A long time coming.

This is a great story about a hoodie we did for Neil quite a while ago. Hope you enjoy it!

Back in the beginning of 2012, I realized that I had attended 85 Yonder Mountain String Band shows. OMG, I only had 15 more till 100. Many of my kinfolk friends had already reached this milestone and had done things to commemorate the occasion: Bumper stickers, T-shirts, etc. 

I was trying to think of a memorable way to commemorate this milestone. The 1^st thing to come to mind was MaB. I had been a long time customer and an avid fan of batik, but had never seen a batik artist with the unique ability to capture nature and the metaphysical. This is what 1^st caught my eye when I saw my 1^st MaB design. I own many Mab designs, but as a customer, who had stood in line for some small lot shirts at the Summit, I wanted them to customize a hoodie for my 100^th show.

I spoke with Mateo in August about possible designs, still not knowing when I might reach my 100^th show. As fate would have it, my 100^th was to be on 12-12-12 in Tulum, Mexico. This was my 1^st time in Mexico and the idea just seemed to click. Mateo had spent many years traveling and educating himself in Mayan art and culture.

When I realized the perfection of this match, I spoke with Mateo about giving him the liberty to be free with the design ideas, and to also try to incorporate my original ideas: Paying homage to my 100^th show and a nature design to show my love for Colorado and the band itself. I wanted to do this without infringing on any copyrights or using the band name.

Once Mateo started the design, it kind of took on a life of its own. Although, I wanted the hoodie for the event, the batik design was very complicated and Mateo wanted to make sure it was complete before he gave it to me. He showed me a few camera shots from different parts of the hoodie, but I really had no idea what the final product would look like.

After weeks of agonizing what it would look like, it finally arrived and I was blown away by the detail of this one-of-a-kind hemp hoodie. 

As you can see from the pictures, the front has a temple, similar to El Castillo(the temple at Chichen itza) AKA as the Temple of Kukulkan and of course Kukulkan (Feathered Serpent) is sitting on top of the pyramid. The front pocket of the hoodie has Kinfolk UFO sitting under the number 100 surrounded by an explosive batik web.

The back stayed true to my original design, with a ribbon that says “Life is better there”, a line from the song, 40 miles from Denver, under an incredible mountain scene complete with a full moon and stars.  

Mab was the right decision to be the artist to honor my 100^th Yonder show.  Everywhere I wear the hoodie, people stop me to ask who did the amazing artwork and where can they get one. I tell them about the artist and point them to the website, but I smile a little as I tell them, this design will never be reproduced. 

Summer Summit.

Well? It's been a roller coaster of a year. That's about all I can say. Thanks for all the support and positive thoughts sent our way. We are truly blessed. So, Here is to a happy rest of the summer! Look out for more new over the top batiks from us very soon as they are in the works!

Bear Love Hoodie!!!!!!!

I'm going to do my best to tell the story true and complete...
I was born in Portland, Oregon...a while back...and grew up going to
the coast with my Mom, we would go walking down Cannon Beach and
go to Haystack Rock...it was our thing to do in the spring and summer.
In the fall and winter my Grandfather would take me to Mt Hood, and we
would ski and hike around all over, play in the snow...I enjoyed the
seasons and the diversity of this Great State.
Fast forward a few years...and I was living in Hood River helping a friend
getting her bead store opened and I met Brian and Mateo
who were making batik wall hangings for her shop..and they were really
nice! Again we fast forward a year or two and I met Jason Beerbear and
we became friends right off the bat and we moved into a house in
Portland and started having a ton of fun together...he started telling me
about this hoodie he's having made for himself and how sick it's going to
be, and how he's coming up with the design and why...it's going to be
the sickest thing ever!!!
Well, it was finally done and boy howdy it was badass! I'd never seen
anything like it! The detail and color! wow! Yeah Brian and Mateo took it
to another level...and 'ol Beerbear was proudly wearing it and bragging
about there was no finer or better hoodie ever made! Sooo....I asked
the Mt Air boys if they had any hoodies that would be big enough for me
left in stock, because they were selling fast! everyone wanted one! Yes
they said, come on over and let's talk about what you want.
Well, talking to Mateo about my thoughts on the design, what I wanted
and what he thought he could do, we came up with a hoodie design that
captured my life growing up and things I cherish! I was so excited and
couldn't wait to see what magic would be created...but...the Mt Air Batik
boys were busy, really busy and things were going to have to wait for a
bit...and so over the next year every once in awhile Mateo, would call,
ask a question, tell me he was still working on it, not to worry it was
going to be worth waiting for!
It was almost 2 years and some good times talking about my thoughts
and ideas and theirs as well, and then I started hearing people say
"Have you seen the hoodie yet?" "Not yet" says I ... "OH DUDE!"...
Then I got the call... "Why don't you come over, and get your hoodie!"
OH MY...really?! How do you describe something that's such beautiful
art and the dream come to life?
Well here ya go...the front is Summertime at the beach with a full Moon
beaming down on Haystack Rock and the Ocean and everything is a-
glow, (Mateo asked me when my Son was born at some point during the
process) in sky next to the full Moon he put my Sons astrological sign in
the stars! On the left arm is Winter, with a full Moon shining down on a
pine tree covered in snow with Mt's in the background and my dog Jacks
name carved in the tree trunk. The right arm is Fall, with the aspen
leaves turning the awesome reds and golds and my first dog Finn's name
carved in the tree trunk and the eye of the tree is the connection that
will always be. The Back...is Springtime, with Mt Hood being lit up by a
fiery sun spreading it's warmth across the sky and melting the snow and
causing the streams and rivers to flow and the grass is green and at the
bottom you see the Bear...who's looking at his reflection in the water
and thinking about...Then we come to the hood... and this is where
Mateo becomes a master of his art!!! I'm known in our circle as
"Papabear"...my son is "Mancub"...we have a family of Bears that share
Love and Respect and a Passion for Music...it's a very powerful thing!
Mateo created a Native American Medicine Shield featuring a Bear paw
with feathers framing the shield on the right side of the hood and on the
left side is the Native American Wheel of Life or Medicine Wheel, The
Medicine Wheel is a powerful metaphor for the totality of life. All aspects
of creation and consciousness, inclusive of the mineral, plant, animal,
human and spirit realms, are contained within the center and eight
directions of the medicine wheel. They overlap and interweave to form
the whole. It is in the center of the medicine wheel that we find the void,
black hole, sacred zero, the chaos at the source of creation, containing
all possibilities. Each of the elements - air, fire, water, and earth - is
guided and molded by the sacred life force energy contained within the
void. It is the source of chi, which is the driving force for all sacred
sexuality. Through sacred sexuality, all forms of all things within the
mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms, have been and continue to
be created. Life could not exist without the sexual life-force energy of
the void, which is the catalyst for all the powers that are found within
the 360 degrees of the medicine wheel.
Hanging from the wheel are two more feathers that overlap a Bear
ankh...the feather work is amazing, it looks like he pasted them there!
The Piece of wearable Art is not only mind blowing but breathtaking as
well...needless to say I get compliments wherever I wear it and offers to
buy it off my back...fyi...it's not for sale!
Thanks to Brian and Mateo for their dedication and passion and
commitment to making the best wearable Batik art!
James Papabear

Photos: L.McClain/M.Garcia

Here are a few close up shots of Brian modeling the hoodie before James arrived to take it home.

All artwork, images and content, created within this website, or any of

our media is the property of Mountain Air Batik and is protected under

copyright laws. Any reproduction in part or in whole, theft of designs or

images is subject to prosecution. Content may not be used without the

expressed written consent of the artists and Mountain Air Batik of

Portland, OR.(Thanks to Sylvia Hernandez for the re type!)

Summer is just around the bend!

Summer is just around the bend! What does that mean?!  Aside from long warm sunny days, it means summer tours,music festivals, outdoor art shows,markets,hiking and so much more! We here at Mountain Air Batik have plenty in store for you all. So keep your eyes open! You all may remember that we have made several batiks that draw inspiration from that band that so many people loved(still love) and followed around the country every chance they got. Right? I thought so. Well, we used to have a little tradition with those designs. Many of you might recall that we would do those music batiks for a summer and then wait 6 months up to a couple of years before we did that style of batik art again.  We are returning to that tradition again. You see, we did those batiks because they were something special to us and for many of you but, we never wanted to become the guys that only are known for making those "sick (insert band name here) batiks". So, after this summer we are going to return to the tradition of making those batiks every once in a while instead of all the time. That's not to say you can't custom order one every now and then. We just want to focus on making batiks that reflect who we are and things that  we enjoy beyond the music. That means if you see one in the booth, then grab it! We only plan on making a few for every festival and market we attend. Where will Mountain Air Batik be this late spring, summer and fall? As soon as we know, we will let you all know. Applications are out and we are waiting to hear back from the  coordinators,judges,jurors etc...In the meantime you all should make sure you check out the new website. There has been a little bit added here and there and, Kelly Emerson has done a great job putting it together! Not to mention dealing B and myself(thanks Kelly!)  Admittedly things have been a little slow on the production side mainly due to ongoing medical problems Mateo has had with his right arm and shoulder as well as Brian's regular job taking him all over the West coast. With that being said you can still expect to see the same high quality batik art and clothing drew you in to begin with.

With the trickle of batiks that will soon become a raging river we have looked into our back catalog of batik art and decided to revisit and re work a few of our old favorites. 

Here is a prime example of the new and much improved "Roots"batik (now known as Roots 2.0.12), a nice upgrade,I think.

Years ago Mountain Air Batik did a design that reflected our love for Oregon. Mateo was never quite happy with the end result and took it upon his self to come up with a different version. The new line art was stuffed into a notebook and  forgotten about until last fall. He came across what looked like a brand new drawing pad while cleaning the batik space and there it was! It was immediately  put on to shirts and waxed,dyed,re waxed and dyed again and...finally! The finished New Oregon batik! You can preview it here or buy one from www.mountainairbatik.com

 This is just is small sample of what you will be seeing from us this year.

You can look forward to all kinds of batik t shirts,hoodies,long sleeves,tank tops,dresses, children's t shirts as well as original art work and photography. There will also be  batik reproductions, silk screens and original silk batiks by Mountain Air Batik.

We don't want to give too information  much away just yet so we will end this blog here. Thank you all for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you all this spring/summer!

www.mountainairbatik.com

by

Kelly Emerson

of

http://www.greenangelsmedia.com/

As always we can be reached via email mountainairbatik@comcast.net

or can contact/follows us on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Air-Batik/34263297226

Be sure to friend us!

Web Store is finally open!

Looky here!

http://www.mountainairbatik.com/MABstore.html

Lotus

      Hola, my name is Robert Cardenas. I know technically that Mateo and I are really not related, but I do consider him part of our family, in fact my daughter Camille refers to him as her uncle. I really hope he is not offended by the fact that we sometimes refer to him as hippie Matt,,,cause we mean it in a very loving way. I personally feel like I am hippie trapped in in this crazy whirlwind of life. This mentality is probably one of the main reasons that Matteo and I have a lot of similar interests and views. Sure he is a little more hardcore on his vegetarian lifestyle than me...since I do indulge in a few seafood delicasies once in a while,,,and not to mention that I am a meatcutter by trade. I still remember going to a Pizza Hut in Waukegan Illinois and shareing a veggie pizza with him. I think it was soon after that I decided to give up eating meat,,or maybe it was a bit to much Morrissey back in the 80's. I was also going to college up in Wisconsin working on my Bachelors of Fine Arts, which is another similar interest that we have. Which brings us to my M.A.B. hoodie story. Mateo was kind enough to design batik shirts for my entire family a few years back, which we have gotten many great comments on and have been worn to many awsome places and events. I even got my picture taken with the drummer Manas from Franti/ Spearhead, while sporting said shirt. I had often hinted to Mateo about doing some buddhistesque images on his designs. Which is another one of my interest. I thought my ideas were falling on deaf ears, til I received my father's day gift this year! A one of a kind lotus flower design with an eight spoke image in the middle!!! Awsome! I did have to wait a while before I was able to use it, cause at the time we were experiencing 90 degree weather here in Chicago. But now, Fall is here and I am getting much warmth from it. I am always proud to say that my good friend and brother made this for me. Thanks again Mateo...not just for the great hoodie but for everything else includeing being part of our makeship family! Peace and love brother!

         Jesus Roberto Cardenas Garza,,,aka Bob for those who can't roll their rrrrrrrrrrrrs

When Lilia asked me about making a batik for Robert I must admit that was a little unsure of myself.You see, Robert has done some really great art  and, I wanted to make sure it would be something that he would like enough to wear more than every now and then. The only requirements were that the flower should not be pink,melon or pastely(is that even a word?). I was once given an F in a High School art class for using too many dark tones and not enough pastels... but, that's another story. So the hoodie above is like almost every other hoodie that has been made, one of a kind, made especially for the person that ordered it. I am happy that Robert loves what was done for  him and, I am grateful that Lilia and Camille chose Mountain Air Batik to be the creators of their fathers day gift. Most of all I am honored to be part of their extended family.

Summer shots

Thank you all for a great summer. Hopefully we will see you all out at a few of the Holiday markets but, the plan is to finally get that web site up and running. It's nice to go back and look at these warm summer pictures and smiling face especially since it feels like fall is trying to  come to Portland earlier than I am ready for. So, here is a whole bunch of photos for you all to look at. Oh! We found more Horning's pictures so let's start there. Enjoy!

Once again, Thank you all!

Something off the beaten path....

So, when people hear the word batik many images come to mind. The pictures one might conjure in their head may be the traditional Balinese style stamp batiks, painted silk flower kimono batiks,Hippie style shirts or your moms 70's craft projects. We have been creating batiks mostly in the "hippie"t shirt  style for the past 11 years(selling as a company for 10years,if that matters). Mountain Air Batik has become known for making small batches of batiks with an emphasis on the art and not quantity. We have done some wholesale work for a couple of bands and for some companies in Japan but, we choose to keep wholesale at a minimum and do what we do best. So! Music has always been a huge part of Mountain Air Batik and we at one time or another have made shirts for ourselves or freinds of  favorite bands, in all that time I thought about how cool it would have been to make a batik shirt of the Slayer logo and even joked that I was going to make one for a friend in Trinidad,Ca. Well, I never did the Slayer logo like I said but, I did make a few batiks for myself that have caught the attention of other like minded music fans and thought that it would make an interesting blog post for my 4 followers! Haha!
You see, I have been a fan of many kinds of music since all my life as well as a fan of t-shirts with band logos,graphics etc... since I am half owner of a batik company that makes t shirts I decided to revisit some of my favorite bands and  make a t-shirt or two. The bands I chose were The Misfits/Samhain and Soul Side. I recently obtained permission from Kevin of 7 seconds to make a VERY SMALL number of 7 Seconds shirts(no, they will not be for sale unless I can come to a fair deal with the band and keep the costs down).

Bobby Sullivan of Soul Side, 7 League Boots and many other musical projects showing off his Mountain Air Batik "Soul Side Sun" batik  one of five made.

Detail of the sun logo the font was used on the Bass e.p. the sun was also used on the same e.p. as well as one of their tour shirts. I revised it a little, dyed the shirts,drew/waxed the logo then re dyed the shirt. I am honored to have Mr. Sullivan wearing something that I made. Thanks Bobby 

This Misfits,Samhain combo batik was done over a year ago and could quite possibly be the first and only one of it's kind. I get so many compliments on this shirt from H.C. kids, old timers to hippies some even singing Misfits words to me! The Misfits bridge the gap between all genres! Hahaha!

So, this one shirt is mine and I don't have plans on reproducing it(We did make a single Samhain logo shirt for our friend Eric in Wi).

 Last but not least was a second homage to Samhain. This shirt was two sided like the other shirt but, it was dedicated to Samhain. The front was a reproduction of the "November Coming Fire" record that did not come out to my liking so, I did not photograph it. The back was a nice batik version of Glen and Co. drenched in red stuff making them super scary! Boo! I took the image from the great Samhain record "Initium". The back came out pretty good I thought. Our good friend Wende bought it for her good friend Brad. So it resides in Salt Lake City,Ut.
Since the making of these few "Punk/H.C." shirts we have thought about making batiks of other Metal,HC/punk bands but nothing other the 7 Seconds batik is in the immediate future.

Camp out at the Mountain Air Batik booth NWSS 2011

So! Being a little behind due to family issues our end the "special" shirt we make for this show was late.
I am going on info from  B. the other half of Mountain Air and our homie,Beerbear.

People were coming by the booth as early as thursday night looking for the shirt that escapes many hands every year. I talked to B and told him they would be there some time saturday afternoon and that Beerbear had them as well as many others. B. let a few people know and the word spread. By the time the shirts arrived there was a line of people that had been gathering as early as three hours prior to the arrival of the shirts. Sadly, not everyone was able to purchase one but, we are taking orders for a variation of the shirt...Here are some photos snapped by Chelsi,B.,Beerbear and if I missed anyone else...oops!

The shirt we made last year.This picture brings a huge smile to my face! 

We can't say thank you enough to all of you for your patience and kindness. If you have a shirt and we did not get a photo of you please, send us one.