Sergio Membrillas: The Magician and the Owl

The Magician and the Owl, by Sergio Membrillas.
15% of the sale of this print goes to American Forests.

Sergio Membrillas graduated with a Fine Arts degree from San Carlos University in Valencia, Spain, where he now lives and works as a freelancer. His clients include Bust magazine, Nido, El Dominical, Revista 40, Ling magazine, Random House Mondadori, Media Vaca, Tandem Edicions, La(dos)magazine, Edicions 62, Mercy, d(x)i, lecool, ilikemagazine, Amelia's magazine, Belio magazine, Green ufos, Born! booking, tranquilo música, Fikasound, ciclo de música independiente Sons, Jabalina, El milenarismo, Barbarella pop club, Monster k7, and the Music For Toys Festival.

Recently, Sergio illustrated a children’s book called Folk Tales for the publishing house Slaughterhouse, and he regularly collaborates with other designers and advertising agencies.



About the print:
The Magician and the Owl is part of a personal project called Beards and Trees. In this project, I tried to create a world around bearded people and their union with nature. I hope it evokes some kind of reflection about how important nature is in our lives.

This is a digital print on acid free, Neenah uncoated matte 100lb cover paper that is 80% recycled. It was digitally signed by the artist and was numbered by The Working Proof.

PURCHASE $30!

What has inspired you recently?
Wes Anderson movies and Russian children's books.

Why did you choose to pair this charity with your print?
I paired my print with American Forests, because it is directly linked to the concept of the piece. We need forests.



How have you seen art transform the world around you?
Creating beautiful pieces of art to see. Creating great illustrations to stare at - in the supermarket, reading magazines - taking part in mass media.

Who are some artists you think people should know about?
Jan Kruse, Miroslav Sasek, and Mike Perry.

Emily Dumas: Eat, Sleep, Create

Eat, Sleep, Create, by Emily Dumas.
15% of the sale of this print goes to Little Kids Rock.

Emily Dumas is a graphic designer and illustrator living and working in the Boston-area. With a huge love of great design, patterns, typography, illustration and hand-made details, she launched Flowers in May in 2007. Often in her new studio or home in her office, she creates handmade goodies from prints to note cards to glass magnets.

When she’s not designing, she can probably be found at a museum, in her studio with a stack of magazines, or reading a good novel.



About the print:
Every time I begin a print, I choose a topic that has enough items to illustrate. Art supplies are such a fitting topic for me. My former studiomate also works in an art supply store, so one night we started to think of all the different items that I could use to illustrate creativity. The list was generated pretty quickly, and  Eat, Sleep, Create was created.

This print was signed and numbered by the artist. It is an archival inkjet print.

PURCHASE $40!

You often illustrate collections of things. How did this become your MO?
To be honest, it happened by accident. I created Today I Feel Like Baking and the simplified color palette and illustrations worked so well together. I realized the possibilities were endless, and that I could have quite the library of illustrations to repurpose for other things.

Are you a collector? Any collections that you want to share with us?
Do records count? I got a record player for my birthday this year, so I started a little collection. I definately buy records to listen to them, but the search is always fun.



What have you been up to since we last worked together?
I opened my Etsy store and was published in my first book (Work Life 2 by Uppercase). I'm currently working on new prints, lines of invitations and other new products.

How has your work developed over the last year?
I realized that I'm confident in the direction I'm going with my work. I feel like I've really discovered my style and what I am comfortable doing.



Why did you choose to pair Little Kids Rock with your print?
I chose to pair my print with Little Kids Rock. Music education is so important, especially for young children. To me, it is a form of art that is used to express oneself. Words and sounds are just as powerful as images. Also, I’m always listening to music when I create. It brings the best out of my work.

What is inspiring you these days?
My old sketchbooks. There are so many notes and ideas that I'd forgotten about or didn't have the chance to create. Going back to look at them has sparked so many new ideas.

Emily's previous print for The Working Proof: Jam Session.

Tsilli Pines: Reports

Reports, by Tsilli Pines.
15% of the sale of this print goes to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Tsilli Pines has been working as a graphic designer for over 10 years and has designed award-winning projects for Francis Ford Coppola’s Rubicon Estate, SB Architects, and David Bowie. Her client work has appeared in STEP, HOW, and Print.

She designs and makes Jewish marriage contracts under the name New Ketubah, where she seeks to marry a traditional art form with modern design. She also runs a line of modern Judaica under the name Alef Betty.

Her art practice spans photography and works on paper. She is interested in numbers, human systems, ordinary moments, and the life of the mind. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.



About the print:
This was another of the b-sides from my follow-up to The Figures for the New York Times Magazine. I was responding to the mood of the day - there was a sense that everything was still sliding, that we had no sight of the bottom of the financial meltdown. It was a bloodbath.

For the original artwork, I used pigment and pieces of an accounting book on rice paper with cotton thread. I actually tried a different technique with this piece - rather than using stamps to put down the pigment, I used an ink pad directly on the paper and varied the pressure to create different areas of saturation.

This is an archival ink jet print on 100% cotton 300 gsm Moab Entrada natural paper. Each print was signed and numbered by the artist.

PURCHASE $35!

Your artwork incorporates collage, often including tactile elements such as sewn thread. Why have you chosen collage as a medium, and what is the significance of the thread that runs throughout your work?
I love collage, because it's a conversation with the materials, and they have a life of their own. The process is largely exploratory and allows me to create work I may not have premeditated. I love the surprise I feel as the composition starts coming together - it's an amazing sort of back and forth, where you don't always feel you are the author. It just manifests.

I use thread in a lot of my work because it has all these interesting connotations that you can play with -- it's feminine, it's commonplace. It can mend, it can get tangled, it can break. I sometimes use it as a counterpoint to the subject matter, as in this series, but it's also just a really interesting textural element.



What have you been up to since we last worked together?
One of my larger-scale projects was a Passover Haggadah, which is a book read at the holiday table, retelling the story of Exodus. I've also been continuing with my regular practice, of course!

Why did you choose to pair Médecins Sans Frontières with your print?
I chose to pair my print with Médecins Sans Frontières, because we have a system of worth that doesn't always recognize the things that are worth the most. It's such important work to provide care for people, regardless of all the systems that can divide and devalue lives.

What is inspiring you these days?
I just came back from two weeks in Israel, where I finally got to meet some amazing colleagues and see what's going on in the design community over there. There is tons of interesting stuff happening and I was refreshed and inspired by that.

Tsilli's previous print for The Working Proof: Balance Sheet.

Eleanor Grosch: Stack

Stack, by Eleanor Grosch.
15% of the sale of this print goes to Farm Sanctuary.

Eleanor Grosch loves animals; you name it, she’s probably drawn it! Eleanor’s unique graphic perspective aims to simplify line and playfully arrange form to capture the essence of each animal she draws. She’s well-known for her graphic take on our feathered, furry, and fuzzy friends. With roots in modernist design, she brings the mid-century aesthetic up-to-date.

About the print:
I've been playing with the idea of a print composed of a stack of animals - I think that there's an old story somewhere of a horse, a dog, and a chicken going to rescue their friend, and they go stacked on top of each other! When the Farm Sanctuary print came up, I realized it was a perfect message for the print - animals supporting one another can be a metaphor for this charity that supports abused farm animals.

This is a three-color screenprint on 100lb acid-free paper with acrylic ink. Each print was signed and numbered by the artist.

PURCHASE $40!

Do you have any process drawings that led up to this finished piece?
I made two other attempts and didn't love them. I felt the illustration needed a more stylized quality.

What has inspired you recently?
Gosh, lots of things! One major influence has been the colors of Fall, since my boyfriend and I are planning our October wedding!



Why did you choose to pair Farm Sanctuary with your print?
I really love animals, and Farm Sanctuary is such a wonderful cause.

How have you seen art transform the world around you?
I see it all the time around Philadelphia. We have a mural arts program that decorates the drab sides of buildings and transforms them into colorful, beautiful works of art.



If you could pick one artist to mentor you, who would it be?
I think it would have to be Charley Harper. I love his work and I'm often compared to him, which is a huge compliment.

Who are some artists you think people should know about?
My first design love was the artwork on gigposters.com. There are so many artists on that site that people should look into. During my time on the site, some that really stood out were Tim Gough, Largemammal Print, The Heads of State, Dirk Fowler, Methane Studios, and the Little Friends of Printmaking. All amazing artists!