Category Archives: Projects

You gotta do this. I’m not kidding.

Contest, deadlines, Minneapolis, mn, Opportunities, Projects, Uncategorized

[Square foot art]

If you are a Minnesota artist, you have to do this.

Every ten years, the Minneapolis Institute of Art allows anyone to hang work in their gallery. The only requirements: Be a Minnesotan. The piece of art has to measure one cubic foot or less. Could be a cool page. A panel you like. An animation cel. A small sculpture. Anything.

(In the fine print it says something about not allowing living things, bugs, plants, liquids or hazardous materials — and some more stuff. Read the rules. But there’s not much more to it than one cubic foot.)

From the Web site: WHO QUALIFIES: Anyone living in Minnesota who considers him- or herself an artist. Limit one (1) artwork per artist.

The show is called “Foot In The Door 4.” And it’s a madhouse. When all the pieces are displayed it’s almost impossible to look at. Many walls crammed with one-foot square things. But still — there you are, in the same building as Rembrandt and Van Gogh and all those other famous dead guys.

You gotta do this.

Deadline: Thursday, Feb. 4 through Sunday, Feb. 7.

Details: artsmia.org

Vote For Who Should Be the Featured Artist in Lutefisk Sushi Volume D

anthologies, event, Events, mini-comics, Minneapolis, mn, Projects, St. Paul

PLEASE ONLY VOTE IN THIS POLL IF YOU ARE A MINNESOTA CARTOONIST AND YOU INTEND TO PARTICIPATE IN THE LUTEFISK SUSHI VOLUME D PROJECT!

GO HERE TO VOTE

We are in the very early planning stages for the Minnesota Conspiracy’s Lutefisk Sushi Volume D project, which will be opening next Summer at Altered Esthetics gallery.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with our three previous Lutefisk Sushi shows (A B C), they have featured the work of any Minnesota cartoonists who choose to participate (we had 50 last time). The shows are focused around a limited-edition, hand-silkscreened box stuffed full of mini-comics by Minnesota artists.

Each Sushi show has also had a featured artist. We want to figure out who this will be for next year pretty quick so we can feature their work on next year’s Altered Esthetics calendar.

This poll will determine next year’s featured artist. All nominees have been suggested by people intending to participate in the Lutefisk D show … and all have been contacted & expressed willingness to participate (note: if you don’t see your suggested nominee on here, they declined).

Check out the websites of our nominees:

Jesse Gillespie
Danno Klonowski
Bob Lipski
Britt Sabo
Tim Sievert
Mike Toft

PLEASE ONLY VOTE IN THIS POLL IF YOU ARE A MINNESOTA CARTOONIST AND YOU INTEND TO PARTICIPATE IN THE LUTEFISK SUSHI VOLUME D PROJECT!

THIS POLL EXPIRES SOME TIME ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER FIRST.

Lutefisk Sushi Volume D? Featured Artist?

anthologies, Cartooning Projects, gallery show, Local Hero Kevin Cannon, Lutefisk Sushi, Projects

So far in the comments on the post the other day asking for suggestions on what to do as a follow up to BIG FUNNY for next year’s Conspiracy show at Altered Esthetics, it has been unanimous for doing Lutefisk Sushi Volume D.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with our three previous Lutefisk Sushi shows (A B C), they have featured the work of any Minnesota cartoonists who choose to participate (we had 50 last time). The shows are focused around a limited-edition, hand-silkscreened box stuffed full of mini-comics by Minnesota artists.

Whatever form the next show ends up taking, we are looking to have some other folks get involved in putting it together. Email Local Hero Kevin Cannon at Kevin at bigtimeattic.com to volunteer your services.

Each Sushi show has also had a featured artist. We want to figure out who this will be for next year pretty quick so we can feature their work on next year’s Altered Esthetics calendar. Any cartoonist planning on participating in the show can nominate any Minnesota cartoonist they wish to. To do so, email me (webmaster at cartoonistconspiracy.com) their name, and ideally their email address, sometime before August 25th. Please use the header “SUSHI NOMINATION” in your email. I’ll contact the artist, if possible, and see if they are interested. If I can’t contact them, I’ll let you know. We will vote on the  nominated artists who are interested in the near future to determine which one will be the featured artist in the show.

If you think Lutefisk Sushi Volume D is a terrible idea and have another suggestion, now is the time to bring it up in the comments below.

Can’t afford BIG FUNNY? Well, how about some little funny?

anthologies, BIG FUNNY, event, Events, gallery show, little funny, mini-comics, Minneapolis, mn, Projects, show, St. Paul

I just put up a gallery of photos of all the issues in the little funny sideshow, which you can see here.

little funny is an ongoing series of mini-comics boxed and sold out of an old cigarette vending machine.

The little funny set 1 box sets each contain 6 accordion-style mini-comics.

The 6 comics in a set 1 box are randomly selected from the 29 issues in the first set.

Boxes sell for $2 each.

They are only sold out of a vending machine currently housed at Altered Esthetics gallery.

They will make their premiere at the BIG FUNNY show opening this Friday, August 7th, 2009.

By Mjöllnir! little funny deadline approacheth! (July 20th)

BIG FUNNY, deadlines, little funny, Opportunities, Projects

The deadline for little funny is on the 20th… so you have less than a week to get yours in. Which is probably not a big deal, as it will probably only take you one evening of fun to get an issue together.

little funny, again, is a series of micro-comic booklets authored by anyone who wants to do one that will be sold out of a vending machine at the BIG FUNNY opening. It is easy, fun and inexpensive to participate… and all entries will be accepted. You can read all of the details about the project here.

All participants in little funny will be listed on the BIG FUNNY website, and we’ll eventually have scans of all the covers posted there as well.

Some people have been confused by the instructions… I tried to clarify them some more in the text. Additionally, here is a photo of two copies of little funny #8 by James Powell (the front of one and the back of the other).

Click to embiggen.

Want to Advertise in BIG FUNNY’s Classified Section?

anthologies, BIG FUNNY, Cartooning Projects, event, Events, gallery show, Good Causes, Projects

Congratulations to the nearly fifty artists who made it into this summer’s BIG FUNNY newspaper and gallery show. We had over seventy outstanding submissions and it was very difficult to whittle it down. We usually like to be as inclusive as possible, but for this project the budget and limitations of printing an actual newspaper limited the amount of entries we could accept.

But there’s still a spot for people to get their name in lights: the classifieds!

The newspaper is going to press in a few weeks, and we’re looking for advertisements to throw in our CLASSIFIEDS section in the back of BIG FUNNY. You get 50 words for $20, and all proceeds go to helping the BIG FUNNY show exist — Altered Esthetics Gallery is a community-based nonprofit and can’t exist without your help!

Get all the details here.
Hurry, though — deadline is May 31

Participate in little funny: a BIG FUNNY Sideshow

anthologies, BIG FUNNY, Cartooning Projects, event, Events, gallery show, little funny, mini-comics, Opportunities, Projects
little funny

little funny is intended as a prominent “sideshow” to the upcoming BIG FUNNY project. little funny will be a series of mini-comics sold in an old cigarette vending machine at Altered Esthetics during the month of the BIG FUNNY show. No entries will be rejected provided they follow the specs (these comics need to be a specific size to fit inside the boxes in the vending machine).

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

  1. DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE. The template includes a little funny logo on the front and back covers. One double-sided copy makes three copies of a 10-page accordion style micro-comic (or, alternately, 3 different issues).
  2. Email us at webmaster (at) cartoonistconspiracy.com for an issue number. little funny will be a numbered series. Make sure to put your number on your comic. If you choose to do multiple issues, you’ll need a number for each different issue.
  3. Draw your comic. Make sure to sign your work and include your contact info on it if you want to.
  4. Make copies of it. Copy, fold and staple them.
  5. We request a minimum of 18 copies of each comic submitted (which is 6 double sided xeroxes). More is great, and you can send us as many as you wish. Mail your copies to:ALTERED ESTHETICS
    1224 Quincy St NE
    Minneapolis, MN 55413

    In addition to the comics please include your name, address, phone number and email address.

DEADLINE FOR PARTICIPATION IS JULY 20th.

THINGS TO NOTE:

  • Each participant will receive one vending box of minis… how many minis are included in a box will depend on our level of participation. No box will contain all of the minis. Each participant will be responsible for picking up their box some time during the month of the show, or for making special arrangements if they can not attend.
  • Participants names will also appear on the BIG FUNNY website as being a part of the little funny show.
  • These comics can be by a single artist or be collaborative.
  • You can do as many issues as you wish… if you want to do more than one, just ask us for another number.
  • Comics may be color, or black and white, or on colored paper, or decorated with glitter glue, or painted or whatever the hell you want to do as long as you stick with the basic template.
  • Two sets of all the comics will be kept for the Conspiracy archives.
  • All proceeds from the comics will go to support the gallery, Altered Esthetics, which is a non-profit, community and artist centered gallery. You can read more about AE here.
  • Submissions will not be returned.

BIG FUNNY DEADLINE IN TWO LITTLE WEEKS (May 1st)

anthologies, BIG FUNNY, Local Hero Kevin Cannon, Opportunities, Projects

Things are moving fast… we are now two weeks from the BIG FUNNY deadline (May 1st). From the estimates we have received, it looks very likely that we will be able to do the whole publication in full color… so I hope participants will all strongly consider taking advantage of it!

Unless you make posters, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to get printed at such a huge size and in color… I can’t wait to be dazzled by what people do with it. It will be quite a unique publication… please do let all your cartoonist/poster artist/printmaker/designer/illustrator friends know about it, and encourage them to participate.

Specs and other information for the project can be found here on the BIG FUNNY website. There is also a text-only version of the information here.

I urge you to carefully read ALL of the information there before digging in, as the specs are particular… and we would really hate to have to reject people’s work because people didn’t follow the specs.

Here is a description of the project in the words of local hero Kevin Cannon at the Big Time Attic blog:

So I was over at the watercooler today, and a co-worker leans over his cubicle wall and says, “Hey Kev, what’s this ‘BIG FUNNY’ all the kids are talking about?” So I say, “Well, Doug, check the BTA blog in a few minutes and I’ll tell you!”

So here’s the scoop:

Minneapolis cartoonists have a tradition of curating a yearly show at the Altered Esthetics gallery in Nordeast Minneapolis. Last year we mounted Lutefisk Sushi: Volume C, which was a huge hit, had a ton of great contributors, and had an absolutely packed opening night party.

This August we’re doing something a little different: Big Funny, a nod to the glorious & wacky full page (and often full color) newspaper comics of the turn of the century). Where Lutefisk Sushi asked participants to create mini-comics and gathered them all up in a BOX, Big Funny is asking people to draw a 15.5″w x 20″h comic strip (color or bw) which will then be printed in a big fat NEWSPAPER.

The Big Funny gallery show this August will have original art from the Big Funny newspaper, as well as vintage turn o’ the century comics (thanks to collector extraordinaire Steve Stwalley). You’ll also be able to get your hands on the Big Funny newspaper — right now we’re thinking it’ll be 48 pages.

Interested in having your cartoon grace one of those pages? Here’s a quick guide to get you started:

1. Read through www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/bigfunny. That should answer most of your questions.
2. Create your comic. Keep these specs in mind:
* Art should be 15.5″ (wide) x 20″ (high)
* If you’re doing color, make it 300 dpi
* If you’re doing black and white, make it at 1200 dpi
* You can submit more than one cartoon
* All submissions must be DIGITAL
* [This is a truncated list to get you started — PLEASE read the info on the Big Funny website!]

3. Content: This show is a nod to the old-timey comics, but your comic can be any style, theme, etc. Just try to be funny (it is called Big Funny, after all)
4. Deadline is MAY 1, 2009

Unlike Lutefisk Sushi, this is a juried show, which means that some comics won’t make it in the show. This has less to do with us being art snobs, and more to do with the complicated nature of putting a physical newspaper together on time and on budget.

We’ve already got a few submissions in (which, for a month before the deadline, is pretty outstanding), and they look great, so keep ’em coming!

If you have any questions, please read the Big Funny website. If you still have questions, please leave them in the comments section, and we’ll answer them there.

Here’s a BIG FUNNY chicklet for your website or blog: