The writer observing the world as a fragmented reflection

Thought I'd try not to leave it two months between posts so here are a few recent pieces.



The first is for Brown Alumni and the excellent AD Lisa Sergi. An intriguing article by author David Shields positing the theory that Brown U Alumni writers share a certain sensibility- a self-conscious, mainstream-yet-outsider-ish stance that stems in part from Brown's reputation as the poor relation in the Ivy League. The writer seems to be projecting his own PoMo literary attitudes somewhat but it's an interesting read. The to-and-fro of ideas with the AD was very enjoyable and I'm pretty happy with the end piece where I broke out my inks and watercolour paper (naturally retreating to the comfort of Photoshop halfway through the process)

Goatfish1

The others are for the Telegraph (UK newspaper) Saturday magazine and another cool AD (Danielle Campbell). It feels a bit weak posting horoscope spots (the bane of many an AD who's had to look through endless graduate folios containing student horoscope projects) but I got such a kick out of doing these and it's years since I've been asked to do one. Infact so keen was I on the goat-fish Capricorn idea I churned out funfty sketches and worked up two- both of which'll be used during the month.



And off the back of that audition assignment I got a piece on food which I again approached with slobbering puppy-dog-like enthusiasm. Any non-financial assignments feel like such a treat.



 

Harvard Kennedy School- A piece on the nature of political states and how they exist mainly to segregate

...'Best of' from the last few months featuring- as always- a gift of an assignment from SooJin B and a few conceptual pieces.



Away from work, I've been attending a Creative Writing workshop to spur me into action away from commissioned work.



Meeting Quentin Blake at the AOI awards in June left me rather awe-struck and determined to be more dynamic about my own work and perhaps punt myself towards the mysterious land of kid lit. Unfortunately, I seem to be reverting to (surly, apathetic) type as a student (ah, how my BFA and MFA tutors must've loved me!) and after a week of conscientious scribbling, I've been shirking homework ever since. I was even tempted last week to turn up with my arm in a sling as a excuse for not turning in yet another assignment. Who knows, once the course is through and my sullen passive-aggressiveness-in-group-situations has passed I'll knuckle down to some proper writing.



Always kind of looked forward to testing out my freewheeling storytelling skills on my kids but they're both obsessed with superheroes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so any story not featuring Michelangelo or Cap'n America soon has them booing and chucking things at me. A tough crowd, I tells ya.



The fetching tshirt snap is a design I've posted before. The illo made it's way onto a shirt in aid of solar power for hospitals in Burundi (some links to the organisers: self.org and justonefrickinday.com) thanks to my good friend Roman Milisic at House of Diehl. Cool to feel that I'm doing something worthy with v little effort. Tees can be bought here. Not as subtle or textural in print form as the original design but still perdy enough. I dig the tenuous yet plausible post-rationalisation on the JustOneFrickinDay site for using horses in the design ('The wild sub-Saharan horses representing the Eastern and Western worlds come together to show its support of the African continent seen as the emaciated shadow of the two').

A Guardian section cover- 40 years of the Booker Prize

I'm phoning-in my Drawger contribution by just showing you the best of this month's editorial stuff rather than giving you too much back story.

With my regular editorial assignments being pruned by the week (yowzers) I should be able to spend more time on Drawger soon...

Away from drawing, my highlights for the month have been my daughter starting school and working my way through the Moro cookbooks (am getting a little obsessive about breadmaking).