If'n you're in the SF bay area, I hight suggest checking out this group show bennifiting RoboGames 2010. (Disclaimer: I am in the show, but so are a heck of a lot of other great artists).

Automatic for the people.

Do sentient machines dwell on the existential circuit that leads to the spiritual 404 error?

Does being a machine mean just being a device: literarily, artistically and literally?

Or does everything just boil down to everyone’s deep-seated need to crush all humans and plot eventual total world domination? Find out at Automatic!

November 19, 20, 21, 2009
Exhibit: 5pm-8pm / Beer and wine reception 7pm-12pm on Fri & Sat
@ The lowerDeck Gallery – 2295 3rd Street (below Sundance Coffee in San Francisco)

Robot Paintings and Sculptures from the prodigious talents of: Doctor Popular * Josh Ellingson * I-Wei Huang * Simon Cox * Nils Jawa * Jonathan Foote * Camp Peavy * Alice Koswara * Max Chandler * Eliot K. Daughtry * Adam Davis * Patrick Lake * Phoneticontrol * Mike Hales * Bill Robinson, Liz Mamorsky, Meredith Scheff and many many others!

*”My God, it’s full of robots!” 

I made a little watercolor for you guys. It's a lady and her marshmallows..and welding gear.

you can see various stages of the painting on my ustream channel.

It's up for sale in my Etsy Store.

[Larger version behind the cut]

In addition to contributing here in word form, I am also a cartoonist and illustrator. I don't always do steampunk thematic stuff, but today I am. So, for your viewing pleasure, im going to be Ustream-ing the watercolor-ing of the above drawing.

Our own Meredith Scheff be showing her art in a show tomorrow. It’s her first show outside of school and she would love to see you all there. There will be prints, originals, and comics. 

here’s the info:

http://www.missioncomicsandart.com/upcomming

Space Gallery: 1141 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109
on Friday 07/24/09 – from 9 PM to 2 AM

From the Mission: Comics site:

Mission: Comics & Art will be a retail book store and art gallery that specializes in graphic novels, monthly comic books and fine art.

While I continue to work on securing the right location for this venture, come join and celebrate the comic book art form, and enjoy artwork influenced by comic book or working with comic book themes.

DJs: Discobotic & twiita (myhouse)

Artists:
————————————————————
Audrey Welch
Betsy Lam
Chris Conroy
Eli Maness
Matt Delight
Meredith Scheff-King
telephone & soup
Travis Nichols
W.A.M. – Women’s Art Movement

Mer hopes to see you there! It should be awesome!

On a recent trip to Portland, I was introduced to Brandon and Heather, and their project: Bus-Zilla! The project is also known as the Mutant Bus- and it is crazy, it is ridiculous, nearly impossible- and totally f'ing cool.The makers are taking a duo of 70's VW vans- cutting, welding, splicing them into an articulated monster; with gas engine in the front and electric motor in the rear. They seem to be making quick progress, as well- it's inteded to premier at Burning Man this year.Their build blog is extremely detailed, chronicling much of what is certainly a technical Everest.

From the Build Blog:

"A self powered hybrid articulating Volkswagen transporter. Built from two (2) buses, it is approximately 40ft long with accessory trailer and lizard costume. Drive train consists of both electric and gasoline motors. The gasoline engine is used on the highway, and the electric motor “PlayaDrive” is used on the Playa a more green form of transportation. BusZilla II has a total of 6 wheels, with 3 axles, 2 of which are powered at any one time...The main construction feature of BusZilla II is that it articulates (bends) between the 2nd and 3rd axle, much like a large metropolitan mass transit bus."

(the also let me drive their uni-mog around their sleepy suburban neighborhood, thus fulfilling my tank-girl fantasy)

It's a busy weekend here in the SF bay. The incredible, annual, flammable Fire Arts Festival is taking place. It's put on by The Crucible, a "con-profit collaboration of arts, industry, and community". From the site:

"Each July The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast. The Fire Arts Festival is our major fundraising event, and proceeds benefit The Crucible’s arts education programs for youth and adults."

Keep a special eye out for SPWS pals Alan Rorie, Jon Sariugate, and Dodger Stirling.

Also, this Friday there's a fundraiser for illustrious Neverwas Haul.It will be held at The Shipyard Labs in Berkeley.  From thier site:

"We will begin the evening with High Tea aboard the Neverwas Haul at 4pm, followed by drinks and h’ors doevres at 5:30pm, dinner on the various levels of the Haul at 6:30pm, and finishing with a rousing burlesque show and libations until the wee hours of the morning. "

Growing up near a lake, there were two types of boat people: speed-boat people and patio-boat people. As I sipped drinks from the comfort of a floating drunk-tank, I never really understood the appeal of speed-boats (especially on a lake without, you know, outlets).

Edison Marine, however, makes a damn sexy wooden speedboat. Not only that, but they make a damn sexy electric wooden speedboat. If you've never been out on a lake before, boats- especially speed boats and sea-doos- create a truly obnoxious amount of emisions. It's great to see an EV done so beautifully, and for the pocket-friendly price of $120k.

I can't believe I stumbled upon this. If there's any time the internet can come close to the joy of finding a discarded love letter or lost writings of a crazed man, this is it. It's $300,000 dollars worth of rare books supplemented by a 3900 word Craigslist ad fervent sermon. Holy cow.

From the ad:

"What was said by a contemporary historian of the 19th century could apply as well to America of the 1950's - that the "poor was striving in almost impossible circumstances of their lives to conform to middle-class standards of morality" Then in around 1960, something happened. Morality went the way of top hats and spats and the center would not hold as a result. Thereafter, cultural programming was generated - from BELOW, not ABOVE. Society began slouching toward today's CULTUREVILLE. As always, those who "control the international flow of money and information, preside over philanthropic foundations and institutions of higher learning - and ultimately MANAGE THE INSTRUMENTS OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION - AND, THUS. SET THE TERMS OF PUBLIC DEBATE. Even then, the "elite", it was generally thought at the time - didn't care for the world around them - and in the words of WORDSWORTH - "Getting and spending, they lay waste OUR lives" "

I would buy the whole collection just to meet this guy. Well, no I wouldn't, but this fills me with glee and a sad sympathy all the same. How can I put this? Everyone has obsessions. I have a lot. This guy has one, and he has seen this one love be mutilated, mutated, and molested into some poor sad approximation of his beloved. Now his hard times (im guessing here) forces them away, and with his one last breath and dusty finger, he is going to tell you what he thinks of it.

Also, can you imagine the smell of those books? A perfume of old leather, ink, and crumbling paper dreams.

Jake and I are having a bit of a discussion on the Discovery Channel's latest ploy to appeal to our nerdly senses. The show is called Weaponizers-in short, teams outfit vehicles with radio controls, fill them to the brim with gigantic (yes, real) guns, and then blast the living snot out of each other.

Jake says he won't like it unless they focus on the mechanical aspects. I say I'll like it as long as they focus on blasting the living snot out of each other.

I'll also like it because my friend Cowboy is in it. He's a pretty bad-ass Texan (aren't they all?) who I fondly remember as being the guy who finally got me into a proximity suit and within spittin' distance to this fire.

The living snot.

This thing is amazing, but seeing as how this is a family-friendly website, I have the full post over at my personal blog, ladycartoonist.com.