Alex Murawski

Blind Willie Blues Festival

2008-02-25T14:33:50+00:00

OK, the Saturday before Mothers Day will bring another Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival in Thomson GA... see www.blindwillie.com.... for more info. This years headline is the staggeringly talented Mavis Staples, and since her new album is tied up in the civil rights movement and there's a real gospel tone to the lineup this year it seemed appropriate to go that way with the art.

Robert Osborne Film Festival

2008-02-20T19:56:01+00:00

So with the kick-off movie this year being Young Frankenstein... it only made sense to give the starring role is this years send up to Robert Osborne the festival host. And how could anyone pass up a chance to do Frankenstein's monster?

Cober in Georgia

2008-01-29T15:59:40+00:00

Alan Cober was the Lamar Dodd Visiting Artist here at UGA in 1991. One of the many things he did while working here for 3 months was a collection of images based on Georgia folk artists collected in a hand bound book entitled Suite Georgia, with an edition of about 50 as I recall. He also had a show of the same name at the Georgia Museum of Art. I have come into possession of a box full of the catalogues for this show (with essay by Steven Heller) and would be happy to mail one to any and all drawgerites who send me their mailing info.

Heller and More at Georgia.....

2008-01-24T13:21:18+00:00

Anybody in the Southeast... or the Far East for that matter, who would like to drop in for the 10th Anniversary Davis event would be more than welcome. Hope to see some of you here.

Here are a couple of links for the Davis Lecture series: http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=1&id=278 http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=4&id=65

About Jack Davis

2007-11-15T17:19:39+00:00

I am editing a book on the work of Jack Davis and came across some nice images I though I would share here. Ann and I were down at Jack and Dena's scanning work and I finally had a chance to begin foraging around his studio. It's full of cubby holes, boxes and flat files that go all the way back to the early fifties. In the first and only stack of stuff I had time to deal with this trip were a whole assortment of things from monsters to sketches for one of his 15 Playboy cartoons. I am like a kid in a candy store and can't remember when I have had more fun or been so inspired... or humbled. Here's Jack, 80 plus and still going strong, looking forward to new things. Most interesting were a stack of tiny little development sketches where he's playing with techniques, making notes to himself about this pencil or that color. Beautiful stuff that I am thinking of using as an end paper for the book. So here's what I have so far... with lot's more sort through.

I would also like to put out a request for help in locating examples of origianal Jack Davis art for inclusion in this book. Any and all leads would be greatly appreciated. I am interested in original work for several reasons. It is the best choice for reproduction and since there hasn't yet been a book that's done justice to the quality of his images that aspect really matters to me. There is also a Jack Davis Foundation forming that will be interested in developing a data base of Jack's work for education and future exhibitions. Seems like drawger would be the place to start.... so thanks in advance!

Beyond a doodle this time...

2007-09-26T23:43:06+00:00

Not always doodling. Every so often (just often enough) a job comes along.... in this case with a good client to boot.

Another year of faculty meetings

2007-08-15T19:55:21+00:00

Another year, a new building, great visiting artist... David Sandlin... you'd think I wouldn't feel this way.... but-never-the less!!

Community Standards...

2007-07-11T12:40:58+00:00

I really like it here, and I think that the security to open up at a space like this is really valuable for artists.... but sooner or later it had to happen I suppose. The classroom bullies are beginning to see if it's possible to lower the bar for conversation here in this generally positive venue. No way something as friendly and supportive as Zimm's creation escapes the attention of the kind of cyber snipers we are beginning to see here at Drawger. I think the time may be coming to ask ourselves what sort of cyber coffee house we want this be and try to head off the sort of mean spirited attitude that did so much to damage theispot. Yes, this is a blog and not a commercial site, but maybe that makes our vigilance about this issue all the more important if we want to keep this as a place to come and open up about what's going on in our lives and our work. My suggestion for consideration is simple: shun these interlopers like whores at an Amish wedding.

Summer Time....

2007-05-08T18:12:43+00:00

My brother and his lovely wife were down for a visit from Cape Cod... made me realize how land locked we are here is Georgia and reminded me of one of my favorite mornings on the east coast. Eating Sunday brunch at Claudio's Raw Bar in Greenport, Long Island, and watching the summer scene up there. Cigarette boats, custom Harleys, sun baked people of every description... and good food too.

Somebody stop me....

2007-02-21T20:40:06+00:00

OK, a couple of drawing for projects in progress. One is for an annual Blind Willie Blues Festival down here at Thomson GA. The other is for the 3rd Robert Osborne Classic Film Festival here in Athens. Both interesting events for any Southern Drawgers. But something is happening to me. I'm always telling my students to loosen up, get gestural, abstraction is your friend... on and on. But I find myself loving the black and white graphite, loving the crosshatch and modeled form.... Thought I left it all behind when I stopped making dots for a living. I guess not!

Come On Down!

2007-01-11T16:13:30+00:00

This event is the most fun I have every year here at UGA. Politics is a hot topic this year... and this is a guy who lights a lot of matches. Should be fun. Past visitors have included Ralph Steadman, Anita Kunz, David Levine, Gary Baseman, Arnold Roth, C.F. Payne and Peter deSeve. So if any of you Drawgerites would like to haul on down here from New York or anyplace else you would be more than welcome. A little bio information: Mike Luckovich received the top honor of his profession when he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. The prize committee praised his work for its creativity and effectiveness -- qualifies that are still apparent in every one of his cartoons. That Pulitzer is onlyone in a long line of awards for the 46-year-old cartoonist. Luckovich won the Overseas Press Club's award for the "Best Cartoons on Foreign Affairs for 1989," and in 1991, he was awarded the National Headliners award for editorial cartoonists. Just this past year he has received his second Pulitzer Prize and the National Cartoonist Society�s highest award, the Rueben for cartoonist of the year. After his graduation from the University of Washington, Luckovich freelanced as a cartoonist while working as a door to door salesman before moving on to Atlanta. Luckovich's cartoons, syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate, appear in more than 350 daily publications, including The Washington Post, Detroit News, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Nashville Tennessean and Houston Chronicle. His work is reprinted regularly in Time, Newsweek and New York Times.

Oh yeah.... And the other thing that happens is the presentation of the Davis Award. Mike is the third visitor to recieve one. The tenth anniversary is coming in a few years and we are beginning to plan for a bigger event.... more artists, returning artists, exhibits and discussions.

Ford... Not Lincoln

2006-12-29T15:39:01+00:00

The departure of Gerald Ford got me thinking and I remembered some presidential sketches I did some years back. Not sure my attitude about the guy is the same now as it was then.... I was generally a lot angrier about everything.... but it's fun to look back at stuff.

A Question about Juries

2006-12-14T20:00:20+00:00

Like a lot of us I've been reading the wonderfully open and informative thread of Zina's on Rejection and Dejection. Tim and Marc have been describing the jury experience and got me thinking. So I want to ask a question about the nature of juries. Making art isn't democratic. It's autocratic... ME. Professional success isn't the result of a democratic process either. Darwinian perhaps. So why should a jury looking for a broad, democratic consensus be a good thing? Juried fine art shows typically have one stellar (or not) juror and thus an identity. A point of view. Why not such an approach for us? Seems to me it would be no less exasperating and possibly lead to some very interesting exhibitions.

"A Strange Man for Strange Times"

2006-11-07T15:23:07+00:00

My favorite political slogan, from when Barry Goldwater's neighbor Alice Cooper ran for Congress from Arizona in the 70's... I think. Anybody want to add to the list?

"Tis the Season....

2006-11-06T18:45:31+00:00

So I got this book cover about Georgia Politics, and it seems appropriate that it's due on election day.

Outside Influence....

2006-10-31T18:56:12+00:00

OK, so it's Halloween, and I was thinking about interesting images to share, and Ralph Steadman came to mind. I'm in charge of an annual visiting artist event here at UGA to honor Jack Davis, and the first guy down was Ralph. He stayed for a week along with his wife Ann and friend from Kentucky Joe Petro. While here he did a couple of stone lithos that he later hand colored in small editions. These are the color prototypes he did in his hotel with gel pens and ink.

The other fun thing about his visit was the talk. This was in '99 and slides were still the way images were shown. So he had three projectors going at once with overlapping images, and him running all over the stage trying to keep two lines of thought going at once.two projectors were running his work automatically and the other projector was for a book he was working on at the time about a wooden canon.

My corner of the house...

2006-10-24T13:31:31+00:00

I've been really intrigued by where other people work... and so it seems only fair to open my trench coat and show off my little special place ;o). I work some here, but a lot more in my office/studio at school. This is the place where I noodle around late at night or first thing before the sun's up.

No Reservations

2006-10-17T12:51:37+00:00

Hi all, just a quick recommendation. If you get a chance to see Anthony Bourdain's TV show No Reservations don't miss it. They just did one on his visit to Beirut the day before the last war broke out. Really moving bit of journalism. He did a great one on the Mexican border as well. Way more than a cooking show

What's up with monkeys?

2006-10-06T17:54:28+00:00

I come prowling around today and it's monkeys, and more monkeys. Really cool monkeys. I am prepared to go home when I see Branson Reese has a very nice proboscis monkey in his portfolio. Along with Howlers they are my favorites, So.... here's mine.

Home Base....

2006-10-03T18:26:57+00:00

So OK, this is my first blog. It's great to come on in here everyday and see all the amazing work. I look forward to comaring notes around the campfire.... or the Viking range. Beer, wine, scotch.... herbal tea, whatever. Cheers! A

Hi all, I've been snooping around here long enough. Bob Staake has thrown me into a tailspin with his wonderful images of life on the Cape. And the guy on Maui... cutting holes in the roof for a media room.... give me a break. That's livin'. But, be that as it may, here are a couple of sketches of the old homestead in Georgia. So ya'll be sure come on down and visit. No ocean views but owls at night, hawks all day, wild turkeys, quail and dear.