Zeb Love has been a full time freelance artist since 2009, working in a variety of avenues including merchandise design, album artwork, photography and light illustration. He has focused all his efforts into illustration and screen printing for the past five years working out of his studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For his latest release Zeb returns with three hand-pulled variants for iconic writer Walt Whitman and a special look at his hand-made book Serigraphy each of which is completely unique and worth a second look. Read on to check out more from Zeb Love’s latest release…
1x: Tell us a little bit about this piece. was there an original created?
Zeb Love: Yes, there is an original pencil sketch. I was at the library and stumbled across a book of William H. Mumler photographs. There was a particular portrait of Walt Whitman that I really liked. So I gave myself a short time limit to sketch it out.
1x: What materials were used on this piece?
Zeb Love: These are all hand pulled silkscreens. Four colors with metallic gold and silver, with a clear varnish layer on top of the outline. I also printed 3 on cradled wood panels.
1x: When was the piece created?
Zeb Love: The original pencil idea was drawn in January. I let it sit for a little while, then worked it into a fully finished illustration.
Walt Whitman by Zeb Love – Click To Purchase
1x: Is there anything immediate you would like to highlight about this piece?
Zeb Love: Walt’s expression of connectivity and spirituality is so profound. His poems and writings still ring true to this day. The text that is on the bottom of the print is an excerpt from his poem ‘A Song of the Rolling Earth’:
Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especially for you,
The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.
Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid,
You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky,
For none more than you are the present and the past,
For none more than you is immortality.
1x: Tell us a bit about your process how the idea and execution came about.
Zeb Love: The original idea came from one afternoon browsing through the library, looking for any sort of inspiration. At the time I was reading a lot of Walt Whitman poems. I accidentally stumbled across an image of him, and thought I’d do a quick sketch. Seems like it was a synchronicity. I let it sit in my sketchbook for awhile, then reached out to 1xRun to see if they’d be interested in publishing this print along with my book.
Walt Whitman by Zeb Love – Click To Purchase
1x: How long did this piece take from start to finish?
Zeb Love: Around 30 hours for the illustration, plus an additional 8 for printing.
1x: What is unique about this piece compared with some of your other work?
Zeb Love: I feel like it’s good representation of where things are heading for me. It’s simple and direct.
1x: Describe the piece in one gut reaction word.
Zeb Love: Classic.
Walt Whitman by Zeb Love – Click To Purchase
1x: We’ve also got this amazing art book from you, each one is completely unique and hand-made, tell us a bit about the book.
Zeb Love: This book was definitely a labor of love. I gathered all my inventory I planned on using for the books. Cut each poster in specific crops to accent the art. Made piles of approximately 45-50 pages of posters. Spread them all throughout my apartment. Assembling each one with a unique layout, and assortment of rare prints. After all my parts were done, handed them off to my friends at Modesto. They created a hardbound cover, gold foiled some maroon cloth, silkscreened the interior with metallic gold, and bound all my pages together.
Serigraphy by Zeb Love – Click To Purchase
1x: how did the idea for this book come about?
Zeb Love: This book came to be through a series of seemingly random happenings. I moved into a new studio space, and on an off day, my friend came by to check it out. He saw how I organized all my old prints, and brought up the question of, “What are you doing with all these posters?” I told him that they were just leftover, misprinted or slightly dinged posters that I can’t really sell. We came up with an idea to chop them up and turn them into a book. I asked around to try and figure out how to get this thing bound together and actually made, but didn’t have any luck. A week later, a screenprinting outfit that goes by the name Modesto Studios moved into my same studio building. We became friends, and I asked them if they knew anyone who did book binding. They said “Yes, we can do that for you.”
1x: Is each book really 100% unique?
Zeb Love: Since I print all my posters myself, I have the luxury of stockpiling a lot of test prints. Each book has a unique test print, never before seen. I also included some of my original films that I used to print the posters in each book. So every book has a film I used, and test prints along with an assortment of long gone posters.
1x: What were some of your favorite things about putting this book together?
Zeb Love: It was a lot of fun to re-visit all the posters I’ve worked so hard on. In this industry you have to move very quickly and fly job to job. Never really savoring the things you make. With this book I got to not only go through everything again, but cutting each page you get a completely fresh feeling out of it. The way they are cropped is very interesting. This is the first book I’ve ever put together and it felt really great to hold it when it was finished. It weighs a few pounds, really cool to have something tangible that sums of the past 5 years of your life.
1x: Do you think it’s something you would do again?
Zeb Love: Absolutely. This is volume one of Serigraphy. I plan on maybe doing one book a year, or every other year. I’ve been saving more and more things from my printmaking that I can include in future efforts. It makes very excited to think about putting another volume.
1x: It’s been a while since our last release and you’ve been staying nice and busy, bring people up to speed on what you’ve been up to.
Zeb Love: It really has been! Since we last worked together, I put out twelve new gigposters, a handful of new art prints and had my first solo gallery show in London.
1x: How has 2016 been so far for you? What have you been up to?
Zeb Love: This year I’ve been staying busy working with a Chicago brewery creating six new beer labels. Various gallery shows including the recent Mondo ‘House Party’, which was an absolute blast to be a part of. Currently, I have five new gig posters in the works.
1x: Any other big plans for the Spring/Summer you want to share?
Zeb Love: Thinking about buying an auto press!
1xRUN: Where else can people find you?
Zeb Love: Website – Instagram @zeb_love – Twitter @zeb_love
-1xRUN