Thank you Graphis Posters for the wonderful news today. I am honored to receive 2 Gold medals and one Silver medal for three of my posters. The Gold medals went to posters from the Vancouver Opera Series, for Aida and West Side Story. The Silver is for my Savannah Music Festival "Piano" poster.
I truly want to send my thanks and appreciation to Doug Tuck and Annie Mack at the Vancouver Opera, and also to Ty Cumbie at the Savannah Music Festival.
I also want to thank every art director or designer who chooses illustration. I'm sure it must feel like a leap of faith at times but for those of us who make a life out of it, we love taking that leap with you daily.
Please take some time to flip through this humbling collection of work from around globe. http://tinyurl.com/k7ngaqz
GOLD Medal: Vancouver Opera / CD: Doug Tuck / AD: Annie Mack
GOLD Medal: Vancouver Opera / CD: Doug Tuck / AD: Annie Mack
GOLD Medal: Savannah Music Festival / AD: Ty Cumbie
I've moved into the new studio, kind of. It's not foto-ready but suffice to say that I'm loving the elbow room. The images below were done in the past couple of days.
This top piece is for New Times, Phoenix. It's about Ex-Arizona border "Minteman" Chris Simcox and his arrest on multiple counts of child molestation. Simcox was the flag-draped poster boy of the border vigilante group called The Minutemen. This is just the latest episode in the group's plagued history.
Thanks go to AD Peter Storch for another fine collaboration. His comments and feedback improved the image greatly.
I kind of liked the simplicity of the mask with the snake strap but in the end Peter opted for the wolf because of the intensity of the offense.
This is a piece that is running in today's New York Times. The writer is making the argument that President Obama cannot, nor should he, simply shop around for legal permission to attack Syria. If he is claiming to want to proceed under legal processes then he must do so with approvals of the UN and the US Congress. It's another interesting and valid perspective for the mix.
I got the call for this assignment around 9am in the West. I turned a sketch around about an hour later and delivered the final a few short hours later. I couldn't do it every day but it's fun to take the wild Op-Ed ride now and again.
Time incredibly tight so I sent along the first couple that felt right. I liked the simplicity of the gavel/bomb but it lacked the emotional aspect of the choices Obama is facing.
And this baby is out on stands this morning in NYC. My old pal and longtime collaborator/editor Tom Finkel is taking the helm there. I know many see the paper as a relic in decline but I have great confidence in Tom's ability to produce. His being there gives me hope for ole Blue.
This piece is a pretty straightforward mash-up of figures cut for old magazines. I hardly do that anymore, usually preferring to create human elements from non-human objects and textures. But this piece was simply too complicated to render that way. NYC is such an aggressive collage of all types so it felt right to chuck everything in there.
The tower was made of a little tube clipping from an old Popular Mechanics article about cleaning your gutters.
Thanks, again Tom, and welcome to full-circle.
Prescott was my hometown growing-up. For those who've not been, it's a page out of storybooks. When I was 11 years-old I got my first job as the shoeshine boy in the historic Palace Barbershop on Whisky Row (famed street with about 16 bars on it t the time). Everywhere you go in Prescott there's a familiar face. A loss on this scale is magnified by the closeness of the community and the tranquility it devastated.
My heart goes out to you, Prescott.
A few days after the tragedy in Yarnell, old friend and City Councilman Chris Kuknyo asked if I might be able to do an illustration in memory of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Thanks to Chris, his fellow City Council members, and the Mayor for running the tribute in today's local paper, The Prescott Courier.
A handful of very brave animal right activists work undercover inside the nations largest animal processing plants and farms to expose the unspeakable horrors animals are faced with at the hands of some sadistic human beings. These activists captured hidden camera and cellphone video of animals being tortured, not mistreated, but literally tortured and for their heroism the local authorities are trying to make their form of activism classified and punishable on the same level as home-grown terrorists like the Boston bombers.
Thanks to Tom Carlson for the asignment and for spoiling my love of all things meat. I'm off the stuff and have never felt better in my body and mind. Of course the powerlifting has taken a hit, but I'll trade it anyday for the peace of mind.
A detail of the image within the image. The story describes a scene where pigs are being castrated by hand with workers literally ripping the testicles from the animals who are left squealing in agony and bleeding.
This detail shows the very loose way I like to jam these textures together. I try an not overwork the rough edges. This entire image is of course made from my little tin can scan that I use every day.
