Sleep – Santa Cruz / Santa Ana, CA 2014

Illustrator David D’Andrea’s work is iconic, dark, intricate, and beautiful. His illustrations seethe with sinuous, accomplished line work and intentional rough edges. He draws from a variety of themes - the shelves of his small studio are crammed with dusty books: almanacs, type specimens, crumbling encyclopedias, and other esoteric visual references, all looking as if they had been rescued from a medieval basement. The eclectic influences show in the work: archaic lettering, obsessively detailed renderings of animals, and elements from numerous religions and cultures. Soft-spoken, funny, and kind, D’Andrea has constantly been driven by visual and cultural research. Some of David’s “other interests include cryptozoology, flea markets, pseudepigrapha, vintage electronics, and parapsychology,” according to his website. Though containing a lot of dark imagery, D’Andrea’s work draws you in - it is seductive, engaging, and meticulously crafted. - Ian LynamScreen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas. Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. It is also known as silkscreen, seriography, and serigraph.