Cristina Montejo

i just finished these custom wedding thank you cards for a friend in northern california…and, i’m so happy with how they turned out!

i printed these on 4-bar sized flat cards in superfine soft white with matching envelopes in leaf, chartreuse, and beet from the waste not paper co. the idea behind the project was to create a really versatile thank you card that could work on both an elegant and/or quirky/fun level depending on who’s at the receiving end of the “thank you.”

the card can work on it’s own, simply as is – with a message written either in between the text on the front of the card or on the back. this way, the main focus of the card becomes the font so i made sure to print the cards in two different ink colors (sage green & violet) to give the bride some options for mixing and matching with the assortment of envelopes. i think the different color options gives this simple, classic design a little more flair.

my original intention for the cards is illustrated in the last pic above – i think it would be so, so cute for the bride and groom to draw little pictures of themselves to personalize each card. i went ahead and drew a bride & groom on one of the cards just to give them an idea of how cute it is going to look!!! i love the contrast b/w the printed and hand-drawn – it’s the perfect marriage b/w fun and elegance. i wanted to emphasize that while these two are as classy and sophisticated as you can get, they’re still kids at heart.

…it feels so good to be printing again!

here is the fourth print in my current gocco series. i am especially proud of this one as it marks my first attempt at color mixing. in the past, i’ve been too afraid to experiment with customizing my own colors any further than adding a bit of white to one of the pre-mixed hues to lighten it up. this time around i tried my hand at mixing up pastel versions of chartreuse, sage green, and a bold yet muted blue-green. i was also hoping to mix up a more coral-y pink rather than the barbie/cotton candy pinks i’ve been using thus far (although it’s difficult to tell in the above pic.)

success!!!

what a relief to finally get the colors i want! i’m so glad i bought extra ink, got over my fear of mixing up some awful mess, and just went for it. the colors turned out perfectly…exactly as i’d envisioned. this is so exciting, i must say…creating the perfect color palette is sure to become my new obsession!

here are some silk screen patches i made a few weeks back but had to wait to share since they were a big surprise for my friend john. now that he’s got them i can post pics!

a couple of years ago john and i tried to start a comic through the mail with john completing a page and then sending the images to me to write and draw the next page. we had no idea what the story was going to be about or where it would go. what we had was a protagonist – that little guy you see above. and, we knew we wanted to build the entire story around him and his experiences. he really reminds me of ZED – one of my favorite comic book heros of all time!

the comic didn’t get very far – mostly b/c of my crazy, busy life – but the idea and those initial pages are still out there. i was hoping these patches would get john thinking about a possible resurrection…i really want to know what happens to this guy!

check out the nightmare before christmas sally dress i just finished up!!

i’m so excited about how it came out – it looks a lot like tim burton’s original sketch for her dress but with a few flourishes and a bit of artistic license on my part. it’s my tribute to a film and an aesthetic i’ve been in love with since it first arrived in the pop culture scene.

i tried making one of these dresses for halloween 9 yrs ago before i knew anything about sewing, pattern-making, etc. admittedly, i haven’t improved as much over the years as i wish i had but it makes me happy that my sewing skills are at least adequate enough to make a patchwork dress!

i used a strapless denim mini-dress for the shell and constructed the sally dress around it from a mix of flannel and faux suede fabrics, some of which i hand painted using a DecoFabric pen. i really wanted to give it a finished look while still leaving some loose pieces on the bottom b/c let’s face it – sally lives in a mad scientist’s laboratory w/only scraps to work with!

the latest in my gocco roadkill series.

i’ve always known i would do a series of work on roadkill, as morbid as that sounds. i remember having to pass an exorbitant amount of it on my commute from DC to Baltimore while i was attending MICA. it was really horrible – i don’t know what it is about that stretch of I-95 but there were just so many dead animals paving my commute every day. it got really stressful and culminated in my throwing up one day at the sight of a decapitated deer mere feet from my car during a traffic jam.

i hate that roadkill happens and have no idea what to do about it so i try to dream up ways to at least honor these little beings or call attention to their predicament. i’m putting them in these serene environments versus the hostile ones that led to their demise and showing their little unique souls as it leaves each of their bodies. it’s all i can do to pay respect for and honor these poor breathless creatures.

a few prints from yesterday’s run – the second in my current print gocco series. not sure which one i’ll ultimately choose to include in the series…i’ll wait until ALL the prints are done to see which fits in best. the mystery unfolds!

here are a couple of examples of my new gocco prints.

i’m taking an entirely different direction with gocco now and am using it to make one-of-a-kind prints instead of editions. this is a huge departure for me! gocco has always been such a rigid medium for me in many ways because of the fact that i’ve only used it for making editions. registration nightmares, lots of photoshop work, lots and lots of planning…this is what i was used to.

but, after taking my experimental printmaking class last semester where we were only allowed to work on one-of-a-kind prints exclusively, i realized i wanted the gocco to be more fun, more spontaneous, and much less planned. so far, so good. i gave myself a 1/2 hour to gather imagery for the prints, made some photocopies and immediately started printing. add in a hairdryer and i hardly even had to factor in drying time. talk about instant gratification!

i’m having a blast…those moments of creation, discovery, and play just can’t be beat!

this little tumbleweed blew up on my doorstep last week…incredible!

here are a few pics from a recent photography expedition to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. this is the most incredible place for a photo shoot!!! especially the section on optical illusions!! two floors of fun and wackiness and so many amazing things to explore!!!

i kept wanting to post this sketch and then deciding against it, thinking about how bad it is technically, not really resembling my deer dear at all. but, looking at it tonight it finally dawned on me…how i’ve been using my subjects as objects to project myself and my own feelings onto and that’s some really important stuff.

my drawings have never been about technical proficiency, realism, or any of that other classical drawing stuff. they’re childlike, curious, and wrought w/ bad perspective, proportions, and an extremely stylized aesthetic. they’re about my subconscious, my feelings and the things inside me that i need to express – that are dying to get out but don’t seem to have a healthy way in which to do so.

realizing this also makes me understand that my drawings over the years are almost like a journal or a pictorial record of my life experience. for the most part they focus on those things that are frightening, worrisome, or bizarre to me so they’re not a completely accurate record. they do help me understand my process, however. not only in an artistic sense but also the process of discovering, experiencing and navigating this crazy wild ride we call life.