www.mayforth.com

Economic Indicators

2008-06-11T15:27:56+00:00

We just received our tax rebate check yesterday,and I opened the envelope with mixed emotions. Because we are a family of five, it represents a nice chunkof change, and there's never a shortage of ways to spend, but on the other hand, it also represents failed ecomonic policies, and a bandaid for the fallout of corporate greed. These are indeed tough times and from what I'm reading
things are looking to get alot worse before they get better. As a way of venting, I've been devoting some sketchbook time to the issues of the economy and gas prices. Here are some drawings. Oh, and by the way, I am thinking of banking the check just out of spite.

Fuel Efficiency Gizmos

2008-06-04T16:11:57+00:00

Here's and illo I did for Sue Foster in today's Wall Street Journal. With gas prices reaching skyward, there are all kinds of new gizmos on the market to improve fuel efficiency with names like Fuel Saver 7000-MPG and Cyclone Fuel Saver. I perused a number of sites for these products and damned if I can make out whether or not they actually work. Sue wanted an image of a car equipped with all the gizmos driving by a gas station. It gave me the opportunity to incorporate some turn-of-the-century engineering engravings. And since I had a bunch of spray mounted copies left over, I spent some time in the sketchbook making more machines of dubious nature.

New Paintings!

2008-05-01T17:13:36+00:00

I got off to a slow start this year as far as painting goes. I seems like I spent more time shoveling snow that at the easel for several months. Also, one of my galleries requested that I experiment with dressing up my paintings a bit, so I ended up building a wooden box that goes flush with the plywood edge. In the beginning, this took a hell of alot of time, but as I got more proficient, it got so that I could do this relatively easily and accurately. This treatment gives the paintings another 1 1/2 inches in depth and when painted, they look pretty slick. Hopefully the added dimension will entice collectors to crack their checkbooks. I've posted the latest here.

Glass House

2008-04-23T15:40:28+00:00

I've been developing a new, colorful, abstract illustration style that allows me to step outside the "Little Guys with the Big Eyes and Big Noses" thing. Luckily ,Soojin Buzelli has been giving me assignments to pursue this direction. This illo accompanied a letter entitled "Glass House" and was on the subject of termination of death benefits. Not a particularly appetizing subject. Soojin has told me in the past to not worry about being so literal, so I started sketching the idea of glass houses in general. Here's what transpired.

Thank God That's Over!

2008-04-16T13:59:52+00:00

As a person well acquainted with the concept of deadlines, I submitted all the makings for our tax returns to my accountant weeks ago. When I hadn't heard back from him, I finally called him last Friday to make sure everything was cool. He hadn't even started them. We've got plenty of time says he, they're not due until next Tuesday. It all came down to the wire yesterday. I had to take time out of work to get signatures for two of my boys who are scattered all over the state as well as shuffling funds for payments. And then there are those little yellow please sign and date stickers, which by the way have very poor adhesive qualities. As a way of decompressing after that ordeal, here are some ruminations. I WILL be looking for a new accountant.

Sketchbooks

2008-03-06T15:35:13+00:00

Last year Danny Gregory contacted me about a book he was writing titled "An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers". This is the book I've been waiting for. As a way of promoting the book, which is due out in October, he has been interviewing different sketchbook artists as podcasts. Well I'm the third of what promises to a very cool series. Click Here (Then click on the little pod target in the upper left hand corner. It takes some time to load)

As a way posting some pertinent graphic content, here are a bunch of frontispieces from various sketchbooks.

Monkeys and Guns Redux

2008-02-07T16:40:49+00:00

Between work, painting and shoveling snow, I've been continuing to work on this series of cartoons about Monkeys and Guns with the hopes that maybe someday I'll have enough good ones to do a book. Your kind comments about the last bunch I posted got my wheels turning, so to speak and prompted me to continue this. Perhaps the future political landscape will be receptive to this kind of shennanigans.

I've already started laying out the comp in Blurb, which if you haven't checked it out is a great way to produce a book. I put together a book of my paintings and sketchbook pages last summer and found it easy to use. Although the color was a hair off, the finished product was quite impressive.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T21:33:58+00:00

I'd like to wish my fellow Drawgers the best for a healthy, creative and financially huge New Year.

My new calendar is for most part out the door. If you didn't get one and would like one, please send me an email. This is the 25th year that I've done a calendar, which aside from making me feel old, makes me feel proud that I've been able to survive in this crazy industry. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that there's never a shortage of material. My sister informs me that I'm a bit heavy on the personal electronics, however. Here are some of my faves.

New Paintings

2007-12-13T22:04:09+00:00

Here are some new paintings that I've managed to get to between work, family (3 teenaged boys running amok) and exercise. I recently had a bump in my spirits when I received a certificate from The Society of Illustrators that one of my paintings, Flaming Skull Visage won a Silver Medal for the Uncommisioned Category. I know what you're thinking. Hey, didn't A. Richard Allen win the silver in that category? Apparently there are more than one silver handed out for that category. I've corresponded with Richard via email and we've decided not to rumble for ultimate bragging rights. We might raise a glass, however.

New paintings are here.

Guns and Monkeys

2007-11-08T17:10:20+00:00

I was speaking with RAG the other day and he was busy developing a line of Monkey images for this year's Surtex show. When I sat down to draw in my sketchbook this morning, I had monkeys on my mind. Where the guns came from I don't know. Well, yes I do know. A reproduction of a 1906 Sears and Roebuck catalog. While I was drawing these, I got to thinking that Monkeys are pretty good metaphors for the child within us and our primal lust of weaponry. Here they are in the order I did them.

Three Tube Paintings

2007-10-11T20:24:07+00:00

For a while there, my paintings were getting too damned colorful. I'd start out going nuts and then spend hours trying to reel it in and make it work. I decided to paint a series of paintings with a limited palette of black, white and raw sienna. Here's how they turned out.

A Refreshing Change

2007-09-19T18:34:31+00:00

Soojin Buzelli called me last week with an assignment for Asset International. She was looking at my watercolors on Illoz and wanted something along those lines. It's so refreshing to work with an AD that wants something a little off the beaten path. The article concerned Transition Management, and while article was fairly heavy slogging, Soojin did impart to me that she wanted the illo to concern getting from point A to point B with a maelstrom of "noise" in between. Above is the finish and below, my thought process.

Manners, Dammit!

2007-08-06T16:17:24+00:00

I don't imagine etiquette books are big sellers these days. When I was a kid my grandmother gave each of the kids in our family a book of etiquette and we were expected to read it. Pop quizzes abounded. No, the fingerbowl is not for drinking. My parents gave my kids an etiquette video that to this day gathers dust in the basement. How do we reach the kids in the future? Etiquette video games? Here are some sketchbook thoughts on the subject. Perhaps what's needed is a new kind of book on manners. One with a little edge.

Six New Paintings Yet Again

2007-07-25T20:09:25+00:00

Here are six new ones, hot off the easel. Since I have my panels precut, supply sometimes determine the size of paintings. I seemed to have alot of the smaller panels on hand so I started to go at it with smaller word paintings. I hope they are enjoyed in the spirit in which they were made.

Six New Paintings

2007-07-09T19:10:21+00:00

Here's a new batch in the order I did them. I recently started a relationship with The West Branch Gallery in Stowe, VT and because of this I was asked to compose the dreaded "artist's statement":

To be honest, there is not a lot of philosophical hokum behind these paintings. They all started out as drawings in my sketchbooks in which I have been drawing in earnest since 1973. At present I have completed enough of them to fill the trunk of a luxury automobile and am working on filling a small U-Haul. I try to set aside an hour every morning to draw for myself, to brainstorm with pen on paper. I seldom start drawing with preconceived notions and I never know where it will take me. I am not interested in rendering reality, because frankly I’m not that good at rendering reality. I much prefer to bring a free ranging intellect to the process, that and some fairly primitive drawing skills.

The good drawings I make into paintings. Consequently, my paintings are conceptually all over the map. Working this way keeps me from being bored. The thread that runs through them all is certain off-kilter sensibility that I am told goes way back in my family.

My Sketchbook of Late

2007-06-20T10:37:19+00:00

For the past several months I've been trying to meditate every morning before drawing in my sketchbook as a kind of prelude to my day's work. By clearing out my head, I am receptive to the flotsam and jetsam of thoughts that creep in around the edges. It also makes me slow down. I find that I have alot more patience with my drawing.

I had a bit of a setback several weeks ago. I finished a sketchbook and got on the horn to order more when I was informed that my beloved Sennelier linen covered sketchbooks with the cream colored paper are no longer being made. Oh, woe is me. I scrambled around to find a replacement and finally settled on a Fabriano book. The pages are thicker and bright white, so it's been a bit of an adjustment. Note to self: Don't fall in love with art products. Anyway here are some recent pages in the order I did them..

Six New Paintings

2007-05-14T15:57:28+00:00

Here are six new paintings in the order I did them. I started out painting with a limited palette on prepared wood, so the color of the wood was evident. These were a continuation of a "black sun" piece that I posted last time. I had every intention of keeping with the limited palette for the whole series, but owing to what I'm sure must be attention deficit issues, I got bored and went nuts for the last painting.

Word Drawings Redux

2007-04-19T14:03:31+00:00

Here are some more high jinks from my sketchbooks involving words and primitive forms.

New Paintings

2007-04-02T14:28:44+00:00

At the risk of seeming like I'm pimping product, here are some recent paintings. I had a tough stretch there where things were not happening mojo-wise. Vacation helped a bit to recharge batteries, and now I seem to be over that hump. RAG and John Dykes were up for a visit the week before last and provided alot of encouragement. We had an epic day on the slopes after a late evening of single malt and trying to figure out the illustration racket. Which makes me think possibly that I should paint less and ski more.

New Products from Acme

2007-03-22T15:00:38+00:00

Lately I've been fooling around with obscure 19th century engineering engravings to fashion modern technology to make our lives easier here in the 21st century. I am also searching for gullible venture capitalists.

Sayulita Sketchbooks

2007-03-12T17:35:51+00:00

The family and I just got back from Sayulita, Mexico, where, when not attending to the needs of our 3 teenage boys, I did manage to set aside some time to draw. I had two sketchbooks going. One was for exploring motifs and ideas for possible paintings, the other was a book I keep for family history, and seeks to interpret the foibles and joys of family travel. For those of you not familiar with Sayulita, it's a small fishing town (that gets bigger in the winter because of the gringos) about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's west coast. The food and surf are great, and renting a house with an ocean view is affordable. Just remember the imodium and the sunscreen.

Check out more pages here.

A Cool Assignment

2007-02-05T15:34:31+00:00

Every once in a while you get an assignment that's a bit off the beaten path. This is one I did last week for an agency in Texas for an insurance ad. The art direction was simple. On the left, A to B with a squiggly line on the right with a straight line. I worked directly on watercolor paper so that if there was one he liked, I wouldn't have to redraw it. The sketches reminded me of those calligraphy exercises of the 19th century. It was also a great point of departure for sketchbook drawings.

League of Unsuspecting Neighbors

2007-01-23T22:11:21+00:00

I was on the treadmill at the gym the other day rolling my eyeballs at CNN Headline news when a piece came on about the guy in St.Louis who kidnapped the two kids. Because none of the principals were available for an interview, the reporter ended up interviewing neighbors. It struck me as a quintessential american phenomena, the unsuspecting neighbor. These people need a support group, or at the very least and online chat room. This might also be expanded to include neighbors of grow houses.

FineToons: The Art of Vermont Cartoonists

2007-01-15T18:43:12+00:00

I don't know what it is about Vermont, (perhaps the drinking water) but it is or has been the the home to many fine cartoonists. Later this month, The Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, VT will host a show of the work of Vermont cartoonsts, Including New Yorker cartoonists Ed Koren and Harry Bliss, Batman reinterpreter Frank Miller, and editorial cartoonist Jeff Danziger. The show is curated by Idoline Duke who found cartoonsits that I didn't even know lived here. Should be a good one.

The Last Five Paintings of 2006

2007-01-03T13:30:25+00:00

Here are the last five paintings that I completed in 2006 in the order I did them.

The last two paintings are imaginary gameboards that originated in my sketchbook and was first posted here.

2007 Calendar Redux

2006-12-22T19:53:48+00:00

Rob Dunlavey's got a better printer than me. Or at least one's that more punctual, since I just got mine and I received his several weeks ago.

My calendar has been the cornerstone of my self promo efforts for many years now. In 1985 I was working as a paste up artist ( my specialty: IGA flyers) in a small studio in Waltham, MA when a client came in with some calendar type that he wanted statted. On lunch break, when no one was around, I statted his job and made a copy for myself, went home and put my own calendar together using art from my sketchbooks. I've been doing them ever since.

The calendar idea is a great fit for me because I get to cleverly call my attention to the 4th of May, which, incidentally, is my name and not my birthday. Prior to doing them in color, I did them in B&W for many years, the only color being the 4th of May , which was hand stamped. It also gives me the opportunity to get some of the previous year's sketchbook material out in front of Art Director's eyes.

I'd be happy to send one out to you if you email me your address.

Five More New Paintings

2006-12-01T17:57:41+00:00

Here's a new batch of paintings fresh off the old easel in the order I did them. Lately I've been getting back into the word paintings mostly because they seem to be selling and they are fun to do.

Gameboards in Search of a Game

2006-11-10T16:44:52+00:00

I did a painting several years ago that now hangs in my studio. I was looking at it the other day and realized it looked like a gameboard for some forgotten game. I used that painting as a point of departure for some sketchbook explorations. In the back of my mind was the knowledge that the children/game market is huge. My ticket to fame and fortune? I think not.

Four New Paintings

2006-11-02T15:31:45+00:00

Here are four new paintings that were completed within the last six weeks or so. I'm getting work ready for a show about the fine art of Vermont cartoonists. It should be good. More on that later.

Calendar Rejects

2006-10-26T20:45:45+00:00

I've just finished doing the illos for my 2007 calendar. Every year I puruse the year in sketchbooks to find 12 images that I think make an interesting and perhaps entertaining calendar. It's a grueling lesson in self editing and I'm always second guessing whether or not I've picked the right images. Here are some sketches that didn't make the cut, whether because of PC concerns or just because.

Five New Paintings

2006-08-24T12:22:03+00:00

Here are the last five paintings I've done in the order I did them. I recently had a couple of sales at a couple of local galleries, so I am heartened. My new life motto is "just peck away at it" and that's just what I've been doing.

The Half-Tones at the Society of Illustrators

2006-08-17T12:40:31+00:00

Please mark your calendars.You'll not want to miss this one. Great art, great music, great company, hell, my back hairs are on end just thinking about it. . A number of us are coming down a day early so we can hit the MoMa at opening time on Thursday the 7th. All Drawgers invited. Let's do it en masse!

Word Drawings

2006-08-10T21:10:20+00:00

Here's the last two days of sketchbook pages. I've been fooling around with word compositions, a dash of Saul Steinberg here, a pinch of Randy Enos there. I don't exactly know where these are going, but I had alot of fun doing them. Most of the time spent on these was figuring out what the words would say. Some of the sayings are decent others are quite bad. What the hell. It's a sketchbook.

Canadian UN animations

2006-07-17T21:37:44+00:00

Last year I received an email from Chuck Gammage at Gammage Animation in Toronto saying that he’d bumped into my website and was interested in collaborating on an animated short. We had several phone conversations, exchanged a load of CDs generally hit it off pretty well as we are both big roots music fans. That project which will be based on the Willie Brown tune Future Blues is in the works, but several months ago, in the meantime, Chuck called me about a project for the Canadian UN, with a fairly small budget, and would I be interested? Heck yes. I was to design the characters for two shorts conveying the idea that cultural differences could be resolved through sports, or more simply, a ball. A brief outline of each spot was provided and I basically spent a day on this, generating 16 sketchbook pages of these characters in every situation I could think of that was pertinent to the storyline.

Chuck sent me the animatics which were very cool, but what really surprised me about the finishes was the soundtrack. Apparently, the people of Tuva aren’t the only ones with a tradition of throat singing. The Inuit’s do also. The soundtrack was done by an Inuit woman who provided all the sounds on these two spots with her voice. This just blows me away.

Hopefully this is the start of a long and fruitful relationship. If we can just find some clients that can look beyond the slick computer generated stuff.

The Spider and the Fly-animated by Sam Chou

The Lion and the Zebra-animated by Blair Kitchen

Thought for the Day

2006-07-10T17:40:15+00:00

This is a thought I had while drawing in my sketchbook this morning. I don't necessarily condone this type of activity, unless of course you read the paper on a daily basis.

Another Sketchbook Page

2006-06-28T20:58:32+00:00

One of those days, I'm afraid. I spent a considerable amount of time today putting out an IRS induced brushfire. No big deal. Just apply hoover to wallet. So between listening to the IRS's lovely on-hold music while waiting for someone to help me (an eternity) and actually getting one illo done, I had time to do this page.

I've been fooling around with grids in kind of an Adolph Gottlieb- pictograph-gets-funky approach. If I could keep finished paintings this loose, I'd be one step closer to nirvana.

Three New Paintings

2006-06-20T17:38:11+00:00

Things have been pretty busy around here and I've been beating myself up because I haven't had alot of time to paint. I've only had the energy to do smaller paintings. So here are the three latest for your perusal.

Sketchbook Page

2006-06-08T13:00:05+00:00

Here's yesterday's skechbook page. I try to draw every morning for myself before I start my commercial work. Sometimes I do a couple of pages, sometimes one page. If I'm out straight I have to skip it and go straight to work. The important thing is that I make a concerted effort, but you know how it is sometimes. What's really cool is that cycles start to become evident. Sometimes I go throught periods where it just ain't happening and other times I blast off bunch of pages that are (in my humble opinion) inspired. It's those good pages that keep me going.

TVs were on my mind yesterday, as we had just bought a big honkin' new one specifically for the World Cup (GOAL!). The other drawings are ideas for paintings. I'm trying some new things that may or may not make the transition to paint on plywood.

Book Report

2006-05-27T12:59:54+00:00

To be honest with you, I was never a big Ed Hopper fan. But here I was staring down a week of vacation time without a book to read, and a friend at the local library recommended Edward Hopper, An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin. I’ve got to tell you. The first third of this book had me a bit hot under the collar. It amounts to a lengthy slag against illustration. Hopper got his start in illustration. It paid his bills for close to a decade. But the book details how he detested illustration, viewing it as only a means to pay bills so he could pursue his fine art. I had difficulty discerning whether Hopper indeed hated illustration or Gail Levin was indulging in anti-illustration bias. Ironically, for most of his career, Hopper had to answer to whether or not his paintings were art or illustration.

What is truly remarkable about Hopper’s personal life was his long suffering wife, Jo. Her personal diaries account for the backbone of this book. When they got married, she was an accomplished artist and free spirit. She eventually passed up her career to facilitate Hopper’s. Not only was she the female model in every Hopper painting, She was also a copious note taker, even recording the types of pigments Hopper used in each painting. She also paints Hopper as an antisocial, rightwing S.O.B. This was indeed a marriage made in hell. He was a puncher and she was scratcher and a biter who went on more that one hunger strike protesting her husband. Through it all she was an energetic promoter of his art and career while Ol’ Eddie did just about everything in his power to sabotage hers.

Last week I had the opportunity to hunker down with new eyes in front of “Gas” at the MoMA. He may have been a jerk, but he was a pretty damned good painter.

Thanks from May4th

2006-05-04T17:42:17+00:00

I want to thank you guys for all the brouhaha regarding "my day". I feel like I've died and gone to heaven. It used to be that this date would elicit contact from some old school buddy, certainly nothing like this. I was just talking to James Steinberg, and we agreed that we are both humbled by the level of talent here at Drawger. It's downright intimidating. But when you figure we all kind of have the same lives (at least work-wise) it is understandable that in the solitary confines of one's studio one might get a bit down on one's self. On the other hand, you guys have lit a bonfire under my ass. So I vow to play the hand that's delt me to the best of my ablility, persevere and if that ain't good enough, well there's always tequila.

By the way Kent State happened on this day, not to be a downer, or anything. Try asking a teenager what Kent State was.

A Nice Symmetry

2006-04-24T15:28:01+00:00

I've been working with art director Bert Swift for years, ever since he was working at Snow Country Magazine. A great guy. When He moved to Road and Track and started using me, it had a nice symmetry because my Dad went into the automobile business the day I was born and is a long time Road and Track subscriber.

This month I am included in the Behind the Scenes section of the magazine, and while it mentions that I was predestined for automotive work, It doesn't tell the whole story. The fact is that my kids have some pretty deep gearhead genes on both sides of the family. Both their Grandfathers had very successful racing careers.

Additionally, my family was pleased that our cat, Frieda was finally getting some national exposure.

I'm Jumping on the Digital Bandwagon

2006-03-30T19:38:44+00:00

I'm frankly tired of washing my hands. I'm getting into this digital thing. Bigtime. All kidding aside, here are some recent sketchbook quickies that I colorized in photoshop. I'm digging the rough quality of the sketches with the soulless colorization of photoshop.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

2006-03-14T22:00:06+00:00

At the risk of making public my deepest yearnings, I submit this painting for your consideration. You guys will know what I'm talking about. I can't imagine who might buy this little number, or for that matter why the heck I painted it.

In an effort to shake the tree

2006-03-04T14:49:57+00:00

Here's a postcard that went out this week on my behalf to a massive amount of clients and art buyers. It's a riff on Lively up Yourself by Bob Marley. Will anyone get the hep reggae reference? Your guess is as good as mine.

More Shameless Self Promotion

2006-02-22T21:38:38+00:00

Sure to be the social event of the season in downtown Montpelier. If you can make it, for God's sake, bring your checkbook!

The Blame Game

2006-02-20T22:15:46+00:00

Here are some sketches from my sketchbook ruminating on The Blame Game. We all play it, with the exception of the powers that be.

I am a stamping fool.

2006-02-15T13:13:32+00:00

I 've collected rubber stamps since the late 70's. Pretty early in my career I started having rubber stamps made from drawings in my sketch books. Not painstakingly rendered drawings, but crude little sketches that showcased my sense of humor. I was never that good at "painstaking" anyway. It was always my view that the more interesting you made and envelope, the more likely the recipient was to open it. Particularly when it came to mailing promo pieces. So I decorated envelopes like crazy and always hand wrote the prospective AD's name in my fanciest script. If my envelope was worthy of an AD's bulliten board, it was the equivalant of the Holy Grail.

But things have changed these days. Direct mail is getting prohibitively expensive and self promotion has shifted to web sites and (God forbid!)blogs. My use of rubber stamps has fallen off abit over the years, but, rest assured, when the time comes to impress a client, and I want to pull out all the stops, I pull out the boxes of rubber stamps.