Making your life better by the second.
It’s Friday and I don’t feel like writing anything poignant today. Instead, heres a picture. It’s of new line of four shirts I created for Bambino clothing. I like when I finish big projects like this because:
A: Its nice to finish a big project and relax for a second
B: I have a new portfolio piece
3: I get that sweet cash
So yea. Have a good weekend.
Here’s another hot tip from my brain I’m sharing w/ all you hard working freelancers out there.
It seems in my research, I’ve discovered you’ll do better with people if you actually talk to them over the phone versus busting them a fly email. Now, of course, face to face is the best medicine, but this tip applies to when it’s impossi-bull to meet them in real life.
The best way to go about this is to simply offer to call them to discuss business. Just let them know it’d be easier to discuss matters over the phone and ask for their number. You can offer yours and ask them to call you, but research shows (my research) that they’ll almost never call. BUT, they will answer when you call them.
It seems like common knowledge, but it took over a year for an idiot like me to realize this so I thought I’d share.
I dropped off some paintings at a store that sells art last year. They had me sign a contract w/ them that seems pretty basic and layed out. My pants tightened at the thought of our smooth transaction and the newly aquired legal tenders I’d soon be getting dancing in my wallet. Their joyous float from my hand to the shopkeep as I exchanged them for goods and services was something I was quite looking forward to with deft anticipation.
A few months past. Thanksgiving… Christmas… and I never heard from them but never gave it more than a second thought as I tend to not distribute second thoughts so easily. It wasn’t until I was in the area last week dropping off some handmade comic book noise to the local stores that I noticed the store was now defunct. A big closed sign, flipping me the bird and booting my thin wallet right in the ass.
I snagged the contract and dailed the number on it. No answer. I left a message. No reply. I repeated this. Twice. Fuck. I am out two paintings.
The point is, before you sign something over to someone, be sure to have arrangements if something like this were to happen. Situations like they contact you if they’re going out of business, or if your item doesn’t sell. Don’t be a fool like Matt Gondek and leave your work to strangers with loose morals and sticky fingers.
The two paintings I left there retailed for around 180 million a piece, so I am out a considerable ammount of money.
Anti Flag’s new album came out today. With it, came an awesome CD design by my pal Rob Larson, a quite handsome fellow. You may remember (or probably not) that Rob and I did a colaborative piece together last summer based on the video game “Rampage”. You can check out more of his work if you’re so inclined at www.destroydestroyer.com
Tara McPherson is not only a very talented artist, having worked for Vertigo Comics and Kid Robot, but apparently she’s good at giving advice out to up and comic artists as well.
On here website, TaraMcPherson.com, she goes into great detail about how she started out and gives allot of good pointers. All of this can be found on the second part of her info page here. Be sure to poke around her site too and check out her amazing work.
In other news..
Hey music fans… If you go out and buy the Re-release of “For Those Who Have Heart” by A Day to Remember, you might just notice a great photo of one of my Tee Designs right smack dab on the inside cover. I had a chance to meet with these guys over the weekend. Look for some big projects coming from us in the extremely near future. They’re growing in popularity quickly due to their cover song, Since You’ve Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson. Look it up on myspace, it’s great.
I am wrapping up a project where I will be distributing at least 500 5 page comics for free. These will be given out at my art shows, stores in downtown Pittsburgh, or anywhere I can drop a couple off.I am looking for Clothing Companies, Bands, Blogs, or anyone else that needs promotion to help fund this project.What you will get in return is this:
On the last page of the mini comic (page 5), there will be half a page where I will have a “brought to you by” section. This is where your website address, myspace, or whatever would be listed, as well as a logo if you have one.
I am prepared to pay for 500 of these comics to be made out of my pocket. However, any additional money I recieve will be put into making MORE than the 500 comics.
I am asking for $5.25 per add. This money can be sent through paypal only, as I plan on getting these things made this weekend. The extra quarter is to cover paypal’s stupid fees.
For $5.25 your getting your advertisement on my 500 comics, PLUS the extra comics that your $5 is paying for.
If your interested, please send me comment on here or email me at gondek@mattgondek.com. My paypal account is “gondek@mattgondek.com” Please respond by Friday night, as I’ll be getting these printed on Saturday the 23rd.
As of writing this, I still have 4 spaces available.
keep on truckin’
Gondek
Magmo is here to help. Magmo is here to destroy. Destroy pollution, greed, poor healthcare, trans-fats. Pretty much anything that destroys us. He’s an artist w/ a message in his work, which is apparent on his website http://www.magmothedestroyer.org/. Even if you could care less about the environment, I guarentee that you’ve never seen anything like his work. It’s truly unique.
He had a show here in Pittsburgh last summer, so hop in your time machine, and check that out too!
There is an email floating around Pennsylvania warning everybody that police officers are trying to raise nine million dollars in speeding tiggets by the end of the month, so be on the lookout. They’ll be crackin’ down, and HARD.
In other news… The other day I was mentioning working for people overseas and how to get / convert foreign currency. I actually found out the EASIEST WAY possible. Paypal.
It turns out that paypal converts the money for you! How easy is that? Bada bing bada boom. They send me pounds, and it converts them to fancy America businessman dollars. Fat paychecks from across the sea always spend better because they have the sweet stink of culture all over em’.
Here’s a taste of some international work I did. I know it’s in a foreign language (Irish), but all the imagery is still there :). It’s a giant full color poster that will be crawling all over Ireland and other countries with the tour dates.
Kid Zoom is an artist from Perth Austrailia. I’ve recently had a conversation with him about the art scene over there, and here’s what he had to say.
“Theres a great (art) scene here - esp in melbourne. Alot of people coming in from the graffiti / street art scene over here. Good fun and pretty positive scene to be honest. Worst part is i guess is the rest of the world really isnt paying attention to whats going on over here too much. ”
Kid Zoom has a very unique style that is instantly recognizable. His portfolio site has allot of good work to check out. So, pay attention to Austrailia and check out his site!
Oh boy what a year it’s been huh? I keep a calendar at work, and each day I write down what I did the day before. I guess it’s my way of keeping a journal. Anyways, no one’s going to care at all about this, but I’m going to write about my year, so I can read this in the future and reflect about all the good times I had in ’07. So, in closing, don’t read this then complain that I wasted your time, because I wrote it for myself.
January:
I started off this year on my computer making a logo for Shinyfire.com. It was a squid lying on top of an Ipod, which was used to glorify our weekly pod cast. I also did two tiny paintings… one of King Hippo from Nintendo’s Punch Out!, and one of a drunk elephant. One Saturday night, I went over to my pal Gary’s house to play a fine game of Bastard ball, which is two teams each standing on opposite ends of a racquetball court. You get points by nailing the other team with the balls that are thrown at them. I also went to Southside w/ my pal Roadie and Mosley’s ex girlfriend Emily. This turned out to be a pretty awkward evening due to a drunken horny Roadie and Emily wanting nothing at all to do w/ him. I also made a disco dancing zombie in Illustrator which would later be used for a hoodie design. I also made a custom Valentines Day card for the upcoming holiday. I acquired an old painting at a thrift store in a big golden frame, so I painted a big blue guarding angel gangster on it. The painting is currently on display at Pack Rat in Southside Pittsburgh.
February:
The band “The Mikeys” contacted me to do a T Shirt and Sticker design for them, so I worked on those. I also did a tiny little painting of a boxer with a cityscape behind him. I also did my first public art show at the Creative Treehouse in
March:
I cut out a big monster face with a word bubble saying MattGondek.com to hang at my art shows. I also bought a new slick computer monitor that is all flat, big, and sexy. I picked up a good book called “The Road” by Cormack McCarthy. It tells the story about a boy and his father walking south after the “end of the world”, which you are lead to believe is from some sort of nuclear attack. I did my first T Shirt for someone else this month too. I made it for Captive Clothing, which turned out to kind of suck in the end. I also designed a skate deck that is collecting dust in my bedroom. Since it was getting warmer out, I picked up a grill and had a cookout which was a nice way to relax after my art show at Peter’s Pub in
April:
My friend Mosley and I organized our first art show this month. Called “Doughnuts and Art”, it was a collection of artists and bands and took place at the Creative Treehouse in Bellview. My band “Doughnuts in November” played there, and I also brought along some new pieces I made for the show. The first was of a confused octopus that some DJ in
May:
In may this blog was started. I also did a shirt for Shipshape clothing of an elephant and did an Illustrator design of a portion of the nine foot drawing. This piece would later become a flier for the creative treehouse. My friends and I also went to a Girl Talk show and danced our faces off.
June:
The band “Girl in the Closet” from
July:
I seen Transformers in the theatre and got super excited by the amazing visuals. I also bough a new Ipod, and seen the new Harry Potter and Simpsons movie. My buddy Aaron took me to see Interpol downtown too. I didn’t do much art this month. Only to the Southside works to do chalk drawings during their annual artist festival thing.
August:
Rob Larson from Destroy/ Destroyer and I got together to do a colab piece called Rampage. It uses his signature style of a cityscape in the background, along w/ the Ninteno Rampage characters I painted in the front. I also painted another monster on a aerosol can, which caused allot more problems than it was worth with my friend. A great movie, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres came out on DVD and was a great purchase. I did another shirt for Shipshape Clothing as well as a new painting of some roses. The local paper ran an interview of me talking about Mosley and I’s event, Doughnuts and Art 2.0 which happened this month. The lead singer of Doughnuts in November was also in the interview. I also bought a new car, and ’07 Hyundai Elantra.
September:
Like every resident of
October:
The band “The Devil Wears Prada” commissioned me to do two shirt designs for them. I also did another pair of custom slip on shoes for a kid in
November:
Wamley’s photo piece of KP and I was entered into the Halloween art show at the Creative Treehouse. My band also played the event and I had some artwork on display as well. KP and I won the pumpkin carving contest and were rewarded handsomely w/ some candy, a free pizza, and a gift certificate for a fancy restaurant. The band “The Announced” commissioned me to do a shirt design for them. A friend of mine commissioned me to do a painting for his wife for Christmas. I also took some time for myself and did a painting of some badgers hanging out in a rose garden in the clouds. I also made a limited edition book called Husky Diver to give away with art purchases from my site. Lastly, I was contacted to include a piece in a “Vice’s” show in
December:
I once again went to
