Tulsa World: Wha-wha peddler

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Wha-wha peddler
Posters that raise eyebrows, and sell tickets

Artist Denny Schmickle in his garage studio, where wild things happen in ink. "I'm somebody who more often than not finds images and makes them into something else," Schmickle said. JAMES GIBBARD / Tulsa World

By MATT GLEASON World Scene Writer
Published: 11/20/2008 2:13 AM
Last Modified: 11/20/2008 4:09 AM

Posters that raise eyebrows, and sell tickets

The man in the poster has no face, just a swirling mystery. And his raised palms bear two weeping eyes. "End Times," they say, in thin, black letters. It's just the sort of image to make a passer-by go "Wha?"

Denny Schmickle digs the "wha?" factor. He's the 29-year-old Tulsan who wrangles it into long, tall rectangles.

Art students at Rogers State University call the assistant professor Mr. Schmickle, but local music-heads simply know him for directing them to an array of hot nightspots.

Schmickle designed his mystery man for a grand poster heralding his forthcoming art show at Dwelling Spaces. (It runs Friday through the holidays.)

Stop by and see a bevy of Schmickle's concert posters and one-of-a-kind T-shirts, among other pieces. They all find post-modern art colliding with graphic design.

Over the years, Schmickle's Big Bang has produced an explosion of his signature half-tone dots, vibrant colors, shapes and, well, a four-armed Michael Phelps.

"I'm somebody who more often than not finds images and makes them into something else," Schmickle explained one afternoon in his wood-paneled garage studio.

He sat in a throne-white, plastic lawn chair a few steps away from his screen-printing facility: a bewildered shower stall splattered in water-based paint.

The mystery-man poster also hollers about a tied-in event: Unwed Sailor — a national outfit known for its mostly instrumental rock sound — will play the Marquee on Friday night.

Below the "wha?"-inducing poster, Schmickle summed up both the art show and concert in one teensy, tongue-in-cheek message:

"Hard Work Records and Dwelling Spaces present an event that will likely trigger an epoch of never-ending suffering and strife in the form of a global apocalypse; so bring some cash."

DENNY SCHMICKLE ART SHOWOPENING

When: 6-9 p.m. Friday, continues through the holidays

Where: Dwelling Spaces, 119 S. Detroit Ave.

UNWED SAILOR, WITH FIAWNA FORTE AND STEVEDORE

When: Doors at 8 p.m.

Where: The Marquee, 222 N. Main St.

Matt Gleason 581-8473
matt.gleason@tulsaworld.com By MATT GLEASON World Scene Writer

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