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Studio, All Over Coffee #392 by Paul Madonna

San Francisco spring greetings, collectors! It's very fitting that I'm writing from here—not only because this is my home away from home (and I've written many a dispatch from here), but also because today's edition, Studio, All Over Coffee #392, is from San Francisco-based artist Paul Madonna.

Paul's always-charming ink wash drawings touch upon the everyday, often in a playful way. We were super excited to release his Balsa planes #3 and Balsa planes #4 last winter, just in time for the Mixtape exhibition at the JBG and, of course, gift-giving season. Loaded as they are with nostalgia (both for me and Sara), the planes and Album 1 (with its prominent Fisher-Price record player), tug at the ole heartstrings.

In Studio, All Over Coffee #392, Paul brings the viewer into his workspace. He is sharing with us his studio, which happens to be (as he recently told 7x7 magazine*) his most prized possession: "Can you call an art studio a possession? I often fantasize about it—the tables, the lighting and rows of bookshelves. I daydream about amassing a great library someday." In this particular corner of his space, though, we don't see Paul's books but instead, a Pez dispenser, neatly organized inks, toy figurines and (OMG) finger puppets!

Not long ago on one-among-many trips to San Francisco, I stumbled across an installation of Paul's drawings in Ritual Roasters on Valencia, which featured, of course, the finger puppets! I've had an attachment to these weird rubbery creatures since receiving one as a gift years ago. Randomly, artist and curator Melanie Flood gave me one on the night we met, out with mutual friend and artist, Jason Polan. I can't remember where we were or what we did, but the finger puppet—whose gradient colors flow gaudily from yellow to orange to purple—is currently perched atop the ledge of my Chambers stove and serves always as a reminder of the evening. I think of Melanie and Jason every time I look at it—and also, now, of Paul.

Back at Ritual Roasters, seeing one of those wacky finger puppets made me think fondly of not just Paul and the editions we'd done with him (and the book those drawings were published in), but also of my experiences in San Francisco. It made me think, too, of home, where my finger puppet lives, of Melanie and Jason and of how familiar objects anchor and connect you in unexpected ways to others, to memories, to yourself.

So at that point, I realized we really ought to do an edition with a drawing of Paul's that had at least one of the weird finger puppets in it. Lucky us, this one has THREE. (One of which, by the way, looks an awful lot like the one that Melanie gifted me all those years ago.)

This print is also part of Paul's new book, Everything is its Own Reward: An All Over Coffee Collection. If you find yourself in San Francisco, Paul will be signing copies at Electric Works this Friday, April 29th, from 7 to 10 p.m.

* You can read the whole interview here in this PDF.