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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.

Ganesha Hoodie

My Mountain Air Batik Ganesh Hoodie

  This hoodie is actually my second MAB hoodie but was my first request when Mateo and I first spoke about what I wanted in a custom hoodie. Mateo was unsure he could pull it off at the time. Then he came to me and mentioned that he was ready to make the Ganesh but it would have to be on the back of the hoodie due to the size required to render Lord Ganesh properly. Of course I was fine with this! 

 For the rest of the layout I asked Mateo if he would mind doing the front, hood and sleeves to make it a full piece. He agreed to this and I proceeded to explain to him what I wanted to see on those areas.

 The front of the hoodie is a mandala as requested. I sent Mateo several different mandalas that I liked and he used my favorite of them as a basis for what he made. In my opinion the hoodie mandala is better than the source because it has a more organic feel to it.

 On the hood itself I asked him to put the Star of David AKA a hexagram and adorn the rest with smaller stars. I chose this symbol because of its astrological origins. Symbolizing fire and water in unity also male and female energy unified. Balance and Harmony is what it means to me.

 Then came the sleeves. I told him for the sleeves I wanted some blood rune patterns but was unsure what exactly I wanted. It took me a week or so to mull it over and then while looking at the rune letters it came to me. On the right sleeve it reads “Know Thyself” and on the left sleeve it reads “Love Thyself”. 

 This hoodie completely floored me when Mateo first showed it to me! I was so amazed at all the detail and extremely pleased with the way he rendered all the ideas into a cohesive and beautiful wearable piece of art. I still love it to this day and my poor first MAB hoodie lives in retirement as result of this hoodie’s grandeur. Of everything I own this hoodie constantly receives compliments and oohs and aahs whenever I wear it and, as Tree said before me, I always tell people where they can get a MAB piece of their own! Thanks Mountain Air Batik for this amazing hoodie!! 

 Front Mandala

 Lord Ganesha

 Left and right sleeves

Star Hood

Jason Beerbear and his custom Mountain Air Batik hoodie.
Sadly,many of the photos of the batiks done at this time were lost when the computer died during a back up(that will explain the text on many of these photos). The hoodie above was one that helped us do more than we thought we could do with batiks on super thick hemp/cotton blends. many people can't believe a lot of these hoodies are even batik work due to the weight of the fabric etc...
Hats off to you Beerbear!
A thousand thanks!

Tree Love

"This is my awesome tree goddess MAB hoodie. I love it! I asked Mateo to design a tree goddess with outstretched arms and that was about all I specified. This was the result which was way better than I could have ever imagined. He even added peace symbols on each leaf...the detail is absolutely amazing! I get so many compliments when I wear it and proudly tell everyone who they can contact to get a piece of MAB artwork for themselves! Thanks, MAB! Love you guys :-)"

Tree, having fun in Mountain view,Ca.

This hoodie was from the original round of batik hemp hoodies that were made in 2007(?).

I recall naming this Hoodie "Balance" and yes, there are little tiny peace symbols in each leaf. We love (and miss you) too! Thank you Tree!

Las Calaveras y Culturas Hoodie.

Mateo first showed me this hoodie when it was a work in progress. Once it was done he showed it to me again and I fell in love with it. I asked if it was a custom made piece and he said no and it did not have a home yet. To that I said "it does now!"  I received it in the winter of 2009 and was completely blown away. Seeing close up the symbolism he chose to represent the culture he and I both hold so close to our hearts and spirits, it was so breath taking. Although this was not a custom piece, I knew it was made just for me.    

Thank you for submission,Sylvia!!!!

Inspirations for this batik were drawn from the Mexican Dia de los Muertos customs(a blend of Indigenous and Spanish Catholic beliefs) as well as the art of the

 Mexica (Azteca) codices.

This is not a batik of sadness or fear but, one of  celebration and remembrance for our loved ones that have moved on.

I am glad that I know where this batik resides unlike, so many of the more elaborate works that have been done by Mountain Air Batik.

Matiox, Gracias,Thank You.

Good things come to those that ask....

Good things come to those who wait! I had my heart set on having a Mountain Air Batik hoodie, so I found a comfy white hoodie and mailed it out to Mateo.  I asked him to run with whatever inspiration he felt with it and also said I didn't care if it took years to get back to me.. I wanted it to be an easy breezy project, no stress, and something from the heart.  Not too long after, I got a package in the mail and was so thrilled to see the vibrant purple color bursting out of the box as I opened it.  I'm so grateful to be on the receiving end of this beautiful artwork that perfectly resonates with my heart, despite the fact that I never asked for any specific design.  Namaste!

Muchas "Garcias" Prima!