Artist Profile: Christine Hale

Los Angeles/Montreal artist Christine Hale has not only been responsible for our Let's Independent! posters for the last two years, but numerous other show fliers across the country, CD covers, and more. Much to the cheer of fans of dogs in boots, pizza, and making out.

She recently launched the site Posters With The Mosters to display all her work (and, y'know, get more), so we figured to ask her a few questions about her past/present/future.

How long have you been making art?

Since forever. (See below.)



When did you start making show posters?

Back in HS (in lil’ Joplin, Missouri) I designed a lot of posters and t-shirts for shows and plays, but about a year after I moved to L.A., The Autumn Defense asked me if they could use my artwork for a show they were having at Tangier's and after that it was officially poster party time!



What are some of your favorite show posters?

Oh, man. There are so many and they were all so much fun to make. I guess I love this one the best because it’s so funny but also really warm and childlike: A dog wearing boots that are also little dogs?! What?! Where did he buy those at? How does this even make sense? (These are the thoughts I think when I’m making the poster---questioning the reasoning for the characters actions. Haha.)



Sometimes the ideas just pop out of the blue, sometimes they relate to the band/s. Sometimes I’ll be listening to the music while I make the poster and then whatever I do, I attribute to the influence of the music too. That’s the cool part of it all because then we are all working together to influence one another with our art. I like that.

I love this one because it’s dogs totally making out!!!! Awww!!!!



And this is another Let's Independent! poster I love. I was soooooo hungry when I was making it and all I could think about was eating spaghetti so---I drew spaghetti. Hahahahaha. So fun!



One more of my favorite posters! So sweet and so many things going on: a sock dog looking for a missing sock pup? Giant blobs with gloves looking lovingly into other blob love eyes!



What other projects are you working on?

Oooh, well, I just started the poster site POSTERS WITH THE MOSTERS where I put up lots of posters and links to each of the websites for the bands that I’ve made posters for (or have been in a poster) so that not only do you get to look at the art-you can find the band too! I started the site because I love making posters but I like helping the musicians out with the posters as well---give them another way to share their music love with my art love to more people (bands can even send me a song and I’ll put it under the poster too). And I want to make a billion more, so, it’s the place to find me tinkering away and to approach me for some poster work and future collabos! :)

Most of the work I have been doing the past couple of years has been designing posters/albums/tshirts/editorials/comics etc. for musicians. Since I am a musician as well, it’s the best way I can combine my passions! And I’ve started to find ways to merge my art with my music as well---earlier this year I worked with Antonio Ringor on SYMMETRICS which took my photography and put it to music, after that I did a bunch of E.E. Cummings poems with the visual structure of the poetry in mind while it was translated into music and up here in Montreal I started a new project with this french electro guy Stern (who’s style is completely different from my style, which makes it even more interesting to me) called Heart Brain Beat. We took a sound, then imagined a world made up of that sound (the first song is about a sea anemone in an underwater seascape) which inspired the rest of the song. Then I created artwork from that song and animated it. It’s just the beginning of a this new project, so there is only one song mastered and up on the website, but, it’s just an example of how everything effects everything else. Art inspires new art inspires music inspires thoughts and being and becoming.

So----those are some things I’m working on right now. Haha. Symmetrics I’m waiting to get mixed and mastered and finalized, E.E. Cummings I’m trying to obtain the copyrights for the poems so I can distribute them and work on setting up shows at universities eventually, and Heart Brain Beat is a slow moving sea slug slugging happily along. Also, I’m starting a literary/art publication in NYC with Erin Smith called WKWS. I’m making a book about pizza called “Pizza Doing Stuff” because I love pizza, annnnd...I’ll be showing/selling comics and posters at the Expozine in Montreal at the end of November!

All of this while patting my head and rubbing my tummy. Hahaha.

Ossum. Thanks for your time, Christine. Let's close with a few of our own favorites you've made...