I’m honored to have one of my illustrations from The Wreck of Cheseborough included in The Great State of Illustration exhibition curated by the Illustration Institute. The show is currently on view at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk and will move to Waterville in February. It is incredible to have my work included alongside such an amazing group of artists that includes my friends, former students, teaching colleagues, and many local luminaries from past and present. go check it out!
"Draw Out The Song" at Ocean House Gallery
These two new paintings will be featured in “Draw Out the Song”, a show organized by John Knight that features works on paper inspired by songs. These pieces were inspired by Hoist that Rag by Tom Waits and In Tall Buildings by John Hartford. The show is on view from May 27-28 at Ocean House Gallery in South Portland, Maine.
Exhibition at Nagoya University
A digital projection of my animated video for “Secret Friends” is currently on view at the ITbM gallery at Nagoya University in Japan. The exhibition — Altogether: Creativity in Isolation, curated by Briar Rose Pelletier — features artwork made in isolation during COVID lockdowns. See more information at the ITbM gallery website.
New Single release today!
A new single from Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy comes out today! “The Kids Don’t Care About Guitars Anymore”, is now available on all the streams and local radio. Follow us on Instagram for news and a contest to win a vinyl copy of Window Weather. https://www.instagram.com/custardpawsandmrfreezy/)
Window Weather vinyl is in!
The vinyl LPs of Window Weather are here and ready to ship to your door! Gatefold cover, heavy-weight orange vinyl — they look and sound amazing! Visit the Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy page on Bandcamp to order.
"Window Weather" by Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy
Announcing the release of Window Weather, the new album from Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy (aka Blair Wells and Jeff Badger). This album was recorded remotely with Blair in Île-Bizard, Canada and Badger in Maine, USA. The first single and video “All I Want To Do (Is Leave The House)” came out in March of 2020, and the duo continued to record the rest of the album remotely over the course of the year. Wells and Badger have been creating music as Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy since 1994. Window Weather is their third full-length album; their first since The Buffalo in 2011.
Window Weather features eleven new songs inspired by the absurdity, hope, and existentialist angst of the global pandemic. Unencumbered by genre, the album continues CPMF’s exploration of various musical styles, with off-kilter electronica, New Wave dance pop, smooth bossa nova, acoustic blues, and angular guitar rock, all set in whirling accompaniment to Badger’s cinematic lyrics.
The album will be released on streaming, CD, and limited-edition heavyweight orange vinyl — purchase CDs and pre-order the vinyl through Bandcamp by clicking here.
You can listen, view videos, and follow CPMF on social media by clicking here.
Watch the animated video for “Secret Friends” below. This video was created with about 3,000 charcoal drawings that were drawn/erased for each frame.
"Sounds Like Green" at Monson Arts
“Sounds Like Green” is a new exhibition of paintings inspired by music, on view now at the Pop-Up space at Monson Arts. These works use color and form to create a non-representational depiction of a song. Each of these paintings was created in a single sitting, listening to the song on repeat, in about 120 minutes.
This is an assignment I give to my Painting I students in my classes at Southern Maine Community College and most of these were created alongside them as they created their own pieces. We first discuss artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Stuart Davis, and also the neurological condition called synesthesia. For people who have synesthesia, stimulation of one sense, such as hearing., leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in another sense. The most common form of synesthesia is colored hearing: sounds, music, or voices seen as colors.
The list of songs I used is below, along with the year the painting was made.
Click here to listen to the playlist on Spotify.
Anderson Paak, The Bird, 2017
Spoon, The Beast And Dragon Adored, 2017
Jose Gonzalez, This Is How We Walk On The Moon, 2016
Sebadoh, The Freed Pig, 2016
The Bad Plus, And Here We Test The Powers Of Our Observation, 2019
Brian Jonestown Massacre, Anenome, 2019
Primus, Over The Falls, 2015
Bow Wow Wow, Go Wild In The Country, 2018
Can, Vitamin C, 2018
The Fall, Totally Wired, 2015
Zero 7, Dreaming, 2015
Luna, Malibu Love Nest, 2016
George Harrison, Dark Horse, 2016
Vök, Waterfall, 2019
"All I Want To Do (Is Leave The House)" - Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy
Circumstances demanded it….a new single from Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy. I spent many hours over the last week pulling together this animation from about 2,500 individual photos. It’s made entirely of cut-outs from 70s and 80s science and children’s books. Enjoy!
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“All I Want To Do (Is Leave The House)” is the new single from Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy, featuring a stop-motion animation made from paper cut-outs found in old books. Blair Wells and Jeff Badger have been collaborating as Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy since 1994. “All I Want To Do (Is Leave The House)” is their first recording since releasing the full-length album The Buffalo in 2011. The song was written and put together remotely during The Great Pause as Wells and Badger sheltered during in Montréal and Maine, respectively.
“All I Want To Do (Is Leave The House)” can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and all your favorite streaming services.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7q4t30vgZEduqD0zvnkvxf?si=gUHCo7M8RM2W_Z1vJxdZnQ
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/custardpaws-mr-freezy/1344834855
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeffbadger/all-i-want-to-do-is-leave-the-house
No Corona →
Here is a solo performance of a new song called “No Corona” played in my backyard while enduring the Great Shutdown of the COVID-19 outbreak. In summertime my friends and I go camping on a small island in Penobscot Bay, Maine. I’ve always thought this place might be a good bug-out spot if society goes sideways. This dust-bowl-inspired tune is for my camping buddies and everyone else who feels like running away to an island.
A full-band version of the song, featuring Vince Nez (aka Mousa) on violin can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and your other favorite streaming spots.
Fun with Stop Motion
I set up a rudimentary stop-motion studio and I’ve been experimenting with cut paper. Really meditative practice, and I find the results especially humorous. Here is a 20 second clip, with my best DIY foley work.
Travel to Japan
“陽だまり / Favorite Sunny Spot” by 大里 勝正 / Katsumasa Ohsato
I’ll be traveling to Japan this October, leading a delegation of five artists to Maine’s sister state, Aomori. I serve as the President of Friends of Aomori, and this trip is a reciprocal visit after a similar residency program we put togehter for Japanese artists in Portland in 2016 as part of the Maine-Aomori Printmaking Society, a series of printmaking exchange exhibiitons. I’ll be joined by fellow artists Lydia Badger, Pilar Nadal, Lisa Pixley, and David Wolfe.
The fourth group of MAPS prints by artists from Maine, USA and Aomori, Japan will be on display at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine starting June 29th, after a successful exhibition at Waterfall Arts in Belfast, Maine from April - June. A matching collection of the same 20 prints was shown at the Aomori Arts Pavilion during the Citizen Culture Days in October 2018. After Bowdoin, this show will move to the University of Maine Fort Kent Blake Library from September 28th - Nov 2nd, with an opening reception on September 28th. This year’s series of MAPS exhibitions is sponsored by a generous grant from the Maine Community Foundation’s Expansion Arts Fund.
The 2019 series of exhibitions builds on the successful series of exchanges and exhibitions held since 2015 in both countries, now numbering twenty shows in varied locations throughout both states. MAPS is organized by Friends of Aomori, an all-volunteer non-profit that supports the Sister State relationship between Maine and Aomori, Japan.
The relationship between Maine and Aomori has been in place for 20 years, but the fascinating connection between the two states goes back to a shipwreck in 1889 (read more here: http://maine-aomori.org/about/). In addition to MAPS, Friends of Aomori supports high-school exchange programs, educational events and programming about Japan, and economic development opportunities.
The MAPS 2019 collection features prints by: Jane Banquer, Laura Dunn, Nicole Em, Hideo Kawamura, Amanda Lilleston, Nathaniel Meyer, Daniel Minter, David Morgan, Mitsumaro Ogawa, Katsuma Ohsato, Jun’ichi Okabe, Kei’ichi Okuta, Anna O’Sullivan, Shouzou Sasaki, Debbie Schmitt, Emiko Seki, Nobuko Shimazu, Satoshi Suzuki, Kei’ichi Wada, and Cornelia Walworth.
MAPS is presented by Friends of Aomori and made possible by the generous support of Maine Community Foundation and Ocean House Gallery and Frame.
