http://drawger.com/stevebrodner/ Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:47:08 EST FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://drawger.com/_images/drawger_leo_logo.gif http://drawger.com/stevebrodner http://drawger.com/stevebrodner/index.php?section=articles&article_id=13080

   "On January 31, Newt Gingrich was  told that he was no longer wanted in the state of Florida.  Soon he  found himself looking for a home in the Super Tuesday states along with his similarly-hated friend Mitt Romney. Can two severely messed-up men share a dysfunctional political party without driving each other crazy?!!!!!" Thanks to Ron Brownstein and Jan Zimmeck for making this happen. And to Ron for the shout-out on this morning's interesting chatfest with the always interesting Soledad O'Brien. Back atcha. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/02/03/exp-point-romney-misspoke.cnn

]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:31:11 EST http://drawger.com/stevebrodner/index.php?section=articles&article_id=12969

Sad to note the passing of our friend Simms Taback, over Christmas, celebrated illustrator, children’s book author and activist for artists' rights. He was a hero to a lot of us in the graphic arts. Here is a post from last January, which Simms saw and liked. In the year plus of grace that he had since deciding to stop immiserating treatment for pancreatic cancer, Simms  got to travel, be with family and friends and hear what he meant to them. At a recent opening of a show of his work in LA, he seemed in great spirits, basking in the reflected love of just some of the people he made a strong connection with in his life. And there were many of us.  Our thoughts are with them at this time. My reflections are reprinted below. He is a kind of four letter man that we rarely see in our profession or any other: someone who is truly excellent at what he does, who is caring about the world, generous to his colleagues and is also a just a great guy. Usually someone can be some of these but not all.  People who are brilliant artists have trouble reaching out to others.  Some who are strong advocates for their cause can’t reach the level of excellence that time and attention would yield. Simms cultivates all these sides.  He gives us a lot to admire. An excellent website SEE HERE designed by Jeff Seaver gives you a strong sense of his career and what his work is like. I am grateful to him and Simms for allowing me use some of the work posted. He had helped found the Graphic Artists Guild, first as it merged with the Illustrators Guild to become the Graphic Artists Guild of NY.  The Guild was growing and when I joined the board in ’83.  Till recently he was editor of the Pricing and Ethical Guidelines book, which has kept standards as high as possible in a slippery industry.  Other issues he worked on were those of copyright protection, work-for-hire ethics. The idea of artist’s right to original art became industry standard.  In the encouragement of contracts written up by artists, we learned to get more of a grip on our relationships with publications.  His time at the Guild was one of empowerment for artists.  While the Guild is now not what it was, the ideas have taken hold and continue to maintain moral-suation we use with clients everyday. I learned and grew a lot in those years and Simms was a big reason for that. As an author/artist he has won two Caldicott medals (very prestigious). His work is deceptively simple.  But this kind of simplicity is derived from an eloquence we all strive for: nothing out of place or distracting.  The story, the design, the color, the humor all blend seamlessly.  The delight here is of seeing a piece by an artist in full charge of all the elements and gifting to you a wonderful world. Here are four examples plus a some animated film clips. Here is Simms himself talking about The Was an Old Lady and how he got the idea for the die-cut solution. None of this touches on the most important point about Simms; his mensch-hood.  This is a person who believes that artists  . . and all humanity . . .  are sharing space and could,  if they chose, to behave with respect to and for each other.  In a competitive market this is a challenge. Fewer assignments means more bumping around for all of us.  But the awareness necessary to undertand how we can live together in this world, makes a difference in what kind of place it is; that we are creators of the larger space as well as the smaller one. Simms has done well  . . . and done good for some 50 years. There is never a question he won’t answer, never a problem you can’t talk over with him.  He has knowledge and spiritual support and is generous with both.  And also can kvetch at you when you got it wrong.  In my life I have met many wonderful people.  I find them as teachers.  The observational learning I got from Simms has stayed with me for almost 30 years.  And nothing would please me more than to think that I got to pass some of it along myself.  Here’s to Simms.  And thanks for the overcoat. Here’s a tribute to Simms at Tablet.com.  Here's Steven Heller's NYT Reprinted Obit:   Simms Taback, a children’s book illustrator and author who won the Caldecott Medal in 2000 for his adaptation of the nonsensical Yiddish folktale “Joseph Had a Little Overcoat,” died last Sunday at his home in Ventura, Calif. He was 79. Enlarge This Image Joseph A. Garcia/Ventura County Star Simms Taback, at his studio in Ventura, Calif. Enlarge This Image Courtesy of the Estate of Simms Taback The cover of "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat," which won a Caldecott Medal in 2000. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his son, Jason. Mr. Taback was one of a new breed of commercial illustrators who in the 1960s rejected realistic trends in favor of expressionistic and comic visual storytelling. Known for a wry naïf style, he enjoyed using snappy colors and playful cut-and-paste imagery. His whimsical characterizations of human beings, barnyard animals and jungle beasts entertained audiences through tales both new and retold. Yiddish was Mr. Taback’s first language, so he took pleasure in adapting old Yiddish stories and song lyrics. His most successful, “Joseph Had a Little Overcoat,” follows Joseph as he removes his garments until all that’s left is a button. The story takes a quirky turn when Joseph decides to make a book about his coat. Throughout “Joseph,” a menagerie of animals with human expressions watch his transformation. Visual and textual gags spice up the story, including a newspaper headline that states “Fiddler on Roof Falls Off Roof.” But “Joseph” was not entirely a flight of fancy. Mr. Taback spent time at the Jewish Museum to view period clothing and other artifacts and learned everything he could about shtetls in prewar Poland and Russia. Born in the East Bronx on Feb. 13, 1932, Mr. Taback graduated from the Cooper Union and, after being discharged from the Army, worked as a graphic designer for Columbia Records and The New York Times, and later as a freelance advertising artist for Eastern Air Lines, American Express and other companies. Mr. Taback started a successful greeting card company, Cardtricks, in 1989, with his longtime friend Reynold Ruffins, a founder with Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser of Push Pin Studios. The paper novelties, including die-cuts, that Mr. Taback developed for cards inspired him to create the children’s book “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” which received a Caldecott Honor in 1998. Cut-out windows on many of the pages enabled readers to view the innards of the old lady’s stomach as she swallowed the fly and consumed larger and sillier creatures throughout the book. Mr. Taback taught illustration and design at the School of Visual Arts and Syracuse University. As president of the Graphic Artists Guild, he helped steer the organization toward advocacy on copyright issues. His most recent book, published last year, is “Postcards From Camp,” a warmly sardonic correspondence between a first-time camper and his father. “Simms Taback: Making Pictures for Children,” a solo exhibition, opened at the Museum of Ventura County on Dec. 4 and continues until Feb. 12. Besides his son, Jason, survivors include his wife, Gail; a daughter, Lisa Deane; a stepdaughter, Emily Kuenstler; two grandchildren; and three step-grandchildren.           

]]> Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:24:33 EST http://drawger.com/stevebrodner/index.php?section=articles&article_id=12879


This Lincoln was done in Crayola on camera for “Picturing America” on PBS.

      Paul Krugman, locked out of Obama’s party with the 1%. Three years on, who had it right!!??? For Newsweek (remember Newsweek?). Samuel Alito’s hearings at the US Senate made a jurist out of a tool of the Right and monkey of the process and the Senate.  No biggie. For The New Yorker.   Here are pieces by my partners for the exhibition: Artist: Type A Trigger (LSAR-5), 2011 four-color offset print 35 x 23 inches Lane Twitchell Heartland, 2007 Acrylic polymers on cut olifin on panel 60 x 60 inches Courtesy of the artist and Edward Tyler Nahem, Fine Art Charles Traub Still Life in America, 2011 Online interactive photo montage Dimensions variable This interactive site was made with the creative cooperation and insight of Aaron Traub, Adam Ryder, and Ben Sterrett Alix Smith States of Union 11, 2009 C-Print 20 x 26 inches Courtesy of Alix Smith & Morgan Lehman Gallery Martha Rosler Lounging Woman, 2004 Photomontage 24 x 20 inches Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York  Aurora Robson Active Ingredient, 2011 Ink and junk mail paper 12 x 14 inches, 16 x 18 inches framed Courtesy of the artist Robert Priseman Hanging Chamber, 2008 Oil on linen 60 x 60 inches Christoph Niemann SOS, 2011 Ink and digital Publication: New Yorker hai Kremer Warship, 2008 Digital chromogenic print 30 x 40 inches Courtesy Julie Saul Gallery, New York Alfredo Jaar with David Levi Strauss In Lament of the Images, 2009 (Proposed New York Times Op-Ed piece)  Digital print, AP 28 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches Courtesy of the Artist, N.Y. Dustin Grella Prayers for Peace, 2009 Pastel on slate, stop-motion animation 1080p x 1920 Courtesy of the artist Bob Giraldi The Routine, 2005 Lightjet print on Fujiflex Supergloss mounted on Dibond Reinier Gerritsen Wall Street Stop – 6.20 PM 10 06 09, 2009 Inkjet archival print 22 x 43 inches Courtesy of Robert Morat Gallery Berlin Andrea Gennari Tramonto Senza Vento (Sunset Without Wind), 2008 oil on canvas 17 x 29 inches Jessica Craig-Martin Party Animals (Denise Rich Pool Party, Southampton), 2006 C-print 48 x 72 inches Edition 1/3, + 2 AP Courtesy of Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York Edward Burtynsky Oil Spill #13, Mississippi Delta, June 24, 2010, 2010 Chromogenic Color Print 39 x 49 inches Edition 2/9 Courtesy of Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery Sandow Birk American Mihrab v.3, 2010 ceramic on wood 60 x 45 x 6 inches Courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W. Gallery, NY Susan Anderson Ashley, Age 7, Nashville, Tennessee, 2008 Light jet print on Fujiflex Supergloss mounted on Dibond 33 x 33 inches Edition 3 of 6 Courtesy of the Artist and Patrick Painter Inc

]]> Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:07:36 EST http://drawger.com/stevebrodner/index.php?section=articles&article_id=12845

For y'all in the NY cosmo-area, tonight is the release party for the new WW3. A must-see and a must-read! http://www.yippeeskippy.com/worldwar3illustrated/wordpress/?p=852

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  #2: As a kind of Swamp Thing.     #3 With apologies to Brian Stauffer. I would have split the take with him, I swear.   #4 After some back and forth we get closer to portraiture for the piece. "Drawing in" to the face can be more than enough storytelling for an illustration especially if you begin to get a sense of the subject, which I was beginning to do. #5 Finally it gets boiled down to the portrait with storytelling accoutrements. #6 Art Pope, at last, makes an appearance on my table and then in the magazine this week. And happy to help get the story out.  In politics it's always about the big dogs eating first.  With Citizens United it looks like Big Dogs Eat All. Thanks to David Remnick, Chris Curry and Jane Mayer.

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