It’s been too long…

Hey Everyone,

First off I’d like to apologize for the lack of blog posts. Megabolt has been trucking’ away with our sketchbook project and enjoying summer and hopefully you all had a wonderful summer as well!

Today we did another art workshop with some amazing kids at a Portland Area hospital and I was inclined to write this blog post. For the past 2 years and 9 months or so I have been doing Megabolt. There isn’t a day that goes by when I’m not thinking about Megabolt and rarely a day that goes by that I’m not wearing something that says Megabolt. We have an amazing family over here. I have some of the best people in the world working with me on our current projects. Talented artists, writers, speakers, organizers, managers, builders, creators… you get the drift. But no one on the Megabolt staff impacts me more than the kids we help.

As I waited in the project room at the hospital I sat in a Mickey Mouse chair with the poster all set up in the press and waited for the first kid to come in the room. A girl by the name of Jennifer walked in and had a shirt on that was the same color as the ink we used in the poster (Megabolt Purple!). I immediately started talking about my love for the color purple and she looked at me like I was crazy. As she pulled the squeegee down and lifted up the screen her eyes lit up at what she made. In a matter of 2 minutes this little girl went from thinking this crazy big dude was weird for liking purple to creating some really fun art with us. As we worked with all of the kids I looked around and was amazed at how much Megabolt has come. Today I can finally admit that Megabolt is something of purpose. It’s no longer something “that just happened” or “came out of nowhere” but it’s something with a strong purpose that myself and everyone reading this has created. And to be quite frank, it’s pretty amazing.

Megabolt is everything to me and my life is better because of it. It’s not exactly easy keeping up with the momentum that Megabolt has gotten and without all of your help it wouldn’t be where it is today. Thank you to everyone who supports us. We are going to have some changes for the better coming up very soon and we cannot wait to show you all. Until then, have an amazing day and know that because of your support we were able to make a couple kids days that much better through the power of art.

– Steven Kasprzyk

Life of a sketchbook

Hello!

I wanted to take a second and explain to everyone the typical life of a Megabolt Sketchbook so everyone can have a better understanding of what is all entailed! So at this point we have sold just over 500 sketchbooks. 500 sketchbooks sold means 500 sketchbooks to kids! Pretty great right? Now we know that everyone is very excited about their sketchbook being given out and we are working everyday to get more sketchbooks into the hands of kids. The process can take a bit longer than one might think though.

Basically this is how it works:
Once the sketchbook is purchased we have to wait until the hospitals that we are working with request more books. When they do we send out a new batch. Inside the package is anywhere from 20-100 sketchbooks (usually on the lower end) The sketchbooks are then given out to the kids and their parents get information about returning their artwork to us (via photo, scan, or sending the sketchbook back). At this point we have to play the waiting game. After this is done we will then be posting the books to our website. It’s important to understand that there are a very large amount of variables in which a child may not ever finish their book or they simply just don’t want to share their artwork.

However! This post isn’t meant to get you down. Kids are offered to give us a simple sketch or their entire book. All it really comes down to is that it takes time. Just as you probably haven’t filled your book they will take a while to fill theirs. The good news is the Megabolt Sketchbook is a double whammy donation. At the least you are making a child’s day and giving them a gift. Then if all goes well you get a return on your donation in the form of art.

If anyone has any questions or wants to know more please never hesitate to contact us at info@megabolt.org

Thanks everyone!

– Steven Kasprzyk

Artist Find: Flat Vernacular

Ok, I will admit this isn’t really a find per se…however! Flat Vernacular is my brother/soon-to-be-sister in law. We can call her my stbsil for short. Anywho. Brian and Payton or Byron and Paytone as I like to call them have been making custom silk screened wallpaper for errr…about 2 years now? My timeline could be off. Using traditional printmaking practices they make gorgeous wallpaper that one can choose from either their signature line (which rotates) or custom made wallpaper as well.

They say it better than I do: (stolen from their tumblr with no remorse)-
Flat Vernacular is made up of two parts:

Payton, the owner/founder/hands behind the drawings/captain of sandwich concepts

Brian, the manager/founder/printer/engineer/captain of photoshop

Flat Vernacular creates original hand-drawn, hand-printed and bespoke wallpapers in our Brooklyn studio. We endeavor to remain faithful to the character and tradition of wallpaper while utilizing a more contemporary twist on the designs themselves.

Check out some of their work below and give them some love on the tumblr, twitter, and facebook.

First Megabolt Art Workshop Recap!

Hey Everyone!

Steven here, hope you’re doing well. Just wanted to give everyone a quick recap on the first Megabolt art workshop! Yesterday myself and Megabolt family member Brett F. went to a local Portland children’s hospital and did a screen printing workshop with the kids. It was amazing. I can honestly say that the months of preparation was so worth it. We got to work with about 15-20 kids screen printing with them and creating their own Megabolt printed posters. I can honestly say that I’ve never done anything with art that was half as fun as what we did yesterday. With that said this is just the start to many. We handed out about 20 sketchbooks. If I can ask one favor it is this; please have patience when it comes to getting your sketchbook out. We are booking more and more workshops and sending out books soon! Think of your purchase of the sketchbook as a continual investment to change the life of a child. As soon as your sketchbook is given out you will be receiving an email from us letting you know. With that said 20 or so of you should be getting emails soon! (20 books in the range from 1-50 were given out yesterday.)

Beyond that keep spreading the word! Tell your friends, mail carriers, vets, dentists, co-workers! Word of mouth is the best way to get more sketchbooks out there and more workshops done! Thanks for the continued love and support!

– Steven Kasprzyk

Help us win $25,000

Hi Everyone,
This is Steven from Megabolt. I’m writing you with a request. I want to help kids. I want to help kids through the power of art. With your help I can win $25,000 from Pepsi.

Here’s the scoop. We have entered the Pepsi Refresh Grant program to win $25K from Pepsi. The idea for our project is really simple. We want to tour around the country and do art workshops with kids in hospitals. We want to help kids fight through their crummy situations through the power of art. I have a staff of 10 people just waiting to do this with me. With your help I can pull it off.

All we have to do is have people vote and win this contest. It’s really quite simple.

TEXT 105938 TO 73774 and you vote for us.

You can text everyday. It takes 15 seconds. I know how fast you can text. 15 seconds everyday and we can win $25K.

If you’re into this idea please email your friends, text them, call them, facebook them. With everyone’s help we can win this. I have the best network of friends and with everyone’s help we can win this grant. Thousands upon thousands of kids live’s will be changed because you sent a text message everyday for the next 30 days. I won’t apply for this grant again and I promise this won’t happen very often. Think about it 🙂

Let’s do this!

If you have any questions or want to help please email me personally at steven@megabolt.org

Call for submissions: Photographers!

Megabolt is currently planning our first photography book. The book will be in the same form as our sketchbooks. 30 photographers will be showcased. One photograph per photographer. The best part is that for every photography book sold we will donate a sketchbook to a child in a hospital! ( Just like our normal sketchbooks)
Think you have a photo to make the cut?
Send a max of five (5) photographs to info@megabolt.org
Photos must be B&W, 300 dpi or higher and at least 5×5 inches
Include your name, city and state, and website or online contact in the email

Megabolt holds the right to publish any photographs submitted.
This is project has no compensation to the photographers.
Full credit will be given.

Note: Photography is photography. We don’t care if you went to school for it or love taking photos with your phone. Good photos are everywhere! So don’t be shy!

Early sketchbook press

The Megabolt Sketchbook has now been around for about 72 hours. Here’s a roundup of just a couple of the blog write-ups that I’m particularly excited about:
OMG POSTERS
Smonk You
Quipsologies

Let’s keep it going!

The Making of the Megabolt Sketchbook

The Megabolt Sketchbook has been in existence for about 30 hours now. Before we launched this project though myself and the other four heavy hitters of the family (Brett Stenson, Justin Van Laeken, Andy Oldenburg, and Andrew Hermann) brainstormed and worked out the details of this project for about 3 months. Back in January I had the idea for a Megabolt sketchbook. So I went to the store and bought a book, stamped it with an old MB stamp and then embossed it (oh how my mom would be proud).

So after we started brainstorming on how we wanted the books to look Brett suggested doing small sketchbooks from Scout Books. Instantly everyone loved the idea and it worked out even better with Scout Books being in Portland (where I am currently). So with myself in Portland, Justin and Brett in Milwaukee and now Andy and Andrew in Minneapolis we started doing video chats to figure out all the details. Then finally with the skilled hand of Brett we had the design of both the book and the website done. With the plan to do art workshops with kids it just seemed like a good fit. We can’t always be around doing workshops with kids so why not give them something to do. Trust me I’m sure T.V. and video games can get very old very quick. So basically with a $7 purchase you’re giving a child 32 pages to have fun and forget about their crummy situations even if it is just for a little bit. Like I’ve said before…I’m not a doctor and I certainly am not going to cure any diseases anytime soon, however that doesn’t mean that I can’t help out a child in a hospital! Thanks for all the support on our first launch in quite some time. Expect more soon!

It’s not the most exciting post but I thought you guys and gals might be interested in how this all came to be. Enjoy your books and lets keep the momentum going!

Wood and Faulk

A couple months ago at my “day job” I met some dudes that worked in the office above the shop. Days went by and multiple orders of coffee later I find out that they’re more than just a couple of web developers. Wood and Faulk is run by a guy named Matt with the help from some other fine gents. Matt creates, destroys, builds, crafts, records, and any other clever adjective you can think of on his blog as well as creates a line of custom bags and other specialties in his store. What I really like about Wood and Faulk is the transparency of his craft. From the little I know about Matt I can tell he’s a super talented guy and I love the fact that he wants to share his endeavors with anyone who wants to see. Take a couple minutes and check out his site! Wood and Faulk I can’t wait to get a bag!

 

Images courtesy of Wood and Faulk

Couch Fort Sets by Scott Mills

I had the pleasure of meeting Scott a couple weeks ago and I found his online music-blog/mix tape what-have-you via his facebook. I’ve been listening to radio shows and podcasts like Chances with Wolves and Megabolt family member Justin Van Laeken’s (Dirty Sleeves) mixes for a couple years now and I usually skip past most other mix tape-esque online shananigans. Usually they just don’t really hold my attention. However, Scott kills it with his monthly mixes. Good thing too otherwise I’d have to lie to him next time I saw him and that would just be awkward…

Check it out for yourself at: http://cscottmills.com/couchfortsets/home.html