Parcels+Packages

Our dear friends Alexis and Klint of  Crummy Jams Edition 1 fame (Alexis’ husband fame come Saturday!) have sent us one of the most treasured things a neophyte paper-clipper, rotary phone-using, cursive-writing dinosaur-person thing can hold dear on a list of treasures – A PACKAGE OF THINGS THEY ASSEMBLED WITH THEIR HANDS AND PUT A STAMP ON !! Klint has gifted us a pile of drawings and thoughts worthy of 2-million dollars in Crummy Currency. Someday, I hope we have a place you can trade it in and get prizes. A few of Klint’s pieces will available for viewing at the very-soon-to-be-announced  Crummy art show that’s going up at Charm School Vintage. With so much rad stuff, it’s only natural to make a separate book afterwards!

Let also not go unnoticed The ink jet article Ms. A has included in the parcel. As do all good sisters  born of Jane Austen’s imagination,  she has included a journal with magical crystal properties wherein I shall dissect and review said article for her to ponder on, and if she so chooses, respond to. It’s Hanukkah in February.



Farewell Books

Farewell Books image

If you live in Austin and love art and books, you probably have heard of Domy Books. Well, long story short, Domy left Austin and Farewell Books has taken over the lease. We got to check out the opening of Farewell Books last week and hope you can make it by and check out the new digs.

There are a few other shops that are sharing the space, so there is a nice variety of things to look at and buy. You can even step out back and eat at Schmaltz. So many good people have been involved in keeping this space up and going, so go by and check it out.

If you can and are able, donate to their cause here.



Update

We know, we’ve been absent. But it is not without good cause. Jessica graduated at the end of last year and I’ve been working for myself on artwork and design. WE’VE BEEN CHANGING THINGS UP!

That’s not all, though. We’ve been working on some shows this year and our first one is this weekend at Common House. We’ll be joining forces with Miss Alexandra Valenti this Saturday at 7:00 PM. Please join us.



Questions and Answers

A photography student from the UK sent over some questions about Crummy House for a thesis paper she was working on. It’s good every once in a while to have to answer questions about what you do and why you do it, so I thought I’d share the Q and A.

Here goes:

Why do you create zines, and why did you first decide to make one?

Crummy House started making zines because we were bored with our 9 to 5PM and longer jobs. We decided on a trip to New Mexico to start a new project that’s purpose was to connect with other artists and make something for the hell of it.

How do you go about making them? Is it all done by hand, or do you send them off to be published?

Our zines are made and laid out in our home. Then we go the local copy shop and xerox the editions. Then, we’ll bring them home, staple them and stamp them.

What do you include in your zines, and why?

We include whatever the artist wants to have in the book. It’s up to them to decide the content. We only help make it happen and add a little here and there.

How do you go about distributing them? Do you use any zines distros or review websites, or do you do your own self-marketing?

Right now we’re just sending them out in packages to specific places we think would enjoy our zines. We also have art shows and sell them there and at our local awesome bookstore, Domy Books.

What do zines mean to you? What do you think of zines in general, and the culture surrounding them?

Zines are an easy way to make something in a tangible format. A way to simply catalogue our experiments. It’s also a completely natural way for people to view things, in book form. Everyone knows how to turn a page, so it makes the art that much more accessible.



Crummy Update

This year has been a wild one for Crummy House.

We had a ton of momentum early in the year and did a bunch of fun things, but towards the middle we started getting bogged down in life’s curve balls. Many different things have changed in the past three months, those who know us best would say we’re doing it right, but those changes have really slowed our progress on making and collaborating with other artists. We’re bummed that we’ve not been as active as our first year, but stoked on what we’ve managed to do in this second year of making.

We’ll have some stuff showing at Bearded Lady during EAST this year, so stay tuned for information coming up about that. We’ve got a great zine in the works from a friend across the ocean in the works and many more on the verge of happening.

Please keep Jess and myself in your thoughts as we take on new and challenging life projects and keep the encouragement coming as we need your support to keep this thing going. We love you.

– Crummy Heads



Thanks!

The sounds that Vegetable Kingdom made in our recent collaboration have been added to Tasty! Foundation’s upcoming show in October. A big thanks to Logan and all of our collaborators thus far and in the future. Your inspiration keeps Crummy House going!

Click to read about the show and the other artists

Read more about Tasty! Foundation’s mission:

The aim of the smacznego! Foundation (pl for ‘tasty!’) is to investigate sidetracks and verges of culture. This is often the place where most interesting phenomena are hidden along with their creators, whose firm noncomformism condemns them for both social and artistic exclusion. Our foundation is commited to the task of revealing at least some of the brave ideas of people, for whom so-called ‘artistic community’ is an artificial and too narrow-minded a milieu. Our interests consist primarily of visual arts and music. An important facet of our activities is also an attempt to form social awareness of marginalized artistic phenomena of Polish art. But we are also open to co-operate with artists beyond boundaries.