Category Archives: Apparel

Hello bacon my old friend…

By popular request: The Infinite Bacon shirt is here! Inspired by the art of M.C. Escher and the flavorful pork product we all know and love. This is the latest t-shirt design from my shop that I am proud to unveil. Who doesn’t love bacon? Who doesn’t want an infinite amount of bacon!?

Fashion tip: Wear a red cape with this shirt and solve crime as Infinite Bacon Man/Woman!

The Delicious specs:

• This delicious design has five crispy colors, and is hand printed on an impressive electric Blue. The blue was specifically selected to make the colors of the design sizzle!
• The Shirt: A Gildan “Soft style”, 4.5 oz., 100% preshrunk ring-spun cotton jersey knit.
• Adult Men & Womens sizes are available: S, M, L, XL, 2XL
• Artwork: ©2010, John Sumrow. All rights reserved. I drew this! :0)

So lets go grab you some Infinite Goodness!

The back-story of little happy bacons -

About two years ago I was waiting for the bus for my morning commute. This day was different. Too much caffeine in my veins made my mind overclock and spin constantly on just two things: bacon and MC Escher. Back and forth: Escher – bacon – Escher – bacon…. etc.. It was driving me mad. A few days prior, I had been studying a fair amount of M.C. Escher drawings in order to inspire some of my own art. I was attempting to think of some sort of subject matter for my next oil painting. Alternately, in prior days, I had been telling all my friends about a new recipe that includes bacon. I was so excited about the recipe that my mind would not let it go. I’ll save the recipe for another blog post, but I will say that its code name is “El Torpedo” and involves New Mexican green chile, bacon, and Hebrew National hot-dogs. Enough said.

An artist interpretation of the Infinite Bacon idea as it was forming in my head. Note that this Fro is not to scale. My real hair is much smaller.

So, I have Escher rolling around in my brain meats, and I have been super excited to tell all my friends about this “El Torpedo” idea. My brain could not let go of either. I started thinking about Escher and tried to focus on the next oil painting I should do. What kind of subject matter should I try next? Painting still lifes is always a good answer. When in doubt, painting directly from the natural world is the best way to practice. Ok still life it is, but what? BAM! It hits me, bacon. I should do a still life of bacon. My mind flashed and become clear of all clutter. A perfect blank canvas formed in my head. On the canvas, just a single strip of graceful mobius bacon: Infinite Bacon.

“Muahahaha!!!”, I started to laugh out loud. I was now standing on the curb, still waiting for the bus, but giggling like a little school girl and simultaneously looking like a mad transient dancing around talking to himself. I ccould see it clearly. A nice little still life of mobius bacon, in oils, on canvas. It’s simple, elegant, one punch, BAM! So later that night, excited to tear into it, I fired up photoshop and took some Googled images of bacon, and twisted them into a mobius shape, beautiful! “Forget still lifes”, I told myself. “I can paint flowers and random studio knick-knacks anytime. This bacon thing needs to happen”. It’s funny. It will be hoot to paint and, and… it never happened. The idea went into a folder where it sat for over a year. Other projects were built, canvases painted, but the bacon was relegated to a folder of random ideas that never seemed to fit with what I was working on. *The sound of crickets chirping.*

Fast forward to January 2010. It’s a new year, time to dust off some ideas and and make some new art. I have had a few good commissions in the recent past, but this year I was committed to making art, and making my art work for me. I resolved to paint, draw etc.. But what was new was a drive to make my images work for me, so I decided to do t-shirts. Why not! It would be a good outlet for some of my art as well as my humor.

Fast forward to a few months ago. While contemplating various designs for shirts, I dusted off this old sheet of paper with a mobius bacon on it. Not thinking much of it, I showed it to a few friends, along with many other designs I had cooking <– pun intended. For some reason it seemed to resonate with everyone I showed it to. Once I mocked it up and put it in my online shop, under “Coming Soon”. The e-mails started coming in from far and wide. Customers from Europe, Australia, and many across the US would buy a CheFC or a Zombie shirt, and would send me an email: “I have to have THE BACON!”, “When are you going to print ‘The Bacon’?” Well, after many e-mails and much friendly advice, here it is. I have heard you! The wait is over. My good friend Steve Lee of Thin-King Press has rocked the inks once again and “The Bacon” is ready to come out of the frying pan and into the fire. This pork is ready for Prime time.

~ FIN ~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ John