Farewell OWL (as we know it)
It's always a little sad when you find out that the most recent time you went somewhere or, in this case, made something for a business, that it would be the very last time. There’s that twinge of regret where you thought things would just continue as is and you feel a little naive about it all. It’s part of life and in New York City that’s just how it is, all of the time. After 15 years of living here I have seen most places that were part of my initial identity and comfort zone vanish. It’s been enough to where I have come to a place of acceptance of it and acknowledge that it is just part of living in this place. But, I can still accept that it bums me out and the news of Our Wicked Lady closing their doors this July, on the anniversary of their 10th year on Morgan Ave., does bum me out. I have such a vivid memory of skating by the venue in 2015 on a sunny afternoon and there being a line of people around the block waiting to meet and get a grilled hot dog from Mac DeMarco out front and I believe that was their opening day.
The above poster and the one directly below, from Jonathan Toubin’s Summer 2024 Sunday Soul Scream, are the final posters I made for OWL. Jonathan had his summer residency going for a couple years before I jumped in to help with the visuals for the promotional material and merchandise and we kept it going from 2019-2024, only missing summer 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic. After hearing the news about the upcoming closure of OWL I took a little spin through the work I had done for them and Jonathan and thought it’d be nice to lay it all out here as a little farewell note. Had a lot of fun with these over the years. They had their own energy outside of the NY Night Train stuff I made with Jonathan and we got to make some of them into these sort of “tour” t-shirts every couple of years which was cool to see. Anyways, I’m gonna miss the place and hanging out on that rooftop on summer nights. Scroll down and check out some of the Soul Scream and non-Soul Scream illustration work I did for OWL events below.
