Untitled (My bad) by Mike Monteiro

Sunny, summery (at last!) Tuesday greetings, my collector pals. Hope you all had relaxing weekends full of grilling, lolling and other leisurely -ings. We are back in black today with our latest offering from my favorite Bay Area curmudgeon, the acerbically talented Mike Monteiro.

My bad is so good! Does he mean it? Probably not. A friend just said to me over IM: "i hate that phrase. which i guess is the point." I believe he is correct.

I have said a lot of nice things about Mike before. You should read them. You should also read Remixed Messages, Rob Walker's most recent Consumed column in the New York Times Magazine. Featured in that article is our very own Matt Jones, talking about the Get Excited and Make Things edition that he did with 20x200. It's awfully... exciting. Don't you think? Here's the most important bit:

Possibly the best-known response graphic was created by Matt Jones... He was "in a grumpy mood" when he happened to read an article in The Guardian about the "Keep Calm" trend. "It was full of this sort of British fatalism," he recalls. Being of the mind-set that "we have to invent our way out of trouble," he started sketching. His design — the slogan "Get Excited and Make Things" under a crown that includes wrenches — became a Web hit, leading to a T-shirt from Howies, a Welsh clothing brand, and a set of prints sold on 20x200.com; Mule Design in San Francisco is bringing out a version of the shirt [ed. note: it's here!] in the U.S.

If Mule Design sounds familiar, that's because it IS. It's the design firm founded by none other than Mike Monteiro and his brilliant partner, the delightful and always-entertaining-over-IM Erika Hall.

Now that we've come full circle and are talking about Mike and IM again, it's a perfect opportunity for me to wrap things up and skedaddle. But there's one more thing before I go:

The original My bad painting is included in our upcoming show at Jen Bekman Gallery. Summer Reading opens next Wednesday, July 15th. The exhibition will include work from many of my favorite artists, many of whom will be offering editions here on 20x200. So save the date & stay tuned.

See you all tomorrow!