his amazing collage work in Andersonville. Anyone interested (and I highly, highly recommend it) should visit his Conjuring Mythologies site: http://home.comcast.net/~conjuringmythologies/site/

Come Support!

Until the next entry...

Sadhu Sadhu Live!

Just completed the poster design for my band, Sadhu Sadhu's first show! We'll be playing with ambient experimentalist Expo '70 and Bitchin' Bajas featuring members of Cave. Come check us out, we'd be happy to have you!

Saturday May, 9th at The Electric Company in French
1318 W Cermak Ave.

Arabs

"Arabs" graphite on paper

Good Jams

Magic Lantern "High Beams"

Lee 'Scratch' Perry "Arkology"

GHQ "Crystal Healing"

Grinderman "S/T"

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Tender Prey"

Total Life Paintings

"A Mason in Ur" 13.5"x18 earth pigment, natural dye, india ink on raw canvas

"Phase 2 (incomplete)" 30"x36" earth pigment, natural dye, india ink on raw canvas

"Phaedra" 30"x36" earth pigment, natural dye, india ink on raw canvas

Here I've posted the progression of my "Total Life" series (yes, it's still happening!). I have a few more of the paintings to complete. The paintings will be framed with some recycled barn wood in order to maintain the sustainable/natural quality of the pieces. I'll post some better pictures as soon as I finish the series and as soon as they're framed!

Ohyama View, June 2001

"Ohyama View, June 2001" graphite

This sketch is taken from a photo I took while travelling Japan with my class back in high school. It was one of the most significant events in my life, and helped to mold and shape my appreciation for travel, art, music, nature and world customs. This particular image is taken atop Ohyama (meaning great mountain). I took a day trip to the mountain which lies about 2 hours from Tokyo near the coast. I was accompanied by my host parents on a beautiful summer day. They explained (as best they could with their limited English vocabulary) the significance of the shrines and imagery along the way to the top of the mount. This is a rather limited view of what I saw when I reached the top, including a few temples and various shrines. Breathtaking.

Holy Hash

"Hashishians" ink pen

Record Store Day 2009

Here are some poster designs I've completed for Record Store Day 2009 in conjunction with Chicago Independent Distribution (formerly Southern Records) and Black Moth Super Rainbow. Enjoy! Come out and support your local record shoppe on April 18th!

Chalky

"Grab a Growler" sidewalk chalk on sandwich board

"March Madness Leprechaun" sidewalk chalk on wall

Here we have a few pieces I recently finished at my work, Piece Pizzeria and Brewery. My manager asked me to come up with something "cheesy" to put in the hallway of the carry out area where I work. People generally like to stand and stare right at us while they're waiting for their pizza, which is, as you might expect, distracting. The problem was solved with a few new fancy benches put right in the hallway near the front door. This allows patrons to relax while remaining at a reasonable distance from the counter. The results for the chalkboard inviting guests to sit and wait were a cheesy poem and a "groovy" growler image.

I also was asked to redo the mural behind the counter. Sidewalk chalk is a tough medium (lots of smearing and crumbling), but I thought the end product came out well and everyone at the shop was happy and excited. This one was to celebrate spring as well as the arrival of basketball season, which I could really care less about.

Neil

"Neil & King" burnt sienna earth pigment and water.

An homage to my favorite musician of all time, Neil Young. I've taken the image from the inside gatefold of "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere". I believe the puppy in the picture to be Neil's dog, King, but I can't be certain. He references the dog again on his 1992 album "Harvest Moon" with the song "Old King". Not my favorite song of his, but it is a touching reminiscence about the bond between a man and his dog. Thus, the drawings title.

The Rosicrucians

"The Rosicrucians" ink, watercolor, gold paint

The cross of the Rosicrucians, a mystic sect of mediaeval Germany. They "held a doctrine 'built on esoteric truths of the ancient past', which, 'concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm. '" I got the imagery from watching Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain, one of my favorite movies. In the scene where the master is showing his disciples examples of holy mountains throughout the world, he describes the 9 immortal mystics of Rosicrucianism assembling atop their sacred peak.

Concept sketches for "Total Life"

A series of mixed media sketches meant to symbolize a forgotten language. It would have been used by primitive peoples as a means to record their hallucinatory experiences during their nature worship rituals which would include usage of naturally occurring psychedelic substances.

Good Jams

I'm going to see Throbbing Gristle when they come to Chicago in April. Really looking forward to the show! They'll be playing two shows (one at 7PM and one at 10PM) at a church called Epiphany Episcopal. Should be a once in a lifetime performance as well as a truly religious experience. They haven't played Chicago since 1981!

I was also really excited to see that Midwestern US electronic/drone trio Emeralds are opening for them. If you haven't heard them check 'em out here. They're kind of the torchbearers for the legacy of experimental electronic music that TG helped create. From Cleveland too, of all places! Love that city!

Also in the mix, some extremely unnerving and darkly evocative ambient music from Norway (one of my other favorite places) ala Svarte Greiner, one half of the dark ambient duo Deaf Center. I can honestly say I've never heard anything quite like this album with its exquisite textures and emotionally devastating sonic landscapes created from cellos, female vcals, field recordings, and assorted ephemera. Also, another real eye-opener, a great Portuguese psych/dub troupe called Gala Drop. Got turned on to these guys by Six Organs' Ben Chasny. Yet another group of newbies culling electronic sounds and inspiration from the deeply influential waters of Throbbing Gristle.

TG in their Heyday circa 1980

Svarte Greiner-Knive

Emeralds-Solar Bridge

Gala Drop-S/T

Better News

So I finally got my shit together and created a pedal board for all my guitar effects. I figured since I'm actually playing in a real live band, I should do myself a favor and have somethin' nice and reliable. Thanks to Jim for lending me some supplies and a few pedals too! I've actually got a pretty nice setup and I'm happy with the results. Got the quintessential psychedelic implements: Morley Bad Horsie Wah, ZVEX Fuzz Factory, Danelectro Fab Tone, T.C. Electronics XII B/K Programmable Phaser, Ibanez Soundtank Digital Delay, and a Boss RC-20 XL Loop Station. Got it running through Jim's Voodoo Lab 2 Plus Power Pedal supply. Nice!

No band name yet, although we'll be voting on one this Sunday, very diplomatic!

Bad News

Tragic! I lost my newest sketchbook that houses some of my more recent ideas, writing, etc. This is very important to me and if anyone who reads this blog lives in the Chicago area and has any info on the whereabouts of it please let me know.

I last saw the sketchbook at my house before I left to go to the Green Eye Lounge (Western and Homer) in Bucktown on Saturday Feb. 7. I put it in my coat pocket and rode my bike to meet my fiance and a friend at the Green Eye. Shortly afterwords I rode to Goose Island in Wrigleyville to catch a friends' band. I took Armitage to Damen to Roscoe to Clark as my bike path to get to Goose Island.

It's a small black Moleskine sketchbook held closed with an elastic band. It contains 2 of my business cards as well as a few loose pages of notes. If you have any information please e-mail me at johnnydeckermiller@gmail.com. All of my contact information is contained on the business cards.

Support Your Local Industries

Support Your Local Industries is a Chicago-based T-shirt company run exclusively by my good friend Meng Yang. Meng is an extraordinary designer and in the past year has developed his company with the intention of ,well, supporting local businesses, albeit with a particularly creative bent. Check it out here and support!

SYL sells shirts designed by Meng and come packaged in beautiful silkscreened posters on craft paper designed by local artists. Meng recently approached me to do the next batch of posters.

Below, I've uploaded some rough mock-up images of my idea for the art. It'll be screened at Spudnik press here in the city on 24"x24" brown craft paper. Hopefully, I'll be able to do 2 variations, one with orange text and one with green.There's a link to the previous poster here, by Angee Lennard. More info to come soon.

Newest Sketches

Alan Moore "Magician"-Ink Pen

Rain Coat-Pencil & Whiteout

New "Total Life" sketches

Some Things

"Kangling" - A Tibetan trumpet made from a human thighbone. Collection of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. Ink pen

"Gary Higgins, Thicker Than a Smokey" - Watercolor

Total Life

Recent Utterances

"Effects Pedal & Amplifier Setup" - ink pen

"The Alchemist" - ink pens

Good Jams:

Current 93 - "Earth Covers Earth" 1988

Tangerine Dream - "Phaedra" 1973

Hawkwind - "Space Ritual" 1972

Throbbing Gristle - "the First Annual Report" 1979