PAPERED TIGERS

Jack White has a lot going on. Also... water is wet.

New art show in London, new album in shops, and a new tour on the globe.

Here’s some pulp cheer for his two-night stand in Brooklyn.  A pair of home run shows for those lucky enough to dodge the trolleys and bear witness.

July 11th reveals someone frozen in their own choices.  July 12th shows someone unfreezing themselves by accepting a challenge. If you’re familiar with Jack’s ethos, then you know he prefers a rocky path over pavement.  That said, any muse pursuit holds challenges, including your own self.  I could write pretty about it, but Melville said it better than me in “Art”.

Variants for both, with a frosty metallic take for the first and a reverent blue foil for the second. I wanted the figure on the high ground to feel unearthly.

CODA recently threw a to-do with Popcore and Preacher celebrating Paul Reubens' extraordinary creation, Pee-wee Herman. Preacher boasts, from my experience, the most gorgeous space in Austin that allows an intime soirée atmosphere despite a throng of attendees.

Preacher’s Geoff Peveto of Factor 27 / Decoder Ring / Flatstock-founding fame suggested reaching out to photographer Janette Beckman to make prints from her famous Pee-wee Herman photo. She’s kept a storied career within a storied life, capturing snaps that likely made an impact on yours. They sure did on mine, mainly her work on the first three Police albums. My childhood bedroom hung heavy with multiple iterations of her Regatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta covers.

She graciously allowed me to prepare her photo for screenprinting with background jazz fashioned from the old Topp’s Pee-wee trading cards from 88 featuring a lot of early work from Kaz.

Two versions, one in basic black and white on Imperial red paper. The second textless version runs on pink and brown. White is a little translucent, so you’ll see some surprises in the underprint.

One note: there’s a small high school photo of Paul in the corner. I asked to include it to show how much that acorn grew relative to his towering eventual alter-ego.

If not your cuppa but you adore Pee-wee, then please check out CODA’s other Pee-wee paper on our site HERE.  Credit to Brock Otterbacher for the headline for this bit.