Everybody is a Star

Over the summer, July to be more precise, I participated as an exhibitor in my zine/comix show ever. It was SĀBRS Festival here in sunny Riga, Latvia, which will be another blog post (the news and topics for posts has piled up!). As part of the festival, a local vinyl fanatic and online radio personality, Micheal Holland organized a series of radio shows, hosted by tirkultūra, featuring some of the artists, and I was one of the lucky ones to get my hands on the mic. This was my third radio show collaboration with Micheal, so I’m getting more comfortable with the format, assembling a playlist and running my mouth (something I rarely have a problem with). Coming up with an idea for the show usually hinges on one song title or lyric and this time it was Sly and the Family Stone providing the spark with their beautiful tune, “Everybody is a Star”.

Tīrkultūra · Sabrs Radio 2024 With Hal Weaver - Everybody is A Star

I connected the theme of the show with zine and comix artist’s desire to be a star in their own way; to share their creative life with the world and tell their story. Many of the tunes I included carry the spirit of story-telling or aspirations of “making it big” or living a big life.

Here is the playlist; a mix of eclectic tunes, a few movie samples, run through with musings and guffaws.

 
1 – “Hello Hooray!” – Alice Cooper
>> Introduction and general jaw-jacking – Hal and Micheal
2 – Sample from the movie “Zandalee” > “Electric Chair” – Prince
3 – “Don’t No Body Move, This is Heist” – Tony Powers
>> Hal and Micheal chat
4 – Sample from the movie Mad Max – “God in an Alcove” – Bauhaus
5 – “On Broadway” – George Benson
6 – Sample from the movie “Barfly” – “Nobody” – David Baerwald
>> Random chit chat with Richard Thompson (Liminal Noise/Lost Harbors)
7 – “A World of Our Own” – Pater Noster soundtrack – Chris Bickell
8 – “Everybody is a Star” – Sly and the Family Stone
>> Richard Thompson holds forth with more thought-like things.
9 – “Isumas, mi daj” – Pēteris Leimanis (1949)
10 – “L’Estasi Dell’oro (The Ecstasy Of Gold)” – Ennio Morricone, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
11 – “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” – Royal Fingerbowl
>> Outro and credits with Richard and Micheal.
12 – “Shining Star” – Earth, Wind and Fire

Let me know what you think. Hopefully I introduced you to some hidden treasures or dusted off some old friends.

Keep smiling,

OK HW

Tata Mask Drawing

 A did a new drawing today. It was a cool, rainy day in Riga. Motivation and ambition have been low for me lately. I have lists and lists of things to do; ideas to explore, comix stories to layout; planning for a small press festival, etc, but I haven’t done any drawing in too long. I get cranky and worried if I don’t do some drawing on a regular basis. Maybe the machine will rust, seize up and that will be it! I will only get to do so many drawings. This weird and wild creature came from the Instagram feed of @Artkhade. Of course I was attracted to this mask for it’s intensity and rawness and because it reminded me of horror movies. I love the square eye holes and broad, fierce mouth and all those lovely teeth.

The Dogon people, well one of them, hacked out this Tata mask. I always encourage anyone who enjoys this art to learn more about the original culture and history. A good place to start is the listing on the Artkhade website. Artkhade is an amazing resource for browsing “ancient arts from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas” and learning about the market for these incredible objects. This particular Tata mask recently sold at auction for €110,500! It’s difficult for me to correlate the idea of that much money being traded for this piece of art. It really doesn’t make any sense to me. This mask has a reality and power that transcends money. The craft person who created it was motivated by spiritual purpose, but who knows. Maybe it gave some currency and power (one and the same) to the maker within their culture? Isn’t that what many artists have chased through the centuries and still pursue today?

On this rainy day, I was just trying to get my ass moving, so thank you Tata mask and the Dogon people for the inspiration.

OK HW

2023 – Once More Into the Fray…

I have not been a big fan of the 2020’s on a global and historical level. It’s been a bit of a scary shitshow of a decade so far. On a personal level however, it’s been an invigorating period. In 2023 I managed to get closer to the kind of creative life that I prefer to live, but was elusive to me for some years. There had been flashes of projects here and there through the years; the random art exhibition or acting gig, but I was too occupied with the “rat race” to be fully engaged in my creative life until now. Settling into a new life in Riga, Latvia, I have found the time and space I need to circle back around to unfinished creative pursuits. Maybe this is just a bit of a middle-life crisis playing out to re-embrace the comix, movies and art I was obsessed with as a teenager or maybe it’s a proper second (third?, fourth?) chance to once more live that creative life I had in my twenties, whatever it is I am grateful for the opportunity.

So the year that was 2023 and what did I accomplish? First big achievement was designing a new Weaverwerx logo and website, something that had been on my mind for an embarrassingly long time. I have more plans for the logo; animation, stickers, and more. To go with this new virtual space, I also secured a dedicated physical office/studio, something I haven’t had (outside of regular jobs) in a very long time. The coffee shop or kitchen table was no longer cutting it for a workspace. I need to spread my stuff out. It’s working for me.

COMIX
I finally got back into making comix again after a thirteen year absence. I wrote and drew three new comix stories; “Burls & Gnarls”, “THAT HAT” and “RESPECTO!” and submitted them to various publishers. A British annual anthology called “UGLY MUG” included “RESPECTO!” in their seventh issue, which has also been reviewed and mentioned in a variety of podcasts and blogs. The other stories will be part of the next issue of my own zine “RELUCTANT SADIST”, which was last published in 1989 (no, really), so look for that soon!

ACTING

I registered with a few of the local casting agencies and picked up my first three paid European acting gigs this year including my first bit of ADR work on the feature film “Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie” and a great role as an 18th century professor for an upcoming episode of the German TV show “Terra X” about Laura Bassi, the the first woman to have a doctorate in science. I also had the lead role in a student film called “The Road” that I have yet to see.

ART

My artistic output last year was focused on drawing, lots of drawing, more than I’ve done in years. I also was hired to paint two murals. The first one was at an annual international art exhibition in Riga called "SurvivalKit" and the second was at the National Library of Latvia (Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka), both for the Latvian alternative comics publisher kuš! komikss.

FILM

I completed one music video project called “Space and Darkness” in collaboration with my friend Neil Bruce (Light B4 Sound). We have another project in the works, so stay tuned.

One final note, this post’s title is a quote from the film “The Grey” and was written by the director Joe Carnahan. Here’s the full quote that the protagonist played by Liam Neeson uses a mantra to keep going despite a bleak future, “Once more into the fray, into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day, live and die on this day”. That is on the wall next to my desk and will be my mantra for 2024. Never stop fighting for your creative soul.

OK HW

The Last Logo

2023 has been a big year for Weaverwerx; a resurrection of sorts after years of little to no activity. I have taken a workspace in the old Kino Studios in Riga, Latvia and have begun to pursue comix, drawings and film projects again. As part of this new era, I have revamped the Weaverwerx website, which was the perfect opportunity design a new logo. Now embarking on a new logo design may seem like a simple process, but even the "richest" and "smartest" person in the world can fuck it up, resulting in losing years of positive branding, good will and billions of dollars. Luckily I don't have those kinds of pressures on me. I'm just this guy trying to carve out my own tiny niche in the real and virtual world. The only person I need to please is myself, but that is easier said than done. I'm a fickle, difficult to please customer when it comes to my own work and have a special mutant power for overthinking that would give Professor X a headache. Somehow I managed to find my way, creating and discarding a dozen different concepts before landing on one that feels right, so right in fact that it will likely (always leave yourself an out) be the LAST WEAVERWERX LOGO. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to the new look.

Yes, it is a critter, animal, creature of some type and needs a nickname, which I am puzzling out. Any suggestions? I think of artistic ideas as being like creatures roaming around looking for a worthy person to be their portal into our world. These ideas animals can be enormously powerful and lucrative and creative people bring them forth with nothing more than a pencil and blank sheet of paper. This critter here is hungry and lustful and curious. It wants your attention. I wanted this logo to be part watchdog, part chupacabra, part feral cat, and part alien from another world. I want it to guard my back, but also push me when I need it, like everyday. From a design point-of-view, I wanted an image that would stay in folks' minds and not be confused with another thing; not too complex, but not too simple. Maybe even something that will provoke some affection. I also think it'll look damn fine on a t-shirt!

Time to show how the sausage was made. Here are my raw, rough brainstorming sketches as I worked through various possibilities, including some boring, too generic non-character options.

Some of those "shrunken head" and Tiki God-ish designs could wind up making cameo appearances in some future comix stories, so keep your eyes peeled.

The previous Weaverwerx logo was a simple hand-drawn W with scribbly circle around it, which I call the "Hairball Logo". I'm ditching it because it is too generic. It could be used for a hair salon or a bar or sock company, whatever. I like the hand-drawn quality, but that's about it. I only used this one for a couple of years, so it was really just a placeholder.

Before that one, I had been using this dapper chap with the square head and formal suit. This design originated in the late 1990s and was fun, but it looked too much of it's time. I do like the "round peg in the square hole" head and the "W" suit collar. It was also a load of fun to animate, but times have changed, so time to say adieu.

Now that the Logo saga has been been settled, time to get on with creating some actual content or something...

Keep smiling,

OK HW