Lemur's Lounge and Flower Shower

Behind the scenes of my next print + a sample of my new EP

Welcome back to the Flowering Jungle!

April’s post has been months in the making and I’m psyched to finally share it with you. I’m releasing my newest print, Lemur’s Lounge, next week and I wanted to give you some behind the scenes shots of the process as well as talk a little bit about my inspiration and why I chose a new medium.

For my paid subscribers I’m also including a little preview of my new EP, Flower Shower, coming out this summer. Can’t wait to share it!

Lemur’s Lounge Screenprint

You might remember from my previous emails that I decided to change the print system on my website. Starting this month, instead of having prints always available on my site, I’ll be doing very limited edition prints a few times per year. Once they’re sold out, they’re gone, making them really unique for the people who are able to grab one in time.

So, let me introduce Lemur’s Lounge, my first screenprint, done in 9 colors and a limited edition of 50.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this print originally came from a small lemur cutout that I keep at my desk. You may recognize him from the Flowering Jungle Newsletter banner, but he typically sits on the corner of my computer as you can see below

I really love this guy and ringtail lemurs in general and thought it would be cool to give this dude a proper name (“Larry”) and a home in the jungle. I paired him up with some of my other favorite animals like the birds of paradise, linx and owls and transformed the whole thing into a surreal technicolor jungle oasis. I like to imagine they’re all hanging in a lush jungle lounge listening something funky.

I’ve been eager to try something new for a while now. I love collage and the process but my background was originally in printmaking and I’ve been thinking for years about how I can marry the two. It’s way more difficult than it sounds because of the photographic nature of the paper collage. I know a lot of you are artists yourselves, and have dealt with similar problems with your own work. I wanted to challenge myself to see if I was able to make something that was just as vibrant and nuanced as my collage but as a screenprint. Turns out this was much more difficult than I had anticipated.

The Process

I started the process as I would have with any other collage, hunting for images in books and cutting out things I thought would go well together (for more info on that, check out my March newsletter). Once I assembled the arrangement, I scanned them all into my computer and edited them in photoshop. I tried a few different color pallets and finally chose one that I liked. I thought I was done and I sent it off to my friend, Dustin Williams, from Vahalla Studios in Kansas City for printing. While I studied printmaking in college, I would never attempt to do a screenprint this complicated with this many colors myself and Vahalla is well known for being the best around. Dustin got back to me and it turned out my print wasn’t even close.

Gathering Images

Starting the arrangement and doing some color tests

After running some tests of the print we realized that I was losing a lot of detail, making the entire piece look a little muddy. It was at this point that I thought it might not work and I would have to abandon the whole idea. It was driving me crazy and I actually had to take a few days off of the project. Once I got my head back in the game we were able to figure it out. It took me several attempts and another two weeks back and forth with Dustin but we were finally able to make it work. For anybody out here who uses photoshop, I ended up using a combination of the threshold and halftone tools if you’re interested.

My original file on the left vs how it would print on the right. You can see how muddy the linx is.

Rounds and rounds of edits

The screenprint ended up being nine colors, which is way more than typical screenprints. We went this route because I really wanted it to be super vibrant and I think it is.

More Process shots

How the Print Drop Will Work

Prints will be available to everyone next Friday, May 5th at 12pm EST but paid subscribers will get emailed a link next Thursday, May 4th at noon to jump the line and grab theirs early. So, if you’re a paid subscriber keep your eye out for that.

Thank to everyone who has read this far. It was quite a journey to get this print to you but I couldn’t be more excited about how it turned out and I hope you all feel the same.

If you’re a paid subscriber, keep reading for a preview of my new EP, Flower Shower, coming out this summer + your monthly playlist and a fun wallpaper version of Lemur’s Lounge.