The intro to this latest blog is an excerpt from an interview Art Chantry gave back 1998:
Chantry:Yeah, but that’s not the same thing. That’s an old Situationist idea. There was a book produced by… I think it was Guy Debord, he was a Situationist, he was active in Situationism and all that shit in the 50s. You know about Situationism, and how it became…?
Roto: A little bit.
Chantry: Situationism was a major influence on English punk. A very big influence. If you do your research — there’s a book by Greil Marcus called Lipstick Traces —
Roto:Yeah, I’ve read that.
Chantry: [incredulous] You’ve read that? God damn, that was a tough read! … [laughs] Yeah! But Guy Debord actually did a book that had a sandpaper cover, and the idea was would it would destroy culture on either side of it on the bookshelf. …
Art Chantry (Art@artchantry.com) :
This object is a poster that was done for one of my lectures I gave in Tucson, az. that’s a strange place. It’s a border town surrounded by high desert, saguaro cactus country and the Mexican border. It’s a classic frontier town ‘all growed up’ into a bustling metropolis. but, it never has come close to escaping it’s roots.It’s …the old west still out there. The desert country is always there, quietly waiting for you to make the wrong step.
So, this poster may seem unusual, even a little frightening. but, when you look deeper at it, you see the skull, the headline (a smile wider than years) and then you notice a little blood. It’s a tattoo. a fresh tattoo. The designer had this poster design created on his skin to execute the poster. Welcome to Tucson.
http://www.artchantry.com/
I first ran into Val Lehnerd at some design conference in California – I think it was an ‘envision’ design conference where I was guest speaker. I noticed him because he was touch older than the fresh college-age faces dominating the crowd. He also held back a touch, like he didn’t know what he was doing there, feeling a little out of place. I notice things like that. it’s how I find ‘my people’. I’m like that, too.
Eventually one of us approached the other and introduced ourselves. He, in fact, was a designer who had come into the field later than that young academic bunch of larval graphic design kids attending the conference. So, he really DIDN’T fit into that crowd much. He’d already had a life – a hell of a life – and it’s difficult to relate to people just starting out on their journeys. Besides, those ‘kids’ are always scared of everything, especially people like us.
Val used to be a professional fire fighter in Tucson, where he grew up. He switched careers when a burning structure he was attempting to put out collapsed during the battle. he fell something like two or three stories INSIDE the fried building. He broke just about everything, his back included. The guy is a bionic man, held together with nuts and bolts an bailing wire and duct tape. He lives in a steady state of physical pain for the rest of his life. No big deal to him, tho. He copes fine. that’s the breaks (yuk yuk).
val lehnerd. Deconstruction of the song Money from the group Pink Floyd. Acknowledgments: Won a Bronze Award at the Tucson Advertising Federation Addy Awards 2006 in poster category. Read More: http://www.b
ce.net/gallery/Money-Poster/381863
After that accident, his life changed course (duh!) he obviously couldn’t work as a fireman any more, so he went back to school to learn a new trade. He married and started raising a family. He became a graphic designer. He was at that conference to make a few professional contacts and talk shop.
After he returned home from the conference, he contacted a local Tucson design organization and arranged for me to lecture there. when it came time to design a poster, he called me up and wanted to know what to do. We talked. He wanted a theme. I gave him a title – which I had been saving for that detective novel I was never going to write. Even over the phone I could see his eyes light up. He mentioned he was thinking about getting a new tattoo and he hung up. hmmmmmm…
When I got the poster, this was what I saw – he had actually created an image of a skull sporting “a smile wider than years” and applied it to his back.I didn’t know what to think. it’s not the first time somebody had tattooed themselves according to my work, but it’s always unnerving to see somebody do something like that. tattoos are BIG commitments, not to be taken lightly. They really have so much personal ‘magic’ associated with them. Once you get one, it changes you forever.
But, he knew what he was doing, the guy was no slouch, no dumb kid. He’d been there. I was honored by his gesture. It’s really sort of a mind-boggling thing to encounter, deeply moving in a way I can’t describe.
The talk went off without a hitch. the poster was met with confusion by the local design people (the joke was on them). Val and I had a great time hanging out as he showed me his home turf. I best recall a trip to old Tombstone (a tourist trap, but it was still pretty cool.) but, I treasure the time driving to tombstone and back as we all started comparing stories about our misspent youths.I always thought that I had good ‘teenage’ stories – crazyass Tacoma stories that always end on a violent surreal note. but, Val? He put me to shame. Growing up wild in Tucson was a whole ‘nother beast.
"Whether we’re talking about graphic design for brochures, billboards or presentation folders, you only have a few seconds to catch the attention of your prospects, and Val Lehnerd Design can help you do exactly that." Read More: http://www.vallehnerddesign.com/Val_Lehnerd_Design_NEW/Home.html
After I left, Val packed up his family and moved to Las Vegas. a tougher town, yet. He began working his design there while the economy collapsed. he’s doing ok, but it’s tough for him just like everybody else in our business. Thank god for casinos, ya know? he’s on the straight and narrow pro-designer path now. But I imagine he still has his big rusty 4-wheeler rig he used for stump-jumping off-road fun back in Tucson. you can take the man out of Tucson, but you can’t take the Tucson out of the man. and that tattoo is still there, grinning with it’s smile wider than years…
art@artchantry.com
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