when sweet sleep returned...

this past week i finished the art for the 3rd assemble head album "when sweet sleep returned" which will be out in stores april 7th from teepeerecords. you can listen to some of the tracks online or download some mp3s of the not quite final mixes at the teepee websight. i also play theremin and moog on some of the tracks.

here's the album cover.

this are the designs for the lp labels that will go in the middle of the record.

-a

Art opening in san jose

hey bay area folks.

I'm having an art show next friday (febuary 6th) at my publisher SLG's Boutiki Gallery in San Jose, California from 7:00 to 10:00. Here's a map the address is 577 south market st. There will be live music featuring Shy Grape and the Sundowner Sessions. Should be cool spacey stuff.

here's the flyer that slg made up for the show.

hope to see you there.

-a

puppets...

i hadn't thought about it in a long time but i guess it's one of those strange convergencies in time when puppets seem to come into life's conversation again and again. whether it's talk about Jim Henson's death, re-watching being john malkovich or this. So I figure now is the time to post about some puppets i made back when i was in college in 97. my friend morgan helped me out by taking some great photos in our back yard this morning.

the beatnik Nordine smokes out back.

dr. otto removes little billy's brain, he won't miss it.alien walks amonst the grasses.

there was a robot one too... but i don't know what happened to him.

-a

Reviews and interviews!

Hi-fructose vol. 10 and Coilhouse issue02 are availible at your local magazine spot now. I was very happy to leaf through (and purchase) these great magazines both featuring guest appearences by the Babysitter (which is currently on sale at the slg website.

Hi-fructose vol. 10 and Coilhouse issue02 are availible at your local magazine spot now. I was very happy to leaf through (and purchase) these great magazines both featuring guest appearences by the Babysitter (which is currently on sale at the slg website.

I was honored to have Attaboy of Hi-Fructose magazine review the Babysitter in issue 10. the review went something like this. (and i quote)

"With his new The Babysitter Collection, Andy Ristaino shows that his mind's eye is a limitless anti-void, constantly surprising us at its reach. Sure, some of his work takes work to figure out. But it's always worth it. And for those who can't summon the synapses to focus on the story can just peel back their eyelids a page at a time, suck a thumb, and get lost in the purty picture spreads at a measured pace.

In Babysitter, Andy grabs the now common "Japanese schoolgirl" theme and holds it at ransom, as Ristaino approaches the comic format like no other, at least not since the days of Little Nemo in Slumberland. His boxes aren't just storyboard containment devices, so much as constructed boxes. Platforms with dimensioin: portals from which his stories constantly spill out and borders offf of with his characters bounce their diatribes. This makes the nature of his projects more Charlie Kaufman-esque than anime-inspired. the characters are conscious enough of these boxes to physically use them, but don't care to "wink" at us.

Ristaino's previous Slave Labor Graphics series, Life of a Fetus, a graphic novella about a um...runaway fetus, always left me wide-eyed, bewildered and awestruck. And i'm guessing i wasn't alone, as SLG decided to print a Guide to Life of a Fetus to reveal the series' many Naked Lunch-type turns and narrative trickery.

With literally hundreds of character extras, guest cameos, and multi-dimensional planetary chaos, a Ristaino book shows the universe to be a very crowded place and his babysitter's world expands just as the story does. And like the real world, if you focus to hard, you'll miss something "

here's the review in the back of vol.10

AND... as i've mentioned in a previous post, my good friend Meredith interviewed me for Coilhouse issue 02 I'm not going to type out the interview but let me say there are some nuggets to be found in the interview and coilhouse is an awesome magazine.

below are the pages in coilhouse.

-a

Tshirts are made...

the alien t-shirts were printed up! and here they are. black shirts 3 colors available in men's and women's sizes at the slg store!




-a

noisvani

Dan Vado of slg publishing offered to do a run of 3 color shirts for an art opening i'm having in February at the slg boutiki gallary.Well back in college i was pretty obsessed with aliens. Did a big run of images of aliens doing different kitschy things. Among those images was the classic aliens playing poker. so i am resurecting a certain design and making it conform to t shirts.

which do you like better? i'm leaning towards version 1 at the moment.

version 1

version 2

version 3here's the one i did in college

thanks
happy new year!

-a