classic posters - interview diesel fuel prints by paul gruskin

8/8/2019 Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/classic-posters-interview-diesel-fuel-prints-by-paul-gruskin 1/13

Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin Classic Posters - Interview DieselFuel Prints

Interviewing Andy Stern

by Paul Grushkin

Produced by Michael Erlewine([email protected])

All eyes in the rock world are on AndyStern's Diesel Fuel Prints. Not only hasthis skillful printer every month - nowgoing on fourteen years - handleddozens of sticker and t-shirt jobs forbands across the country, he's activelyprinting and promoting the poster workof many top illustrators.

Quietly, beginning a little less than twoyears ago, he began to actively promote-- with the bands' involvement andapproval -- these artists' gig posters forresale through an artist--friendlypublishing program. And subsequentlyhe's helped create entire tour's worth ofindividual--gig posters for bands such asthe Melvins and Supersuckers (the latterin association with artist DarrenGrealish's direction), for the bands' ownsale at their gigs and subsequentlythrough the Diesel Fuel website.

Not since the early 1990's when PhilCushway's ArtRock presentedpublishing (distribution) opportunities toartists like Frank Kozik, Justin Hampton,Ward Sutton, and Alan Forbes (to nameonly a few) and Dennis King publishedJohn Seabury, has poster-publishingbeen talked about so actively. Now,

established artists in the current -- andvery hot -- alternative and power-punkscenes like Greg 'Stainboy' Reinel, JeralTidwell, Tara McPherson, and GuyBurwell are heading the Diesel program-- newly joined by Frank Kozik, MikeMartin, and others doing Diesel-published art prints.

I spoke with Andy about his roots, thenew directions, the challenges, and thepleasure he takes in producing beautifulscreen-printed art.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Andy, exactly whatare you to Diesel Fuel? The owner,proprietor, president, general manager,CFO, and CEO?

ANDY STERN: I would be all of theabove.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: When did you beginat Diesel Fuel in earnest?

ANDY STERN: At the end of 1991. Iwas then living in Northern California,

the Santa Rosa area, Sebastopol,actually. I had no job, I had to makemoney. I started going around to storesasking them if I could start printing theirstickers.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: You've always beena sticker kind of guy.

ANDY STERN: Mainly stickers, yes. I'vepersonally done a lot of work on vinyl,hand and automatic work on paper

products, and then branched off into pintglasses, a lot of cylindrical products,and, of course, t-shirts. My backgroundin silkscreen printing came out of homeprinting -- printing stuff for friends' bandsand stuff for myself.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: How old were youwhen you did your first screen print?

ANDY STERN: Fifth or sixth grade. Iwas living in Bethesda, Maryland.

Circumstances brought me and myfamily to Southern California and I livedthere for four years. What brought me toNorthern California was college. Butwhat attracted me to printing was that Ilove art, that's the bottom line, andprinting art was a great way for me toget free art.



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin PAUL GRUSHKIN: Did your love ofmusic and your desire to do things forbands bring you into the commercialworld?

ANDY STERN: Actually when I firststarted Diesel Fuel, I didn't wantanything to do with bands becauseoftentimes they're such a pain in the buttto deal with. Not getting paid is a hardthing to deal with. I was mostly doingstuff for retail around town. I started outwith a "Mean People Suck" sticker.Funny, a lot of people thought "MeanPeople Suck" had something to do withGrateful Dead heads and jam band

fans. Not. One of my distributors, thisguy from Purple Moon Design, used tosell a lot of the stickers I printed on theDead tour and I think that's how all thehippies picked it up. The sloganoriginated from a San Francisco bandcalled NOFX. They have a song called"Mean People Suck" on their secondrecord. It was stickers like that -- retail,retail, retail -- up until about 1995 andthen I figured I had no idea what new

trends would be, so I started doingproduction work.

The Move to Portland

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Tell me about themove from Northern California toPortland. How did that come about?

ANDY STERN: The dot-com boom, Icouldn't afford rent anymore. I was sickof California and I thought I should getout while I could. I came to Portland for

a delivery of a something like 1,000shirts. I liked Portland so much I decidedthen and there it was the place I wantedto move to.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: When you set upshop as Diesel Fuel Prints in Portland,what kind of equipment did you haveimmediately?

ANDY STERN: Well, when we broughtall the equipment up from California, wehad two semi-automatic flatbedsticker/poster presses and one manualt-shirt press and a UV dryer and all theother accoutrements that go along withit.

Beastie Boys by Bobby Dixon

PAUL GRUSHKIN: So at that point youwere t-shirts and stickers, but really hadnot entered the world of screen-printedposter art.

ANDY STERN: Not really. I was doingsome posters for my friends' bands andmy brother's band, but I'd no ideapeople were going to be looking to buyrock posters! I think the first screen-printed poster I did . . . the first good oneI liked . . . was in 1996. We're talkingpost-punk hardcore here (my brothersband) and my band -- I played guitar --was straight-up old-school hardcore.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: The thing about therevolution in poster art is it didn't reallycome immediately after Kozik's high-point period of '92 - '96. There was thisseeming lull.

And then in late 1999 and really inearnest by 2001, we began to see this



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin great resurgence in rock poster making.Did you feel the impact ofgigposters.com at about that time?

ANDY STERN: I think the guys at

Stonerrock.com or the bass player ofNebula told me about it. I was like, "Whowants to talk on the Internet?" I neverlooked at it again until Darren.

Grealish told me about it. I came backon the Internet and looked at it for abouta month and then got all chatty like I amnow.

Faith & Love by Jerad Tidwel

PAUL GRUSHKIN: What's sointeresting, and surely ART OFMODERN ROCK had something to dowith it too, is that as we begin 2005,there's literally a whole new audience ofartists and customers looking at thebook, looking at gigposters.com, lookingat ClassicPosters.com, a whole newaudience to reach with something that's

obviously become a hot commodity --screenprinted rock posters. Some ofthem are picking up on your printing andthe art coming from your artist roster.

ANDY STERN: Definitely!

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Which I think is agood thing, in general because what

you've evolved into is a publishingoperation for artists that you believe in.

ANDY STERN: Exactly!

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Tell me a little about

how that came about, Andy.

ANDY STERN: About two years ago, atthis time, while we were on vacation,Grealish called me to get some postersprinted and he talked about this wholeposter deal where I get half and he getshalf and the band gets some and hebrought me in a whole bunch of gigs. Iwas like sure, I like Beck, I like thisband, sure, I could sell some.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Now in order to pullthat off you have to have a niceproduction run. Did you set your sightson 300-400 or did you have to set yoursights on a 1,000 pieces to…

ANDY STERN: No, then we were doingabout 200-250, now we've upped themto 400 - 500. The band always gets20%.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And that means they

can distribute them, they can put themup on their walls or they could eventhrow them away if they wanted to.

Diesel Fuel Gallery Show

ANDY STERN: The can do anythingthat want to with them. It's our hope thatthey sell them and make some money,then come back to us for anotherone.Article:

PAUL GRUSHKIN: I'm sure you securepermission from all the bands involved



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin in order to pull off this publishingprogram.

ANDY STERN: We always try to getpermission from the band. If not, then

we have permission from the venue orfrom the promoter. We never doanything without permission from thevenue, the promoter, or the band.Recently we've been talking a lot hand-in-hand with band management.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: I'd imagine theMelvins series was done both with thepermission and involvement of the band.

ANDY STERN: Exactly, both theMelvins series and the Supersuckersseries were done with the directcooperation of the bands. We'rehopefully going to be doing many newtour series of gig posters -- but I don'thave all the details yet.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Now that means,Andy, when you're looking at doing aseries of pieces for a band, theopportunity is to take a particular tourand then match poster artists to that tourand see what comes?

ANDY STERN: Basically.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Basically?

ANDY STERN: Usually I wouldn't picksomeone who draws pretty flowers for aCramps poster. After the Melvins thing,I'm never doing an open call for artistsever again, that was just a nightmare.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Is that because whatyou got back from them in some caseswasn't entirely representative of whatthe Melvins are?

ANDY STERN: Luckily just aboutanything could be representative of whatthe Melvins are.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Now it's funny thatwe're talking about the same thing.When Dennis King and I were doingART OF MODERN ROCK, the samecriteria applied. Each poster had to havea visceral appeal. It had to leap out atyou and say, "I'm a great poster."

My Morning Jacket by Guy Burwell

ANDY STERN: Exactly. And becauseI'm the one putting up the resources, Ihave to determine if something's in orout. I have to apply some kind of criteria.And, I have to sell the damn thing.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Have you had to sayno to an artist whose submitted workwasn't up to snuff?

ANDY STERN: I haven't yet, but I've justdecided that I'll being doing that if I'm

not really into a poster.PAUL GRUSHKIN: Now you have avery established shop and there aren'tthat many commercial shops within ourworld that we speak of, Drowning Creekbeing the obvious other one, maybePatent Pending being another. Yourshop exists on the basis of stickers andt-shirts, but you're now commandingpress time within your own shop for thispublished series.

ANDY STERN: Since we've moved uphere, we've gotten two more presses tohandle the vinyl sticker printing and theposters. So now we have four flat-bedpresses and hopefully will get another.These are all semi-automatic machines.



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin PAUL GRUSHKIN: Are you using aparticular manufacturer that you think isparticularly good for this work?

ANDY STERN: For posters, it's not a big

deal, as you can use an older press,and with air-drying inks the tolerancesaren't as high. For the vinyl I have to usehigher-end presses usually Saturn M&Requipment.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Is that because theregistration on vinyl is harder to achievewithout a real technically adapt press?

Rev. Horton Heat by Jerad Tidwell

ANDY STERN: Well registration isn't somuch the issue; it's rather a squeegeecontrol issue, along with the inks we'velearned are best to use for stickers.Sticker printing is just a lot moretechnical.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: The equipmentthat's devoted to the postersthemselves, have you modified it tomake it better for poster purposes?

ANDY STERN: Not at all. It workedperfect, right from when we first got it.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Do you generallyhave one print technician working theposter press?

ANDY STERN: I have one guy whoworks 5 days a week just doing posters,about a poster a day.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And that means that

once you've burned the screens and sethim up, he's responsible for the pile ofblank paper feeding into the press andprinting the entire run.

ANDY STERN: All I have to do is proofeverything! He brings me every colorproof for my inspection, and Nathan, myart guy, mixes all the ink.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: After DarrenGrealish, which artists did you begin

working with? Jeral Tidwell?ANDY STERN: Yes, and Stainboy GregReinel. I hooked up with him right afterFlatstock 3 in Seattle. The minute I sawhis stuff, I told him I'd print anything hewanted.

Sheryl Crow by Jerad Tidwell

PAUL GRUSHKIN: So the first Flatstockthat you attended was Austin (Flatstock2)?

ANDY STERN: Yes. I would have goneto the first one in San Francisco, butinitially, at that time, I was like, "who'sgoing to buy a rock poster? Thosethings are dead."



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin PAUL GRUSHKIN: So what changedyour mind?

ANDY STERN: Just doing a fewposters. I started liking it; it was a fun

thing to do. It actually brought the funback into the screenprinting business. Iwas so sick of doing production work. Iwas missing that kind of fun.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Do you see yourselfat the forefront of a kind of populistexplosion? If we're talking about goingfrom fundamentally production work toartistic output where you're actuallyworking creative deals with posterartists, bands, club owners and even

yourself in order to create a run of 300-400 of which a portion goes to the band,a portion goes to the poster artist andthen you have the opportunity to sell thebalance, I mean this is all pretty recentstuff.

ANDY STERN: Yes. Yes, it is, definitelynew territory.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And the questionagain is: do you see yourself at the front

of what we're calling a populistexplosion?

ANDY STERN: I'm not sure really. Iknow it's going on everywhere now, allacross the country. Amazing. Even justa few years ago, who would havethought? Yet I still look at it as a hobby,kind of. Maybe it helps me keepeverything in perspective, but I still lookat the whole world of rock posters as ahobby, a really cool hobby, but notexactly a business. Yet, it gets biggerevery day and it's helping support meand seven other people at the shop. It'snot our key source of income, but it'sincreasing.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: You wouldn't be inthe position you're in -- that of a

successful publisher -- unless, numberone, there was an enormous body ofposter artists cranking out great things,and number two a resurgent interestfrom the collectors' standpoint.

ANDY STERN: Yes, I think a lot ofpeople see me at the forefront of thiswhole deal. Just dumb luck I suppose,having the right resources there at theright time. Remember I've got stickersand t-shirts that pay for everything, and Iwas able to publish 175 posters beforereally selling anything. Now of courseI'm concerned to put in the energy thatmakes it a good investment.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: In your particularcase have you invented an output codefor your series, like Phil Cushway didwith his PCL's?

ANDY STERN: Not yet, not exactly.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: So they're basicallyunder the copyright of the artist, but thepublishing deal allows you to sell off abalance portion. But there are no seriesnumbers.

ANDY STERN: Exactly, all it says onthere is "printed by Diesel Fuel Prints." Itdoesn't have some crazy weird stocknumber. Once I get into that, won't thattake all the fun out of it?

PAUL GRUSHKIN: On the other hand,you don't want to create an acre ofprinted pieces you can't track. So howdo you sell your portion, and what is thecommunity that's buying them?

ANDY STERN: Right now we're doingreally well with Internet sales. Thecommunity that is buying them I'm notsure really, I'm assuming that it's mostlyyoung kids. People who are supportingall the new music -- metal, punk,alternative, whatever. I'm hoping we canbegin wholesaling to record stores in the



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin next six months. I'd love it for people tobe able to see them up on the wall.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: When you're doing aproduction run… when you're committed

to doing a certain number of pieces withStainboy on a particular piece, lets gowith, say, one of his 'Flogging Molly'pieces, and you've got a balancequantity sitting in your flat files or onracks. You as a publisher have to bepretty concerned that the pile starts towork itself down on a regular basis.Otherwise you're going to get stuck withan acre of paper.

ANDY STERN: But you know what,

some things just aren't going to sell, nomatter how good they look, they're justnot going to sell. The really good sellerskind of make up for the bad sellers.Sometimes it's just a matter of timebefore the sales come.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: You know who saidthat to me last was Kozik.

ANDY STERN: And he told me thesame thing too! That's why I have to put

it in some perspective even while I'mthinking, "God, we're never going to sellthose." Even with Tara McPherson'swork, there are a few things that justdon't move very fast, but the rest of it . .. hey, we're selling out of some Taraprints in less than two months. So if onlytwo out of ten don't sell so good, well,that's not so bad. Ten out of ten isasking the impossible, except I couldn'ttell you going in to a particular art piece

of hers if it was going to be one of thetwo slow movers. I just think to myself,"it's all good. I made a choice to publishit."

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Now in order to pullthis off, you have to have a fulfillmentoperation. Do you have people who dothat in-house for you as well?

ANDY STERN: Yes we do.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: So you have staffwho wrap the purchased print in brownpaper, uses a heavyweight tubes, seal

the ends properly, addresses it carefully,and all that.

ANDY STERN: You've got it.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: That's the wholetedious part of being in the publishingbusiness.

ANDY STERN: It's insane! Business issuch that I've been running around forthe last four days trying to tighten up thewhole back end process of the retail and

the wholesale area. People get upsetwhen they're waiting to get posters theybought.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And that meansyou're interacting with the public andinevitably you're going to get a fewpeople who say their tube arrived bentor the poster wasn't what they thought itwould be.

ANDY STERN: Luckily we haven't

gotten anybody thinking the posterwasn't what they thought it would be andluckily we ship everything UPS insured.So as long as it isn't a sold-out run, youcan call us up to track your purchase. Ifit's lost for good, we'll deal with theinsurance and send a replacement.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Now when you wereworking with the Melvins series and theSupersuckers before that, were youaware how complex it is to do an entire

series of posters?

ANDY STERN: Can you believe I hadabsolutely no idea?

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Would you do itagain?



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin ANDY STERN: Oh definitely, I'mworking on a few others; Ttere are a fewbig ones that we're hoping to get thisyear.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And you were ableto begin a subscription series as well,this past year, where people were ableto pre-order an entire set.

ANDY STERN: Yes, we did that for theSupersuckers. We haven't done that forthe Melvins yet. I wanted to fulfill theSupersuckers set as a group, but peoplewere waiting like nine months to getthem, and that is just wrong. So thistime we're waiting until I have the boxes

and the complete sets in my hands.When I've got them, people can placeorders. They can reserve them beforehand, but I won't take any money.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: How many posterswent into the Supersuckers series?

ANDY STERN: That was 15 differentposters and the Melvins was 41 differentposters.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: So, if I were acustomer looking to purchase Melvinsposters today, the more modern posterswould be coming out of the Diesel Fuelarray?

ANDY STERN: At least from 2004 on.We'll probably continue working withthem from here on out, in some shapeor form.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: I was reallyimpressed, Andy, with the array of

artists that you brought in for theMelvins run. Was that your first opencall?

ANDY STERN: That was a big, big opencall and I chose from about 150 people.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And whittled it downto forty?

ANDY STERN: Forty with maybe anoption to go to forty two, yes. And wegot some great names involved: JayRyan, Emek, Mike King, Dan Grzeca,Print Mafia, Patent Pending (JeffKleinsmith's shop), Chloe and Yannick'sSerigraphie Populaire, Squad 19, CaseyBurns, Heads of State, Jeral Tidwell,Clay Ferguson, Guy Burwell, and LittleFriends of Printmaking, to name onlysome.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: In your business,whether to do a single piece or acollection of forty two, you have to keepyou eyes open for new talent, like, all

the time.ANDY STERN: I'm still surprised somany top-quality artists are doinggigposters.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: What are youlooking for?

ANDY STERN: Imagination, mostly.Either I see a poster having reallyterrible qualities or having reallyamazing qualities. That tells me about

the artist. I let the poster speak first.

Shins by Tara McPherson

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And TaraMcPherson's and Stainboy's postershave to been among the first.



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin

Stereolab by Tara McPherson

ANDY STERN: Well, when Tara cameinto the program, the first pieces I didwere in trade for prints, or for herpaintings. Soon we did 'Built to Spill', thebig one with the merry-go-round. Thatgot me a painting, luckily. Supergrasswas the next one we published of hers.

Death Cab for Cutieby Tara

McPherson

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Right, that's withballoons above. And then the Shinscame after that, which was her greathorizontal piece with its central figuredragging the dead balloon-character

behind. What attracted you to TaraMcPherson's work?

Supersuckers by Tara McPherson

ANDY STERN: It's really different, andshe's really nice. I only work with peoplebecause I like someone or I really liketheir art. If I like someone's art, but don'tlike them, well, I won't work with them.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: In other words, as aproduction person, as a head of a

publishing company, the word 'difficult'comes into mind. The person may be agreat artist, but if they're difficult tocollaborate with, it just slows down youroperation and gives you headaches.

ANDY STERN: Yeah, then I become astress case, and you don't need 'that'trouble. Printing and fulfillment are hardenough!

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Tell me about yourrelationship with Greg Reinel, Stainboy.

ANDY STERN: I met him and got alonggreat. Told him that I'd print anythingthat he wanted to do.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Is that because yousaw in him that Coop popularism… theability to draw figures so easily and well,to automatically have great appeal?



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin ANDY STERN: I liked his… it wasCheap Trick's black and white poster…is that the one with the geisha girl on it?

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Yes.

ANDY STERN: And then there wasanother one, there were two black andwhite posters that I really liked thatmade me really want to produce him. Ididn't even think of Coop at first. Theyboth use brushes and they both drawcartoon-ish women. I think Stainboy'slayouts are better, his layouts are reallytight. He has the talent of Coop and thewit of Kozik, and there aren't manypeople with both of those.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: What do you likeabout the way that he works and theprofessionalism in which he turns hisstuff over to you?

ANDY STERN: The files that come inare perfect. I don't even have to look atthem. I don't even have to be here forthem to print. He uses all fluorescentcolors. Everybody in the shop knowshow he wants stuff done. If I'm going out

of town, that's when I usually scheduleStainboy prints to run. He turns in stuffso incredibly perfect that nothing goeswrong. He turns them in on time too,even if they're a day before the printday.

They're perfect! All I have to do is popout the films and get the screensprepped and we're ready to roll. I've noidea how he learned how to be soprofessional.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: He has such controlover his line work.

ANDY STERN: Yes, and to have thatcontrol over his lines … with a brush!

PAUL GRUSHKIN: When you marketsomebody like him when he's not doing

a piece for a band per se, like his newMustang art prints, how is the marketingdifferent for you? Or is it the same rockposter customer who'd be attracted tothe Mustang as well?

Mustang Mach-1 by Stainboy

ANDY STERN: Well, we're thinking therock poster crowd will be attracted aswell, but mainly these car prints areintended for car club people and majorcar enthusiasts because they've provenin other arenas they'll spend money onthis stuff. They understand when theysee quality in a piece of art -- becauseso much car art is so shitty -- andbesides which Stainboy is fascinated

with the newer muscle cars and nobodyis doing that, especially in the way he'sdoing them with hot women, and withoutthe "'50s diner" look.

He himself belongs to a Mustang carclub, and he owns the car he drew, sohe just started talking to his Mustangbuddies and those people started talkingto other car people, and it juststeamrolled from there. It's great to findnew markets for screen-printed art

prints; if we can get into an establishedmarket where the collectors are just ascrazed as any crazed rock postercollector, well, we think they're gonna'go nuts. These prints will sellthemselves, you just watch.



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin PAUL GRUSHKIN: And when you lookahead… here in 2005 we've re-established the rock & roll poster, but inlong term as a publishing house, maybeyou have to get into things well beyondrock.

ANDY STERN: Oh totally, because thisrock poster renaissance can't lastforever. It didn't last for Kozik, great ashis first oversize prints were. And, you'dhave to say the market for moderngigposters could find its limits. I thinkwe'll know if that's true over the next fiveyears, if the young crowd continues tosupport exponential growth.

The fact is, in Stainboy's case, we'reproducing 400 Mustang prints and thereare a lot more Mustang owners thanthat!

PAUL GRUSHKIN: And I'm guessingbetween the lines you can probablyincrease the… or even set the price for a car print higher initially and evengraduate the price as the production rungoes down in quantity quicker than you

could do for a rock poster.ANDY STERN: You've got that exactlyright. We started out the Mustang posterat $30 because a lot of these car peoplelikely will feel that is a rather lowbaseline price for a special art print --with a lot of them not knowing what ascreen print is, or what it feels like to thehand, or why the colors are so brilliant,and why each piece comes off as a one-off creation. We just want to get it into

their hands so they can start talking totheir friends, like, "I can't believe thequality of this poster; it's nothing like I'veexperienced before with an offset print,and it's really under priced." So, whenwe come out with our next print and setits regular price at $50 for a seven-coloroversize print, they will appreciate it's

really worth that $50 and would be abargain at $75.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Who's handling allthe sales at Diesel Fuel? Is that the role

you play? Or, are you currentlydepending on word of mouth fromsatisfied customer to satisfiedcustomer? Are things well enoughestablished now that sales, and newpublishing jobs, are coming in on aconsistent basis?

ANDY STERN: At the moment ourrelationships with poster dealers arekeeping the interest in our programstrong, and our website has been very

effective. This year we might investmore in advertising, we might even get asalesperson to bring in more corporatework so I can pay even more attentionto the dynamics of the publishingprogram.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: I want to speakabout Kozik now because he speaksvery highly of you. He's a picky guy! Hecould easily have gone up to Portland,

not turned on to your scene. But asthings turned out, he's said, publicly, it'sa pleasure doing business with you andthe shop is totally professional and allthat. What have you enjoyed aboutworking with Frank?

The Green Woman by Frank Kozik



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin ANDY STERN: He's a nice guy; he's funto work with. He does some pretty weirdto odd prints that I might have nevereven have done. Hey, I got to print thenew version of the Green Girl (off theoriginal Soundgarden/Pearl Jamgigposter) -- which like everybody else Ifelt stood out as one of the great rockimages of all time. When he's at theshop, we're all excited. He's reallyfocused; he's always thinking.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Do you want to dothat kind of work with other artists, notrock and roll per say but art prints?

ANDY STERN: Definitely. I think this

year alone we've got Tara scheduled for6-8 art prints. I just talked to Burwellabout doing six to eight, one every six toeight weeks. Stainboy is going to bedoing an art print every six to eightweeks. I think we've still got more artprints coming in from Jeral Tidwell, moreof that spirit-tree stuff. We're publishinga lot of Mike Martin's art prints now,anything oversized art-print wise beyondwhat he does at his own shop,

Enginehouse 13, in Ohio. I think we'vepublished eight of his prints now.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: So that would be hishot rod related stuff?

ANDY STERN: I hope we'll do more ofthat. His "pray for beer" is outstanding,like his tiki art. We just finished a kind ofCoop-like devil head with wrenchesbehind it; it was an old logo from his carclub. We've got another two to four

things on the chopping block now forhim.

Dillinger Escape by Guy Burwell

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Do some of theseart pieces get to you, emotionallyspeaking? I mean, you can look at yourpublishing program as a cold business

deal, or you can look at it like, "I can'tbelieve I've got Tara McPherson. She'ssuch a great painter; she's got such alarge following, and her art will becoming out of her brain for such a long,long time." I mean, Andy, when you seea gigposter like what she did for Air, doyou sometimes just stand back and sayto yourself, "fuck, this is GOOD. I'mPROUD."

ANDY STERN: Usually I won't even like

to put out stuff that I wouldn't want to puton my own wall. Because I figure if Iwant to hang it on my wall, there's got tobe at least 50 or 200 or 400 people thatwould want to do the same thing. Itmight take awhile finding them, but Iknow they're out there.

PAUL GRUSHKIN: Have you seenphotos of peoples' homes where they'vehung framed art -- pieces that originatedat Diesel Fuel? I ask these things not

just because I'm inquisitive. It's about"changing the world," or "making theworld a better place," or educatingpeople as to beautiful, accessible art --do you know where I'm going here?

What I'm saying is: is what makes yourwork exciting when regular people buy



Classic Posters - Interview Diesel Fuel Prints by Paul Gruskin it, frame it, stand back and love it, thatyou've achieved something?

ANDY STERN: One of my ideas behinddoing the publishing is putting more art

out there and making everybodyhappier. It's just a good thing to do. Andyes, when somebody stands back andadmires the whole package -- the artitself, the screen printing involved, theprofessionalism in which the finishedpiece was delivered, and then theframing and the placing on the wall, andthe standing back, and all the goodthoughts that come with that . . . well,then at that point I've totally succeeded.

Bottom line for me is, I like living withbeautiful art. So I look at our program asa sort of assisted artistic living.

classic posters - interview diesel fuel prints by paul gruskin

Documents