I asked Ben about the designs:
This was the third Mudhoney poster I've done and I was thinking about how I don't see my Grandma all that often, and then I heard a story about elderly people using robots as companions to stave off the crushing loneliness of their golden years, which is both hilarious and sad, so I started with that. But I didn't want to just draw a robot and an octogenarian and slap some text on it, because that's fucking boring. So I strapped an organ to the robot, and turned that into a meat grinder, and stuck a goddamn monkey in a fez hat in it. Then I decided that meat would be everywhere. Then I thought, how about if that grandma was a weird crab-creature knitting meat sweaters? I wanted the text to subtle and somehow embedded in the illustration so I lifted, er, borrowed the idea of writing the name across the sweaters from one of their videos. I was also very enamored with the monkey, I didn't want the other characters to be too expressive so hence the vacuous eyes and the tube-headed robot. While looking at pictures of tubes, I noticed a lot of them had really cool text so I used that to the full extent of the law. Then I looked at a bunch of USDA logos and meat-tags, I guess you'd call them, and the rest is history. I will say this though, at the beginning of their documentary, which is great BTW, Mark Arm says, "Anytime you're playing music for the crowd instead of yourself, you're fucked." I wholeheartedly agree, and I try to approach my work in general, and this poster specifically, in similar spirit. I mean, I don't want to pile up paper, but I'd rather have a stack of weird art than do another poster with a bird in a tree on it (probably my next poster).The poster for Mudhoney at the Crescent Ballroom, 10-22-15, is 18"x24" 2-color screen-print on 100 lb. Banana Split French paper. Signed and numbered edition.
Flipper/David Yow, was a quicker turn time so I didn't get too in depth. Just had been thinking about kids toting guns, and centaurs. I wanted the poster to be celebratory but still a bit strange so thats what I came up with. Perhaps the idea to give the centaur underwear came subconsciously from the back of a Jesus Lizard album. I didn't really think about it at the time. After I did the font I noticed it looked a bit like pubes, and I was ok with that.
Thanks for your interest, and the opportunity to reflect on these posters which I dont often do.
The poster for Flipper at the Acheron, 11-06-15, is 18"x24" 3-color screen-print on 100 lb. Blu Raspberry French paper. Signed and numbered edition of 65.
Buy them at http://hamfistinternational.bigcartel.com/
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