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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Art / Merch / Bumbershoot Let's Talk About How Great Flatstock Is

Posted by Megan Seling on Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 4:45 PM

I always end up being broke by the time Bumbershoot is over—it isn't the $5 cups of watery lemonade, the $4 ears of corn, or $500 beers (since I don't drink beer)—the blame falls completely and totally on Flatstock, the American Poster Institute's annual art and poster show. Last year, it was Jay Ryan's Pigeon prints that did me in (so worth it). The year before that I went a little overboard at the Tiny Media Empire booth. This year doesn't look good for my savings account either. Even though this year's Flatstock feels smaller than it has been in the past, there's still a lot of really great stuff to be had, and (thankfully) most of it is really affordable.

All the prints at the Crosshair booth (pictured right) are gorgeous, though a little more pricey than most other vendors. I especially love the "415 N Kedzie" art print and this poster made for a series of Jeff Tweedy living room shows (how cool would it be to see Jeff Tweedy in a fucking living room?)

Last year I bought a set of great postcards of little critters in various toy modes of transportation. I love them! But this year, GigArt.com has larger prints of all three—they're $20 a piece or $50 for the set. THEY ARE SO GREAT. I'm fighting the urge to get the larger set, too.

gigart.com

And here's a poster of a 10-legged bear making friends with and/or preparing to eat a rabbit by Nate Duval. Love! I also adore Jason Munn's geometric and simple designs, which are really weirdly hypnotizing.

Some talented local folks are also representing at Flatstock: Row Boat Press, Frida Clements, Broken Press, Nat Damm (who has a rad Jesus Lizard poster for sale), and Powerslide Design (a must for vinyl-loving Northwesterners).

And are you broke? These little hand-drawn cards are stuck up all around the room and free for the taking:

(One bummer about this year's Flatstock: There is no Bird Machine/Jay Ryan booth this year. Sad!)

Flatstock is open until 8 pm tonight and starts again at 11 am tomorrow morning. GO SPEND MONEY.

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crosshair has a big ol' stack of misprints and i got three flawless prints (i guess technically they arent flawless but i couldnt find the flaws, so, flawless?). INCLUDING!!!! a flower 10 poster! from flower booking's 10th anniversary show in chicago in 2000!!!! a show i wanted to go to but was too young and lived too far away. finding a screen printed poster from it totally RULES.

Posted by alithea on September 4, 2011 at 9:13 PM

Yep! I dug through that pile as well and got some beauties!

Posted by ratzkywatzky on September 5, 2011 at 10:01 AM

Crosshair was my favorite booth this year. I wish I had noticed the stack of misprints. Damn!

Posted by lilHoss on September 5, 2011 at 11:05 AM