Eugene weekly., January 26, 2012, Page 11, Image 11

att Dye knows this, and so do the other 58 artists
whose work will be showcased at the Blunt Graffi x
studio on Feb. 2.
Dead Rock Stars: A Tribute to the Mortal Gods
of Sound is a phenomenal exhibit of printed art that
includes contributors ranging from international
graphic designers to New York street artists.
The ambitious and large-scale endeavor, though
sensational both in proportion and conception, would seem
to be the next logical step for Dye. The son of a welder
whose ingenuity inspires him to this day, Dye spent 10 years
in the U.S. Air Force, where he worked in air-traffi c control
guiding planes off of and onto ships.
Dye found a burning passion in the visual arts, left the
Air Force and began furiously designing concert posters for
touring bands. It is the experience of his initial plunge into
the design world that Dye is now, in a sense, returning to
with his Dead Rock Stars show.
“The dead rock star theme made sense with what I’d
been doing earlier,” says Dye. “And a lot of these guys
(contributing artists) did concert posters over the years too.”
It is almost midnight at Blunt Graffi x, and Dye is talking
about his humble beginnings as a young artist — what it
was like to track down band members and crank out images
geared to entice show-goers. His huge dog, Chase, paces
throughout the warehouse. Small and large screen prints litter
the edges of the workspace.
“I’m so glad this show came together,” Dye says. “I’m
still getting emails from artists who are still trying to sub-
mit. There is so much talent and they are all so good.” While
speaking, Dye carefully dissects the packaging around a
piece of art that arrived earlier in the day. The return address
is a location in Germany.
Dye is low key about his current projects, some of which
will be on display at the Feb. 2 show. Together with collabo-
rator Molly Mae Culligan, Dye produces large-scale screen
prints that require hours of tedious attention to detail. When
most people think of screen-printing, they envision a few janky
wooden boxes with little squares of mesh in some very enthu-
siastic DIY kid’s basement, with edgy T-shirts as the fi nal prod-
uct. That’s not the type of thing going on over at Dye’s studio.
First comes the idea, which Dye usually sketches, photo-
copies and then lays out in a computer formatting program.
This portion of the process, the raw, creative part, can take
up to 10 hours or more.
“If you’re not happy with the picture or the design in 10
hours or so, you’ve got to move on,” Culligan says. “But
after the fi rst 10 hours you know whether or not you’re
going to put in more hours designing.”
The image is separated by color onto transparencies.
Then screens are coated with photo emulsion and left to dry,
after which the transparancies are burned onto the screens
using an exposure unit — a large table, with long UV light
tubes, that looks like a copy machine on steroids.
“Every place the ultraviolet light hits the screen burns
the emulsion into the screen,” Dye explains. “Then we rinse
out the excess part. Then we have our stencil.”
M
MOLLY MAE CULLIGAN
AND MATT DYE
PRINTING THE WORK OF
INDONESIAN ARTIST
TOMBSTONE 14
P H OTO BY TO D D C O O P E R
The rinsing-out part looks like Dye and Culligan placing
the exposed screen into a bathtub and using a pressure
washer (basically a water cannon) to blast it. This aquatic
assault occurs at short range — and sometimes at very close
range to ensure the crispness of the image.
There must be a stencil (or screen) for each color;
therefore the exposing and water blasting is repeated as
many times as needed. Next comes Culligan’s specialty: the
mixing of inks to obtain just the right color.
Lastly, the screens are taken to the press where Dye
and Culligan work patiently, printing screen-by-screen
and color-by-color to achieve the fi nal product. From
time to time, Tim Jordan, another diligent Blunt Graffi x
collaborator, comes in and helps with the process. The last
part of the operation can take about an hour per color. On
average the Blunt Graffi x crew uses four colors per print.
One of Dye’s creations, “Sid and Nancy, The Gauntlet,”
an action-fi lled scene of punk casualties Sid Vicious and
Nancy Spungen of The Sex Pistols, is fi lled with so much
color, you’d swear Dye and Culligan must’ve suffered brutal
insomnia to make it happen. The two artists have that look
of well-earned exhaustion about them, and rightfully so.
Other meticulous and masterful artists represented in
the Dead Rock Stars show are Michael Roderick — a local
musician from the band Mood Area 52 as well as a concert
poster designer — Jim Mazza, Japan’s own Roamcouch,
and Frank Kozik. But seriously, the list goes on and on and
on: Strawberry Luna, Paul Savage, Boneface. One of the
larger names whose work will be on display is the 69-year-
old London-based graffi ti artist known as Copy Right.
“There are a lot of big names, and to be in the same show
as they are is a real honor,” says Joshua Budich, whose
homage to Amy Winehouse will be among the art pieces
hanging in the studio at Blunt.
Skeletal images of Kurt Cobain and The Ramones, Jim
Morrison mixed with Han Solo and cyborg-esque portraits
of Michael Jackson are just a few of the images show-goers
can expect to see. The added treat of live music, courtesy of
Girin Guha and the Experience, will also be on the scene.
But Dye isn’t stopping with the Feb. 2 show, nor
should he, given the magnitude of artists and talent he is
collaborating with. Dead Rock Stars: A Tribute to the
Mortal Gods of Sound will be on display at The Wave
gallery starting Feb 24. Dye is also in negotiations with San
Francisco art gallery Spoke Art.
Hanging around Dye in the fi nal days of his preparation,
you can sense his excitement. It’s contagious. As tired as he
seems from long nights and odd hours of work, there is an
undertone of enthusiasm that seems glued to Dye. He is about
to watch an idea hatched in the early hours of a morning
many months ago turn into a nationally touring event that has
potential to land in galleries up and down the coast.
“I’m so excited to see this thing take off,” he says, “es-
pecially to take it on the road.” He smiles big. “I wanted to
do something different like this. And everyone loves dead
rock stars.”
ew
Dead Rockstars: A Tribute to the Mortal Gods of Sound opens 6pm
Thursday, Feb. 2, at Blunt Graffix (1040 Tyinn St. No. 3, Eugene).
The work will also be available for viewing Feb. 3-4 from 4-8pm
and Feb. 5 from 3-6pm.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: “JOE STRUMMER” BY BONEFACE,
“THE RAMONES” BY RETRO OUTLAW STUDIOS,
“AMY WINEHOUSE” BY JOSHUA BUDICH, “27 CLUB” BY DKNG
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EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 26, 2012 11