The Mikeadelic Blog

Were Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Sat, 08 May 2010 17:58:00 +0000

MikeRzepka.com is officially online from now on! Woo Hoo! Everything is back to normal, yippee!

MikeRzepka.com is down for about a week...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:29:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

Right now I am transferring http://MikeRzepka.com to a new web host, and so the website and associated email address (info at mikerzepka dot com) will be down during the transition. If you have any questions please instead send them to: rzepkanut at gmail dot com.

New art...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:03:00 +0000

I just finished this design for a guy in Michigan. He is getting it tattooed on him soon. Also, stay tuned for this image to appear in my store printed on stickers and shirts.

Fun in Arizona!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Howdy Y'all! I drove through Sedona, AZ on the way to the Grand Canyon a week ago and I thought I would share some of it with you.

These pictures are from hiking into the canyon on the South Kaibab Trail.

There wasn't any snow below the first few hundred yards of the rim. The south rim has an elevation of around 6,000 ft. so the weather is different inside the canyon. It was nice to hike during the winter, because you don't get hot. Next time I go there I'm gonna bring a tent and camp. I feel like I haven't seen the canyon until I am at the river looking out.

..uhh...nevermind....

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:44:00 +0000

Hey y'all. So in my last post I spoke about being a tattoo apprentice at a shop in Loveland, CO. That's not happening anymore. It is definitely something I want to do, but right now it's not possible. I mean, the shop wanted me to be there full-time and not just not get paid, but pay them 150$ a month too. This would be cool if I could afford it, but right now, we are trying to get a place here in Colorado, and it is not financially possible. Oh well, maybe later. Besides, I think I can learn how to tattoo in other ways..maybe even faster than I would have been able to there. So anyways that's that.

Oh yeah, everyone cross their fingers, I interviewed for a graphic design job that I will be really, really, really great for. Its for a music company here in Colorado. I would be doing what I'm best at- designing stuff for bands like show posters, websites and merchandise. It's pretty much the job I always wanted. So think happy thoughts, and send me your positive energy! I'll tell everyone what happened when I know if I got it.

Padawan Learner Mike

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:59:00 +0000

Hey y'all!
So guess who's gonna learn how to tattoo people? You got it, after lots of 'waiting for the right time' to start an apprenticeship I found a shop that I am gonna start at. It's called Combat Ink and it's in Loveland, Colorado. For those of you who don't know, thats just a few miles south of Ft. Collins and under an hour north of Denver. I have a sneaky suspicion that I will either be living somewhere boring or commuting alot...or both! Speaking of which, we are still trying to settle down near Loveland, like in Longmont, if anyone has a cheap room for rent Contact Me!

So I have been working on a drawing I like alot. I thought I would give a sneak peek at it even though it isn't done yet. It's on 11"x 14" paper with black ball point pen.

I can't wait till I can tattoo people like this.

Gettin' weird in San Fran...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:14:00 +0000

Hey check out this video, I was at this event. It was kinda cool. You can see my art in the background a couple times and then half way through you see me sitting in my booth for like 2 seconds. Alex Grey was at the event, it was cool to meet him since he is one of my favorite artists.

New Drawing...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:02:00 +0000

Here is a commission project that I did for sculpture artist PR Miller.

Click Here to see a whole page I made about the project!

Coachella Weekend Holy Shit!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:58:00 +0000

I made these 2 videos last weekend.

Long Live the Beezer!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Hey everyone! It's been quite a while since my last entry here. I have been traveling around the west coast for the last 2 months. First we went to the Gem and Mineral show in Tucson, AZ and worked at a concert called Gem 'n Jam, which was pretty cool. Then we spent some time in Tempe, AZ with friends, and then came to Orange County to visit my dad for a while. For the last couple weeks I have been setting up my artwork to sell on the boardwalk at Venice Beach. It's pretty f'n sweet...it's like Shakedown all the time...and it's still not summer yet! Later today I am going to set up my art in LA for the 'Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk'.

As far as making art, I have been keeping busy. Last month I painted my dad's EZ-Up tent canopy with some designs for his 'Handmade Hearts' vending business. I also am re-doing his website, which is close to re-launching. I have also been working on 2 drawing commissions. One is a portrait/poster for Akron sculpture artist, PR Miller. Which is almost complete, and you can see it right here. The other is a t-shirt design for the electronic artist Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis). Which is not online for you to see right now, but it will be soon...I'm also contributing the art for a friend's band's next CD release. They are named Headpeace, and they rock. And with my remaining creative energy I have also been working on my next Facemelt sized drawing, which has a 'creation vs. creator' theme.

I'm really excited about the upcoming Dead tour, so far I only have tickets to see them at the Gorge Ampitheater in Washington state in May. I have never been that far in the northwest, so I am pretty stoked. Plus the Dead will be playing with the Allman Brothers Band that night! Anyways, I love you all.
-Mike

StumbleUpon is the best thing since Google....

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:13:00 +0000

Hey Gang!

Raise your hand if you ever sat in front of a blank browser window or search box, bored and unable to think of anything interesting to look at? Well if you install the StumbleUpon button on your browser you will never have that problem again. Its more addictive than cable (even with DVR), because it's interactive and catered to your interests. You tell it what kind of things you like and it shows you a random website you might like. It's endless, the day I installed it I didn't sleep that night.

...just one more click before bed....

But it doesn't stop there! If you people out there have have installed StumbleUpon goto my porfolio and give it a thumbs up. The more thumbs up I get the more people who will stumble my site! So tell everyone you know that's got it installed to do it.

Quick note, check out some amazing music I discovered recently. The band is named ROVO. It's 6 dudes from Japan. They are unbelievable, I can't wait to see them live.

Horray for America!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:33:00 +0000

Finally its over! All those damn political ads are off the tv. Also, I am thrilled about Obama. Its about time I felt proud to be American. I wonder how long it will be before we hate him like all the others. I mean, I actually believe he can make good things happen, I'm just skeptical of politicians in general.

The new South Park last night was hilarious. They must have made the episode in under 24 hours. South Park is my favorite show, it has fantastic writing and they can make shows fast enough to be about current events. Its great social commentary about current American culture. Watch the episode legally for free @ www.SouthParkStudios.com

I'm done talking about summer.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:12:00 +0000

I want to get this history lesson about my summer over with already. I've been thinking, why am I doing this blog anyway? Is anyone ever gonna care about what my favorite shows were this summer other than me? What should this blog be about anyway? I started it so I had somewhere to share ideas about random stuff and talk about my work, and it became a show diary. So whats so bad about that? I don't think anything, I just noticed that I had been thinking about this blog in a very narrow sense and I know I can do better. So from now on I am going to use this blog in new ways. Less diary and more ranting about stuff.

To still see videos I took from shows goto my new YouTube channel.

Rothbury & All Good

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:49:00 +0000

Hi everyone! This is a picture of me chillin under my umbrella at the main stage during Snoop Doggg at Rothbury. So, it turns out I'm not very good at finding time to update my blog. I mean I keep doing cool stuff, and not writing about it. So this is me playing catch up to the present. The month of July was a busy one for me, 5 festivals in 5 weeks. Rothbury, All Good, Camp Bisco, 10,000 Lakes, and Lollapalooza. The first and last ones were less work than play, but the 3 in the middle were not. I'm going to do a week by week recap, starting with the first festival of the month, Rothbury.

This was the first year for the Rothbury Music Festival, but it was nobody's first rodeo. Everyone showed up, and nobody was disappointed. The show was perfectly executed. I had a blast hanging out with friends and seeing great music. A highlight of the festival for me were the large public art installations. Carey Thompson had these intricate arches he made all over the place, but the coolest part was the Sherwood Forest. Whomever had the foresight to transform that relatively small wooded area into the most interesting place I've ever seen to hang out at a festival should get a Nobel prize. Tons of hammocks, trippy blacklight sculptures hanging everywhere, and lights mounted on the trees created an environment unlike any other. Everyone who attended the festival has a story about the forest. Here is a video I made of the forest.

My only real complaint is that the stages were a bit too far apart at Rothbury. It often took upwards of 15 minutes to commute between stages. This is too far. Combine that with a packed music schedule and overlapping sets and you have to make alot of tough decisions. Lots of walking at Rothbury. I didn't do any live paintings because I was too lazy to carry all my painting gear for the 30 minute trip from my car to the stages.

One really cool thing that happened...I got a backstage laminant from a friend who was working for the festival. Like a real one. It was discovered in a couch in Snoop Doggs dressing room after his crew left the festival. So I had all access, but honestly I didn't use it almost at all. I went backstage during the Black Keys, but that was just because I actually know them personally. (In the picture I am backstage, and you can see Dan playing over my right shoulder.) I thought it would be cool to say hello, and it was. They thought it was funny how I got backstage. And I used it to get into the VIP area to visit with the Nabors. But that was pretty much it. I mostly just hung out with friends out in the festival.

Next I went to the All Good Music Festival in Masontown, WV. This festival in particular has a special place in my heart for being the birthplace of the Superhero Costume Workshop. 2008 marks the third year All Good has hosted the SHCW, and it was the biggest and best one ever. Over 200 people participated in the workshop, and it was a blast! Check out the official Photo Album and see for yourself! I was even able to get a ticket for an assistant to help run it! I really love the SHCW, and what it does to people and social environments. And as with any carefully laid plan, it is very satisfying to see it work. Here is a video of it working.

All Good is just an awesome place to see music. The main stage and second stage both face the same hill so you never need to move, you can just chill. The hill is just steep enough to sit comfortably and see over the person in front of you. I have been there 4 times and it always stands out as one of my favorite festivals each summer. The hills are magic, there are times it is so foggy you can't see 10 feet. I did do some paintings during the show at night. You can see all the live paintings I have done so far in my portfolio.

Widespread Panic is the best jam band out there except for the Dead (and their side-bands). They were badass both at Rothbury and at All Good. Jimmy Herring is one of the best guitarists of all time. Seeing him perform is a gift. And to make it all even better, I was camped with some of my best friends and favorite people to goto festivals with. Overall it was one of my favorite festivals ever. Alot was probably because of the workshop, but I stand by my words.

This is a beautiful sunset I saw on Sunday evening at All Good after most people had left. It was funny..I noticed that with 80% of the people gone it still sounded like everyone was there, because the 20% who stayed for Sunday night were the loud mouthed party freaks.

So that's it for Rothbury and All Good. For now. Stay tuned...or don't...whatever..

Brawlarado and back again...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:18:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Long time no see...or maybe not...

So since my last entry I have been pretty busy. Between preparing for upcoming shows, working shows, cleaning my mom's old house, and doing freelance work for bands, I have barely had any time to do anything for me, like this blog.

I worked a show at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park a couple weeks ago. It was alot of fun, and pretty successful for business. I met some other vendors at the show, and I made a deal with one of them them to start selling posters out of their store in Ann Arbor, MI. So now the Foggy Bottom Bayou is the official Mikeadelic Art outlet of Ann Arbor. Pretty kewl. If any of you out there know of any other stores that would vibe with my work, point me in their direction!

Next I went to the Sonic Bloom Music Festival in Winter Park, CO. It was awesome. It was pretty much a rave with 2000 people at a ski resort. Sick. Lots of great music and art. There were people doing paintings by or on the stage all day and night. Sporque, Zilla, Glitch Mob, Bassnectar, Prang, & Eoto were the music highlights for me. Andrew Jones was there doing live digital art, which was also a highlight for me (he is one of my favorite digital artists). It was great to meet him and see how he makes his work. All the visuals at the show were tight. Jacobeye did a super job decking the place out with projectors and lasers. Check out this video of Glitch Mob to see what I mean. Sorry the audio sucks.

Winter Park is beautiful. The base elevation there is 9000 feet above sea level. My good friend Steve from Kent was my travel buddy. We had a blasty-blast. There was snow on the mountains still. I got to visit an my friend Zack in Boulder, CO on the way there and on the way home we saw Red Rocks and got to visit my Aunt Rochelle and Uncle Duke in Quincy, IL.
Also this was the first time that I have done a painting at a show. Live painting is something I have been wanting to get into, but it took a while for me to get the the guts to just go do it. I dont know why I was apprehensive, but it was lots of fun once I got going. The painting I did is right above this paragraph. So expect to see at least one more of these from each big show I goto from now on. I am going to be at a show almost each weekend until September, so by the end of the summer I should have a decent series of acrylic paintings going. I also met some really amazing people from Seattle (Marissa and John) and they made me the sweetest hat ever.

So have you noticed I have started adding pictures and video to my blog? Guess who has a decent digital camera finally? Yeah, it's me. And not a moment too soon...too many words without pictures makes me uneasy. Now you can actually see what I'm talking about.

So what's next for me? Well this month looks like this: Rothbury, All Good, Camp Bisco, 10KLF, and I'm just going to Lollapalooza as a normal patron. I have been looking foreward to this month all year. I am incredibly psyched...see you soon!

Summer is finally here!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:32:00 +0000

Horray for summer! Finally I get to travel. Pretty soon.

Last weekend I went to the Summer Camp Music festival in Chillicothe, Illinois. It was super awesome. I got to see lots of awesome music and lots of awesome friends. The highlight performances were (not in any order): Girl Talk, Dub Trio, The Roots, The Flaming Lips, moe, Umphrey's McGee, George Clinton & Parliament, and Dumpstaphunk. The guitarist for The Roots is amazing. They played Machine Gun by Hendrix, and it was a shred-fest.

However, the absolute coolest thing about my experience at the festival was that I got to hang out with Gregg Gillis (Girl Talk) and his crew a whole bunch, and go back stage and watch shows with them. We went to college at the same time, right near each other, so we have some common friends. Being on stage for the whole Flaming Lips show was one of the most memorable moments I've had at a show. And, when they left the festival on Saturday night, I got to have one of their backstage passes! (I love you Johnny) So I was allowed to go pretty much anywhere after that. Plus there is lots of free beer back stage. Pretty cool.

And, it gets even better! I'm almost done with my first t-shirt design for Gregg. We have been talking about me designing some merch for him for a while now, and I'm finally almost done with the first design. I'm pretty happy with it so far, we'll see how it turns out. All I know is that I'm thrilled to be working for a musician whose music I like so much. I was a big fan of his music before we met, so it's pretty effin' exciting.

Right now three different companies are printing me new merchandise for this season. I have books, new posters, shirts, and hoodies all being made for me before I leave town on Wednesday. So that's pretty exciting too...this time of year is like this. You have to plan and prepare for months to be ready for a whole summer. So stay tuned for all that new gear to hit my online store as soon as I can photograph it and add it all to my website.

Well, thats all for now. I hope to see you all on the road!

Happy Momma

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:42:00 +0000

IMG_0120
Originally uploaded by rzepkanut

BFA stands for "Begin Freedom At once"

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:56:00 +0000

Horray For Me! I Did It! I actually got through college. And it only took 8 years. I had joked my little sister Leora would graduate before me once, but no more. Well, I guess since I still have to walk the stage I have not graduated yet. But, graduation is on May 17th at 3pm, so after that I will be totally done. I'll post pictures of my BFA space later tonight, so stay tuned.

It was a great experience to come back and finish properly (I quit with one semester left in 2005...thats another story). It feels weird, like surreal. I had already come to terms with the idea that I probably wouldn't ever graduate college (I know I had only one semester left, but its an expensive school). So now returning & finishing it all in one semester after such a long hiatus, made it seem to go by very fast. I'm just please with how it all worked out. Going out in the world to get some perspective is something I think a lot of students' college education would benefit from.

So, now what?

Well, I'm glad you asked. First I am moving all my stuff out of my mom's old house once and for all and putting it into storage. Then, I'm gonna do that to my apartment, so I can live in my car for a while but not throw away everything. Then, I am planning on going to festivals and traveling around the country for as long as possible. My summer has yet to be completely nailed down, but so far I know I am gonna have my vending booth set-up at the 10,000 Lakes Festival, All Good Festival, and Camp Bisco.

I hope to see you all out there!
'till next time,
-Mike

Stickman Lightsaber Duel

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:43:00 +0000

This was a homework assignment. I only had to have blocked keyframes for the class, but I think I'm gonna go ahead and make the animation fluid. Stay tuned.

Facemelt Books & Handmade Hearts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:27:00 +0000

I got all 111 (thats one hundred and eleven) iterations of Facemelt printed in a book. It is possibly the sweetest thing I ever made. I think Facemelt is my best piece so far, and this takes it to a whole other level. You can really sit and study it and see how each small area evolved.

Its printed on 8.5"x11" card stock, on both sides of all 111 pages. It can be spiral bound so you can open it all the way or tightly bound so you can see it faster like a flip-book. The book weighs over 3 pounds and is 1.25" thick. I never thought it would be this big and heavy.

The moment I held one I knew I had to start making lots of them. They will be available for purchase in my store by the end of the day.

The next thing I wanna mention is the website I have been working on for my dad.This here is a screenshot of his old one. It hurts every part of my being to look at it. I wanted to archive it for educational purposes though.

So, anyways I am helping him to make a new one. The address is:
http://www.handmadehearts.com

As always I would love to hear any comments.

Meditative Mandala

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:57:00 +0000

Facemelt Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:11:00 +0000

So, I finally got somewhere with my Facemelt Video project.

I drew Facemelt on my computer with Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom tablet. When I was working on it, I would save as a new file every hour or two (...or five there was no consistency). I recently began converting all the working files I made (facemelt01.psd, facemelt02.psd, etc..) into small .jpgs so they could be easily viewed.

Then I found the sweetest program, it's called: JetPhoto Studio. It's for Mac and Windows. I am still running OSX 10.3.9(don't ask), and alot of new software won't run on my machine nowadays. So, it was nice to find good freeware that I could run. And it works so damn well! It takes a folder of images and makes flash slideshows out of them, or makes an html gallery page with thumbnail views and everything. It makes so much tedious stuff, really fast and easy to do.

So here are links to see the video. They are all Flash Movies(.swf):
Small - (320x240) - 5.2 MB
Medium -(480x560) - 11.4 MB
Large - (640x480) - 19.9 MB

Updated:
Now I have a sweet flash program that animates them and lets you go through them one at a time. It's right here.
Facemelt Evolution Flash

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think.
-Mike

...oh well, it was cool...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:49:00 +0000

Hey internet!

My blog from last year is gone, I switched to a new blog site (this one). The old one started getting spammed hardcore, the comments kept filling up with dozens of ads. And I forgot the admin info so I couldn't fix anything. So now I use blogger, which is from google. I think it will be better now.

So get ready for this summer! If last summer was any indicator it's gonna be one hell of an adventure!

YouTube is friggin' sweet.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:02:00 +0000

So I uploaded my videos to YouTube last night. There are 4 of them. I did them a few years ago for a video class I had. I wanted to upload them to YouTube a while ago, but never got around to it for some reason. Who cares why, its in the past. In this first 24 hours my video of Wind-Up Toys Attacking Homies has been played over 100 times! Pretty cool. I'm just stoked that people are watching it. Maybe some of them will come to my website because of it, that would be super cool.

Now I wanna make a new video. I'm gonna for sure. I don't know what about, but its happening. YouTube is so cool.

New Website & Festival Schedule!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Rzepka) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:19:00 +0000

Hello World! Welcome to my blog. I decided to make one, because sometimes I want to rant. No promises on how often, but I promise it will happen from time to time. I'm gonna try not to suck at this.

So you probably saw my new site if you are reading this. I'm super excited. It took only one week to put together, I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. The old one was only online for almost 2 years and I feel I outgrew it long ago. The impetus for the renovation was actually school, I am in a web design class. However I did take the class assuming I could do this project for it. Anyways, it was an entertaining learning experience.

Festival season is right around the corner.
Its time to get organized. Actually that time has started a while ago. Now its like the last chance for organization. This is a list of some of the festivals I am trying to go to this year:

5/23-25 - Chillicothe, IL - Summer Camp
6/7 - Baltimore, MD - Starscape
6/12-15 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
6/18-21 - Winter Park, CO - Sonic Bloom
7/3-6 - Rothbury, MI - Rothbury
7/11-13 - Morgantown, WV - All Good
7/17-19 - Mariahville, NY - Camp Bisco
7/23-26 - Detroit Lakes, MN - 10,000 Lakes
8/25-9/1 - Black Rock City, NV - Burning Man

I haven't been to Burning Man yet, I'm very excited. It's gonna be a great year. Well, I'm gonna work on a drawing for the rest of the day.

Thanks, you are awesome.
-Mike