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GIVEAWAY: Suggest A Poster And Win a Print!

I moved into a new cube at work about a month ago, and I finally got some free time to spruce it up a bit.

From left: Stumptown Printers bike poster, Rar Rar Press postcard, one of our engagement photos shot by Studio 6.23, postcard by Keegan Meegan, Nada Surf poster by The Small Stakes, Spoon poster by Hammerpress, Death Cab poster by The Small Stakes, and Child Bite / Zoos of Berlin / Silent Years poster by Pinky Blaster (I’m assuming).

Here’s the problem, and not that it’s a bad problem to have, but the wall I sit next to looks like this:

Doesn’t it look sad and empty? I want to fill it up! So I’m asking you, our fabulous blog readers: what are some of your favorite poster artists? By commenting on this post with a suggestion, you can win our newest print.

Comments will be closed at midnight on July 20, and we’ll announce the winner the next morning. The print is 12.5 x 12.5 so it fits easily in a record album frame, and it’s screenprinted on French Paper’s Dur-o-tone in Steel Grey. The words are from the city of Detroit’s motto. Good luck! And thanks for your help!

Happy Belated Birthday, America

How was your 4th? We were VERY hard at work (hence the lack of posts). It was probably not the best idea to start refinishing our floors in the same month as three major art + craft shows. In between making a lot of sawdust, though, we played with sparklers!

And, we made this: our latest screenprint.

It’s the City of Detroit’s motto. We’ll have it for sale at Baar Bazaar on Saturday. Hope to see you there!

Art-o-mat

Art-o-mat is a company, founded in 1997 that converts vintage cigarette machines into art dispensers in which people can buy small works of art. Currently there are 82 machines operating within the United States and internationally., with over 400 artists contributing work. Artists who are interested in submitting work can find the guild lines to the submission process here.

Samples of artwork along with the Art-o-carton that can be purchased in the Art-o-mat online store.

For those of you in the Detroit area interested in learning more about Art-o-mat, Took Gallagher will be holding sessions this summer. She will show examples of various types of art, why some things vend well (or don’t), and help with suggestions for adapting your art to the program. She will also provide a free box w/cellophane OR a block w/cellophane for use in your submission. The sessions are free but pre-registration is required. The first session is June 14th from 7-9 pm at Detroit Comics and the second it , June 19th from 4-6 at Solid Grounds Coffeehouse in Northville. Took can be reached through her blog here.

A Call to Action: Support Detroit Artists

There has been a raging debate in Detroit over the past few days about whether or not it was right to preserve or steal a work of art that the artist clearly intended to be public. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that Banksy intended his art to be seen by the people of Detroit, and by taking his work out of the public domain, we are no longer able to enjoy it.

There are many talented artists in this city that also intend for their art to be seen by you. And unfortunately, we haven’t been actively supporting them. This is made very evident by the number of Detroit galleries that have not been able to survive. Artists who want their work to be seen here have to work really, really hard, and find other ways for their work to be appreciated.

But, there is an upside: in other cities, artists have to put in years of work before a gallery will let them have a solo show. In Detroit? You can just throw a cupcake themed art show at a bakery. It’s a perfect example of how Detroit’s “hustle harder” work ethic and creative spirit intersect. But the downside is detrimental to our city’s image: without very many premier galleries, the outside art world doesn’t have any idea about the talent that we have here. They think we have nothing.

Detroit is an artist’s playground. Banksy recognized this, and it’s time that the people living here realized it, too.  Help us spread the word about the artistic talent that we have in Detroit. We’ve gone back through all of our 300+ archived posts and tagged the ones about local folks with “Michigan artists“. Take a look and if you see something you love, tell everyone. Make it known that we have a lot more art here that what Banksy chose to give us.

Filter the Perfect Laughter blog on Michigan artists only

Shiny New Things

photo credit: letsgorideabike

We’ve done a little bit of sprucing up around here, and there’s a few new things on the blog that we wanted to tell you about.

Detroit Events Calendar. We get so many submissions about upcoming events, but we don’t always have time to write a full post fast enough. So instead, we added a list over on the right of upcoming special things to do. Fancy! Next up: Johnny Cupcakes @ 323East. Let us know what’s going on at heyyouguys [at] perfectlaughter.com, or post a message on the Perfect Laughter Facebook page.

New Links. We recently discovered a slew of blogs that are representing Detroit on the internets. Streetculturemash, Remains of the D and Bikes, Books & A Little Music are a few local culture blogs that are just getting started. And Two Hungry Dudes and Swigs are required reading about local consumables. To recommend something for our Detroit links list, contact us through one of the ways mentioned above, or on the Twitters.

Stocked up Shop. Buy your Mom something from our shop! Our moms love the stuff we make. City Bird was also kind enough to carry a few of our things. They have hysterical Mother’s Day cards right now, too.

More improvements are on the way. I’m getting the web design itch again.

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