Something has been bugging me. Something, that is, besides the Congress, politics in general, the Antarctic heatwave, texting, Justin Bieber, the state of the world, etc.
That something is what I now have come to call the Law of Convergence. Although I notice it's effects all of the time in all sorts of situations out in the world, I especially notice it every time I go for a jog in the neighborhood.
Allow me to indulge myself in attempting to explain my theory, which I swear must be some basic principle of physics.
The following is simply an example of this effect...
First, imagine a young urban professional couple, getting an early start in going out for their anniversary meal somewhere out of town, in their SUV. Likely heading up to Napa Valley (The French Laundry, one would assume), they arrive onto 16th street from the north.
Next, imagine a self-absorbed junior high school girl fresh out of class and walking to her baby-sitting gig. She is walking down Rhode Island street going east.
Now, imagine that the house at 2142 16th street has been under some renovation lately, and the construction crew has had to cut a new gas connection to the city line.
Then, imagine you're me. It's Sunday, and it's a three day weekend; the city seems blissfully vacant. Jogging through empty streets is helping to bring on an especially peaceful meditative state. Turning onto 16th street, you're amazed by how empty the street is. No one to be seen anywhere, not even a car.
And then you see it: not far ahead, the sidewalk narrows, because of plywood barriers and construction tape due to the house that's being renovated, jutting out into the sidewalk, at the exact same place that a large treewell cuts into the other side of the sidewalk.
As you approach this narrow passage, all of the sudden the self-absorbed junior high-school student comes around the corner from Rhode Island street, headed straight for you. Getting closer, it looks as if you and the student are going to come to the limited access space on the sidewalk at the exact same moment.
Flummoxed, and thinking on your feet (so to speak), you decide it may be best to swerve out into the empty street in order to avoid this awkward annoyance.
Unfortunately, against all odds, an SUV comes up out of nowhere, slows to a stop and blocks your path into the street.
You're forced to stop your jog and squeeze through the narrow construction-taped passage with the student.
The moment you pass this bottleneck, the streets are once again devoid of anyone else, silent save the whir of chirping crickets. The Law of Convergence has struck again.
I've noticed this more and more happening all of the time. Did Einstein or Hawking or someone figure this out already?
I've been fooling around a bit with attempting to merge my various stylistic approaches, being less rigid about how I apply them. Mainly, this has meant bringing in more texture to the one and more simple design to the other. Ideally I'll ultimately simply relax about it all and simply take the direction that makes the most sense.
This is a cover I just did for Ronn Campisi. It was tough in that the deadline was super fast and the subject a bit... abstract. It's also one of those subjects (law) that takes every ounce of effort to avoid the cliched iconography.
Here's another one for Ronn, for Bostonia Magazine. Another tough one but with a bit more relaxed deadline, about Societal Engineering.
One for SooJin Buzelli. Sort of the other approach, striving for simple graphic approach. I think this one was about the denial one arrives at when considering retirement possibilities, but as we all know SooJin basically gave me the line "stuck at a crossroads".
These two images (above and below) were done for an ad campaign for ITAU bank in São Paolo. I recently learned that the one above was accepted into the latest S.O.I. advertising show. The one below was originally made for a magazine and they wanted to use it for this campaign, so I reworked it. They also animated this piece apparently for t.v. panels in the airport and stuff, but I haven't seen it.
The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival happens here in San Francisco this time every year. The festival takes place in Golden Gate Park and is completely free to the public. It has tons and tons of premiere bluegrass, country and pop acts. Name a star and they're either playing or have played in the past. It goes on for three days and seemingly every person within 60 miles of San Francisco jams into GG park to watch killer music for free. There are six different stages set up in different areas of the park, and although most of them have bluegrass and country acts, one is dedicated to other pop music acts. Here's this year's line-up:
So, I got a call from the most excellent Andrew Nilsen to do the SF Weekly cover for the week of the festival. When I get an assignment like this, the first thing I think, however irrationally, is what can I do to avoid an image of a bluegrass guy playing a banjo? Luckily, Andrew wholeheartedly agreed. We also were in agreement as to not have some generic music festival sort of image. And the last thing I wanted to do was a terrible portrait of Ralph Stanley snuggling up with Robert Plant or something.
So then, what to draw? It had to be location specific, meaning GG Park and San Francisco. But we wanted to avoid the corny (albeit beautiful) Golden Gate Bridge.
I liked the idea of using a bison. GG Park has a famous field in it where bison roam. Any local knows this. Bison look like pure bluegrass, at least to me. The beard and 'burns, the doleful eyes, the unkempt hair. Put a cowboy hat on it and boom, there it is. Andrew was really into the bison angle. So I started working up drawings. Unfortunately, it just looked hokey. Onward.
Some thumbnails and brain farts. I was really wanting to do something with the mandolin body curl and the horns of the bison, but it just didn't work - bison started looking like a ram. Bison can quickly begin looking like Pan as well, which may have had some conceptual legs but I had to keep my focus.
Andrew liked the face becoming the top of the mandolin, so I worked up a possible composition. I liked too how the instrument's bridge could become the mouth, and eventually I brought in the bridge-pins as the toothy bluegrass redneck teeth to give it a bit more levity. We ended up using Sutro Tower to double tie it to SF, it's such a great landmark.
Mr. Nilsen thought this was looking too foresty and not suggestive enough of the festival, and he was right. So, for the final I made it a big field. Sort of ended up looking like a travel poster.
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A side note... This festival is the creation of a man named Warren Hellman, heir to the Hellman mayonaisse empire and co-founder of Matrix equity firm. Hellman pays all the musicians their full fees, and has funded the festival to go on for a number of years after his death. It's an amazingly generous gift of culture to the city.
Hellman also happens to be a wicked amazing banjo player. His band The Wronglers play every year at the festival, and they are smokin'.
I had an especially surreal experience with him one day in 2008, the very day that his firm was helping to buy out Lehman Bros during the financial collapse. His band was playing in Sebastapol at a friend's yearly apple picking party, and the band I was playing drums with (Sister Exister) played right before them. I got to chat a bit with him, couldn't be a friendlier guy, and he didn't say a peep about the enormous deal he was making that very day to help buyout Lehman bros.
Here's a detail of the background from the final piece. My subtle statement on how crazily crowded the popular festival has become since the old days.
Anyway, that's how I spent my last weekend. Thanks Andrew, it was fun!
This is my contribution to the S.I. Rolling Stone show, which I was surprised and honored to be asked to be included in.
When I was an art school kid in NYC at Parsons in the mid 80s, I would regularly visit Rolling Stone to drop off my book. Gail Anderson always left encouraging notes, and eventually took the time to bring me back into the offices and talk to me about my work and patiently guide me a bit. She eventually gave me my first job there, though I've only been hired by them a few times. I've never been much of a portrait artist.
At one point in the 90s, I sent her this piece, a record cover that I did for my friend's (great) band, Fuck. It was a split single, the back side of which was the band Robotronic.
I guess she liked it, because she hired me to do a record review piece, for a review of the rapper Master P. Thanks Gail (and Fred), it was a fun opportunity to make an unusual image.
In any event, thanks to the fine folks at the Society for asking me to be a part of this show. Sorry to miss the opening as well, I'm sure it'll be a blast.
