DEGRAFFLOG

Trout

2012-01-06T13:14:00.000-05:00

Here'e the full image of one of the pieces for the "One Hour of TV a Week" Show coming down this week. I've wanted to have an excuse to do a big trout for a long time. I'm one of those kids who wanted to be a marine biologist, and did a fish dissection for my second grade science project. I remember catching trout with my father and thinking the outside of trout was beautiful, and then (because I had to after I was 6 or 7) cleaning them and finding all this great stuff inside. It was a little gross and lest I sound like a serial killer, I want to convey the tragic aspect I felt for the fish. But - the mechanisms of what fuels this beautiful little animal machine were astounding from the tiny heart, to the contents of it's stomach, to the bladder it uses to regulate buoyancy.

"Magic 2", 22" x 22", Gouache and pencil on BFK

If you've never been trout fishing, get a liscence, go find a small, cold, spring fed stream after it rains, wear a heavy pair of jeans and long sleeves, a pair of old sneakers you don't mind getting soaked in the stream, lots of bug spray, a creel with a frozen bottle of water in it, a three dollar pack of 18 trout worms, extra hooks, and an old rod and reel. The worst that will happen is that you spend a nice summer afternoon walking a pretty stream. The best case is you walk a pretty stream, fool a few wily trout, and have a nice breakfast/lunch/dinner. They are damn good eating - especially after working up an appetite crashing through underbrush to get to a steam and back:).

Two Hours at the Museum

2011-12-30T11:14:00.000-05:00

My parents swung by Philly for a lovely visit and we spent part of the afternoon at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They have a great collection, and given my recent interest in sketch booking (and trying to brush up my skills for the in-the-works-cross-country-bike-ride) I though I'd try to do a little work while I was walking around.

Bust, bust with stache.

I do love me some Stu Davis.

When people ask me about Philly, I say "wherever you go, nice restaurant, fancy hotel lobby - there's a guy in shorts and Phillies t-shirt". This is untrue - as evidenced by this drawing, he is sometimes wearing an Eagles Starter Jacket.

Mod tackles air-smooching.

Drawing of the surgeon, Dr. Agnew, from the "The Agnew Clinic" by Eakins.

Sketchbook Portraits . . . Some good, some not.

2011-12-27T17:37:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!

Michelle was nice enough to multi-task - napping/posing - while we watched "Scrooged".

I must admit, caricaturing Cary Grant while watching "North by Northwest" proved to be a little tougher than I thought. . . These are bad, but I like the page.

Another attempt with a (little more success) of doing a caricature/portrait - Bill Murray while watching Bill Murray. It doesn't hurt that he's a got a great mug (and I've already drawn him once this year:)).

New sketchbook pieces

2011-12-19T18:29:00.002-05:00

Haven't had much of a chance to do much sketch booking with the show looming so it's been nice to try to get back into a little drawrin'. Mostly these are done on commutes back and forth from Philly to Brooklyn - and it's fun to play with the shaky hand spontaneity.

The Show!! Jets! Boats! Squares!

2011-12-07T17:00:00.001-05:00

This weekend I had the pleasure of setting up my "One Hour of TV a Week" Show at Gallery 543 in Building 543, a communal space for the headquarters of URBN Inc (which for the uninitiated encompasses Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People and Terrain) in the Philadelphia Navy Yard . The space is . . . pretty amazing. Coi ponds? Yup. 40 ft tall bamboo indoors? Yup? Handy parking for WWII era aircraft carriers? You better believe it. You can also get a good cup of coffee and tasty lunch if you want to make a day of it.

I want to extend a big thank yous to: Lauren Addis for her support of the show and allowing me to do an extended setup (and make an extended mess), Josh Longo (of Longoland fame) for helping paint boats and put on the finishing touches, and most of all to Michelle Provencal who not only put up with my turning our apartment into a disaster zone, but who also helped out this past week with all the last minute preparations that I never would have been able to finish on my own (as well as my manic stress-isodes). Thank you, thank you, thank you.

On to the show!! So - some of you may recognize a few of the pieces from the "History of the World" show that was up earlier this year created with Owen Sherwood. Initially, this show was going to be my half of that show, but - I like doing work - and wanted to repurpose some of the more autobiographical pieces from "History" into a different slant. So with a few new pieces and tweaks on old ideas, here's the "One Hour of TV a Week" show.

A little stage setting . . .

Is that . . . ? Yes, you're correct. That is an aircraft carrier
looming outside of that large glass window.

"I'll Stop If You Stop", Latex Paint (thanks Josh!)

"National Little League" and "Bicentennial"

"I'll Stop if you Stop" detail

"I Hate Brian Smith", 6" x 6" drawings on paper.

The story is - I got beat up by Brian Smith a lot. Many bloody
noses - most of them deserved - I was a tag-along crybaby. And I'm
still trying to get the last word in 23 years later. Eat it Smith.

"Cancer" and "Magic 2"

"Magic 2" detail

"Cancer" detail

"A Concept of Four at Two" and "Magic" with the model planes I made and painted,
with help from the lovely Michelle Provencal.

p.s. - Do you know how small the landing gear is on a 1/144 scale plane?
About the size of this "I" with two "O"s on either side. Teensy.

On the left are two new paintings - "Duplex" and "Ghostrunners" (shown in
my previous post)

"Duplex" detail - That's our old duplex featuring our upstairs duplex mate, Mrs. Maynard.
She was a nice old lady who kept to herself - we rarely saw her but well into her seventies she'd be
out shoveling snow at five in the morning if there was snow to shovel.

"Mango's, 1988", Latex Paint. This is my squad from 1988 when I was ten and my
first team after I left National Little league for Twin Town Little League in the hinterlands
of upstate NY.

My little workstation for people to make cannonballs featuring: gliders as a reward for cannonball making,
my old D&D wallet (thanks Kate Glasheen), a vintage Queen postcard (thanks Colin O'Higgins), an old gas can I love (thanks N.C.), Wiffle Ball boxes (thanks Jen and Jed Heuer) and some childhood favorite books from Mom and Dad.

And to finish, I'll take an aircraft carrier and jet combo.

Make it a double.

"One Hour of TV a Week" Show Dec 6th!

2011-11-26T16:35:00.002-05:00

Im getting ready for my new show at the URBN campus in building 543 next week! At this point it's half panic, half excitement getting ready for the install. The show is really based on a lot of childhood images: little league, toys, fights . . . ahh . . . the good times. So if you're around the city of Brotherly Love on December 6th (or anytime through the first week in January) swing by the amazing URBN campus down in the Navy Yard (pretty amazing in it's own right) and check out the new stuff!

"Ghostrunners" 22" x 22", gouache on BFK

Reginald Chelmsley Wigglebottom - Gouache demo

2011-11-08T12:34:00.001-05:00

Hour 1 (plus a little)

Hour 2 (plus a little)

Here a little in-class demonstration I did for my Methods and Media I class at Pratt. Demos can be a little fickle and rushed, but I like how this one came out. I usually do weird colored renditions of celebrities from photos for demos (see the otis below) but this time I thought I'd just paint out a character of my own with more of a realistic feel. I started out with laying the background green, and then layering on the major base colors in the face: the brownish lower portion, the reddish nose and ears and warmer forehead and cheeks. Then I subtracted out some of the lighter portions with a brush and rag, and then just continued building in light and darks. In the second hour I just kept shaping the face, rounding it out and adding detail in the wrinkles as well as finishing out the frilly cravat and jacket. Then I flattened out the background tone to highlight the texture in the face with a couple twinkley stars for giggles. Ba-boom. Wigglebottom.

Bill Murray Show!

2011-10-28T17:20:00.000-05:00


Just sent my piece out for the Bill Murray show out at Gallery1988 opening November 3rd!

Here's a little of the piece in progress. Fun to do a big portrait!


"Stevezee" 24" x 24" Gouache on paper mounted on wood panel

This is Otis. I love Otis.

2011-10-21T21:51:00.001-05:00

A little gouache and watercolor demo I did for my Illustration class students at Pratt of the late great Otis Redding. Some of them were unfamiliar with Otis, and to be honest, I'm sort of jealous of the mind blowing they'll get when they discover the best soul singer ever.

2011-10-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

New piece for Kelly Carter at Deleware Today

Series of small spots for Scott Dvorin at the New York Observer

Video Gamery

2011-09-05T01:52:00.000-05:00


"Forget-me-not", an homage to the blessed konami code, savior of the weekend Contra player.

"Nailbiter on Custom Track 'Hunter'"

As a kid who grew up with NPR, and only one hour of TV a week my only contact with video games was at friends' houses. It was much treasured. So here's my two contributions to the genre from the iam8bit show and the video game show at Gallery1988 Venice opening Friday the 16. God bless Nintendo.

Funtown USA!!!

2011-08-31T16:05:00.001-05:00

Have you been to Funtown USA? All you need is a passport, driver's license, 34 dollars, a penchant for skeeball, and you may want a grown up diaper. Happy Birthday to me! Thanks Michelle! Funtown is way better than Snacktown!

PS - That's me on the left hand seat. You are not able to hear me scream, yet I assure you, I did.

Another batch!

2011-08-29T12:14:00.001-05:00

A new one for Scott Dvorin at the Observer - unfortunately it ended up lacking the story to accompany the illo:(

A fun double spread for FHM in the UK. Good thing I like drawing windows!!

Piece for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance Magazine.

Map for Tony Judge at Enviva Magazine about hiking in Oaxaca.

New Illos!

2011-08-02T16:03:00.003-05:00

New piece for Annemarie Neff at American Medical News about the upcoming influx of twenty-somethings to the healthcare system thanks to the Obama plan.

New piece for Rob Schultz at MacWorld about creating safe wifi ipad/laptop network when you're on the road.

New piece for Scott Dvorin at the Observer. These are fun one day turnaround pieces. After about 6 hours of frantic work, they're a nice sense of accomplishment, and reason to go out for a happy hour beer!;)

TNG

2011-07-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

For whatever reason I've been in the mood to watch Star Trek: Next Generation for a few months. Maybe it's the appeal of cold space to contrast with the heat, or maybe a bit of summer nostalgia but whatever the case, it was pretty sweet when all seven seasons showed up on Netflix's watch it now. I always considered myself a Kirk man - but I'm swaying . . .

Post Reform Reveal

2011-07-25T11:36:00.001-05:00

Here's a new piece for Jennifer Wenger at American Medical News about the implementation of the Obama Healthcare Plan - a matter of great concern as no one is quite sure how it's all going to actually work. Thought I'd throw up the sketches too and the digital mock up. I had fun contrasting the pencil with the graphic and doing a little digital painting.

Wet Hot American Summer Show! (and website update)

2011-06-14T07:24:00.000-05:00

The Wet Hot American Summer Show opened up at Gallery1988, and my "Camp Firewood" map sold! Yahoo! I love doing these maps - they're a little bit of a nightmare, but gratifying when they're done. My "History of the World" buddy, Dr. Owen Sherwood, contributed these guys (below) which look pretty sweet too - and if you want the Michael Showalter as Alan Shemper, too bad. It's already gone. Check out all the piece on the Gallery1988 site.

And . . . I have updated my site with some new goodies if you want to see, including some more of the History of the World show, as well as new editorial.

Turtle Opening!

2011-06-04T16:55:00.000-05:00

It was pretty jam packed in a tight space, but a lot of fun to see the show on a First Friday in Philly. Thanks to the Autumn Society and Brave New Worlds! (mine's near the middle of the wall in the spot - nice to have such a good spot!!)

Memorial Day Weekend - Lets Go Mets!

2011-06-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

I almost forgot to post this! I had a great memorial day weekend with my fam going out for a lovely dinner on Saturday night, and then watching the Mets lambaste the Phillies on Sunday followed by a sweet BBQ on my cousin James' and his fiancee Emily's rooftop deck in Astoria. It was such a pounding by the Mets that I even found time to squeeze in a four inning drawing of the stadium . . . I thought it would be quicker, but man - stadiums are complicated, and baseball is glorious and therefore distracting. I've been back in the city quite a bit since moving to Philly and let me tell you, New York's a nice place to visit. Even made me a little homesick. That is, until I came home to my big studio, AC'd apt, and did laundry IN the apartment. Adios homesickness. If only the Mets and Phillies could do a sort of exchange program for a season or two . . .

Turtle Power!!

2011-06-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to be a part of the Autumn Society's (a Philly illo collective) "Shell-Shock - A TMNT Art Show and Tribute" opening this Friday at Brave New Worlds, a great comic book store in Old City, Philadelphia. I really wanted o re-explore the sort of dry brush I did with the "Heavyweights" (below) in a little bit more of a serene setting with a little softer palette. Why are they doing laundry? Well, I do love nude turtles, but I really just thought they would have interesting laundry - those colored strips, and it's such a drudge job for teenagers, and I figured not a lot of people would do "slice of life" type images. Just another day in the sewers . . .

2011-05-25T09:49:00.000-05:00

For the super nice Scott Dvorin at the New York Observer chronicling the SNL cast party, after party, after after party . . . It's a fun challenge to do a portrait compilation especially in the quick turnaround time frame.

History of the World Press!

2011-05-19T11:36:00.000-05:00

Whee! Owen and I got a nice write up in the Times Union about our "History of the World" show which we awesome. We were even referred to as "drawing nerds", which may just be my new job title. Plus I thought I'd throw in another (sick of History of the World posts? I hope not . . .) piece from the show I'm finally getting the time to tile together from the scans I have. Here's my Ronald Reagan, a companion piece with Owen's Maggie Thatcher.

"Endangerous", 22" x 28" Gouache on BFK

NY Observer Piece

2011-05-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

Here's a new piece for Scott Dvorin at the New York Observer about a drug ring based out of the Park Slope. These geniuses had their main dealer driving around on a red Can-Am Spyder tryke with heroin in Sephora bags or some other highly conspicuous vehicle tossing drugs into cars . . . super low key, fellas. How ever were you found out?

2011-05-07T13:33:00.000-05:00

I have this dream of riding across the country form NY to LA and making a book of drawings, and I'm starting to think that next summer may be my last chance to do it. I need to find a grant.

History of the World . . . With MORE!!

2011-05-06T14:57:00.001-05:00


"A Concept of Four at Two", 22" x 22" Gouache on paper

This is a portrait of my brother - the former cutest kid on earth title holder, and inspired by the fact that I don't remember myself being two, but I remember thinking of Nate as four. I think when you're a younger sibling you live vicariously through your older sib until the age of 22.

"Bicentennial", 22" x 22" Gouache on paper

This piece is a depiction of the Earth on it's two hundredth birthday. Originally I was going to place more type on it for the full "Bicentennial" poster effect, but decided on just a small little call out. There Earth was still pretty much a muss back then - a clump of rocks finding it's way. A little terrestrial toddler. I thought Legos would suit it nicely. AND - nice that this guy got into American Illustration. :)

This turned out to be a lot of fun. We decided to each paint a boat - the "HMS Boatheart" and the "USS Fudgecicle" respectively, and then frame ridiculous little drawings of "cannonballs" - really anything you would throw at someone else - and then left a note for people to tack up their own canonballs. Let me tell you - it's hilarious. There's stinky socks, flower bombs (an actual flower with note telling you it's a flower bomb), visual puzzles, an oscillating fan . . . It's everything I could have hoped for and more.

These are Owen's "Primordial Action Figures" which are both pretty and funny. They totally take on little characters in my head. He makes these from the scraps of some really beautiful wood from his job, and brings them home for his daughter, Mae. These ones are special for the show.


"We Are All Descended From Homeless People", 22" x 30", pencil and gouache

Just a little reminder from me to you.:)

The right is a collection of Owen's subway drawings from London. Top left is this collection of drawing about his mid-life crisis when he buys a sweet car and goes and hangs out at Stewart's all day. Below that is my beloved "DMV".

"Ghosts of the Reign", Gouache and pen

What a dishonorable fate for the dinosaurs in a way - to end up plastic dinosaurs, that actually machines that transform into plastic people shaped robots. Even thought most fossil fuel is not really dinosaurs, some of it is, making petroleum based plastic dinosaurs a little disturbing.

"The Lord's Typewriter" 22"x 22" Gouache on paper

I've been wanting to do a periodic table for a while, and thought it could work with the show theme. And yes, all the elements are there.

A close up of the canonball battle that got pretty experimental - love the color of those tickets and the craft paper!

This is my homage to the internet - a series of tubes that always ends up at cat videos.

Huckster!

2011-05-04T15:51:00.000-05:00

I had a blast doing this little piece for Maureen Adamo at Las Vegas CityLife about a skeevy ticket firm out there: multiple instance of fraud perpetrated by a non-lawyer running a law firm (which in itself is illegal.) Reminded me of some kind of wild-west huckster from "Deadwood".

The Wright Brothers

2011-04-25T10:12:00.002-05:00

Piece for the History of the World show about the Wright brothers as kids, and finally got to use the Guillow's Jetstream Glider I've had tacked to my wall for three years. These things are the best! I used to get these instead of candy at our local drug store on our way back from church, and play with my big brother. Thought it made a nice parallel with Orville and Wilbur who were inspired by a toy helicopter as kids. As well as amazing - the glider pioneered somewhere around 500 BC, powered manned flight pioneered in 1903 - a rather large time period of improvement, and yet 50 years after Kittyhawk we were testing the edge of space and traveling at supersonic speeds.

Studies in Orbs and Years for the "History of the World" Show

2011-04-08T17:19:00.004-05:00

The year was "1953", suburbia was sprawling, and baseball fields were shrinking to back yards, and balls were slowly evolving "wiffles" . . .

The year was 200 - or rather two hundred years since Earth collided with another planetary body, blowing it to smithereens (which would eventually become the moon), and then began it's re-coagulation into the orb we all call home. Fireworks were millions of years in the future but I thought it would be nice to commemorate the "Bicentennial" of this collection of rock, molten rock, rock ice, and bits of water. Why Legos? Well, it was just a planetary toddler: innocent, but constructive in it's own growth.

Side note: we got our window vinyl! Designed as a wacky grid by Owen Sherwood and myself, and photographed by Caroline Corrigan, Education + Exhibitions Manager up at the Art Center. Thanks, Caroline!

History of the World - How to install a *#&@!% in 6 easy steps!

2011-04-05T03:38:00.002-05:00

1. Insall something on your face. See how you like it.

2. Get Matt Shropshire to help you (background). He's super, super helpful. Optional - do the show with an old buddy (Owen Sherwood, foreground). Can your old buddy do a pensive look like this? If not, cut him out of your life. If he can, have him do half the work. What a buddy!

3. Tchotchka. You need it. You're not all that creative, so the crap you collect in your studio? Use it. Again, you're not that creative, and this makes you look smart and sophisticated. The best places to look are Wal-Mart and the crawlspace under someone else's house.

4. Install giant drawings on the wall of the gallery. This ensures a memorable show: at least by the guy using the 15 gallons of matte white to cover them up when the next show goes up. He'll go to his grave saying - "It took me eight coats to cover up that guy's painting, and he had no hope whatsoever of selling it. What an idiot." Zang! He'll remember you for life!

5. Spread crap all over the place while you're doing it. During the installation, give the space that care-free "there might just be paint rags in this bag, but it could be an unfinished sandwich from Monday" vibe. This is imperative. AND - on day five, chicken curry smells like watermelon. Fantastic. You're almost there.

6. Right by the front window, place a hand drawn icon featuring a famous internet cat. I chose Maru (thanks Courtney). While most people feign interest in politics, the Arab Spring, health care . . . at their core, they just want cat videos, and preferably of cats who, like Maru, are bad at spacial relationships. Famous cats are the currency of the new millenium. Draw those folks in. This also works if you own a pet store.

In conclusion - feel free to do your own twist! Play jazz! Remember, we created the exact history of the world in a gallery. You may want do something different, and lesser! Good luck.

PS - I'm super proud of the work Owen and I did - and thanks to Caroline Corrigan, Amy Williams and Matt Shropshire at the Arts Center in Troy. Even with the long days, and no sleep, it was fanti-billy-tastic, and It'd be great to see as many folks as possible at the reception on April 29th!

The Upcoming Show . . .

2011-03-16T11:35:00.003-05:00

Mr. Owen Sherwood and myself will be hanging our show "History of the World" at the Capitol Region ArtCenter in Troy, NY in two weeks! The work's coming along really well, and it's been great to step outside myself a bit and try some new approaches. I'm mixing a more personal interpretation of history with a bit of autobiography. It's sort of a mental cheat sheet of the "History of the World" more than a linear start to finish. The image above is actually a drawing from a photograph of my great grandfather, Jessie Wood (in orange) and his ball team in the late 1800's. Threw in a couple more preview images below. The show opens on April 4th, with a reception on the 29th.

New PCWorld Spot

2011-03-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

New spot for Beth Kamoroff at PCWorld about Firefox creating software to make it's users untraceable to advertisers. I have a few more to upload - but blogger is being a real pain with not allowing pics up . . .If anyone has a solution for the dreaded "server rejected" thing that pops up, I'd love to know!

The New Deal Pieces!

2011-01-27T12:44:00.002-05:00

Had another opportunity over MLK weekend to work with the great Larry Gendron from The Deal. The magazine uses lots of illustration and great illustrators, so it was really nice to get a cover and interior piece. The basic angle on the piece was about risk management, and companies changing their financial stances to be more protected. I got going on this sort of circus theme with the first two sketches and was really happy that Larry wanted to use both. It made for a long weekend, but a good one. I even squeezed in a little cross country skiing with the fam, and a gigantic leg of lamb dinner courtesy of my Aunt Grace and Uncle John.

Losers

2011-01-21T07:59:00.000-05:00

The Times ran a little story about the amazing losing capacity of New York teams, including my beloved Metroploitans along with a nice little photo gallery. As the snow falls, and the Mets gear up for a "rebuilding" year, I'm taking another long deep breath. I'm wondering if it's possible to hibernate through summer . . .

Let's go Mets.

Great Job!

2011-01-07T11:46:00.000-05:00

Gallery1988 is opening the "Is This Thing On?" show tonight at their Melrose gallery at 7 tonight, and here's my submission: Tim and Eric in a piece called "The Nephews Muscles". I'd seen a bit of their stuff before, but it was great to watch all the "Tim and Eric: Awesome Show, Great Job" episodes. Holy hell - funny, crazy - sort of insane anti-funny really. Check it out if your out in the left coast sunshine!

Popular Mechanics

2010-12-22T08:17:00.001-05:00

Got to do some fun little spots for Michael Lawton at Popular Mechanics dealing with navigation systems - something I can identify with. My girlfriend has one - we call it "Carol" as in the Horatio Sanz character on SNL. She, for it has a female voice, barks out instructions in her tinny voice in the middle of conversations, recalculates in drive thru's, and is a general nuissance, and yet a source of great amusement since it leads to us talking in that monotone authoritarian voice - "I NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM IN POINT THREE MILES, TURN RIGHT AT THE COWBOY SIGN, WHERE'S MY POINT THREE MILE DOUGHNUTS, . . . . . . . I'M CAROL!!"

"Goonies" print on sale!

2010-12-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

My "Goonies" print from the Crazy4Cult show is on sale here from Gallery1988! The signed numbered edition of 35 is ready to order just in time for Christmas. A great gift for that age old question: "What do you get the "Goonies" fan who has everything?"!

New PennStater Piece - Hip Displacement

2010-12-03T12:46:00.000-05:00

New piece for the super nice Carole Otypka at the PennStater about a hipster who moves to the 'burbs, and finds life fulfillment in TMNT pops, bragging about his cost of his 4$ pants. Do kids today know the Turtles only in pop form? Maybe so . . .

Baltimore Magazine Double Spread!

2010-11-24T18:07:00.001-05:00

I gotta tell ya - opening a magazine to see an edge to edge double spread is a pretty nice ego boost. And - a nice one it post before the holiday break (I should photoshop in a turkey). I even got my photo in for being a contributor!

"Inappropriate New Reality Game Show Ideas"

2010-11-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

New PCWorld Piece!

2010-11-05T14:19:00.002-05:00

New piece for Beth Kamoroff at PCWorld about how to make Windows smarter. It's always interesting to work with such abstract topics, and Beth is really great to work with. It was nice to be able to work with the typographic solution, too, and trying to fit in "inefficiency"! I've done a lot of more "urban" type solutions with buildings mostly, so working with a more serene, quiet scene was challenge, but a good one. Another nice bonus if you pick up the magazine was the nice type on the opposing page. Thought I'd throw in the sketches, too. I'm happy when I'm happy with all the sketches, and really would have been happy to do any of these.

History of the World Preview!!

2010-11-02T09:35:00.000-05:00

Here's some poorly photographed previews for the April Capitol Region ArtCenter show I'm doing with Owen Sherwood, "The History of the World", including a detail of my Charles Darwin portrait, "We are all descended from homeless people", and "The Bullet That Shot Abe Lincoln". Whether any of these make it in the show or not, I'm having a blast working on them. There's so much fun inspiration . . . from the History of the World . . . I want to do a bajillion pieces!

Muffintop.

2010-10-20T08:39:00.002-05:00

Been a little lax with posting - but I have been doing work with Owen at the This is you, no this is you blog. Here's the newest addition.:)

A beet ouerverked, I tink . . .

2010-09-22T17:28:00.000-05:00

A little in class demo for my Methods&Media I class that I finished this afternoon when I got back home. I only worked on it for 30 minutes, and managed to totally overwork it from the nice under painting I had going on. Ah vell. Pootin veel be so sad at hees poortrit!

Medieval Times - Savior of Sports Entertainment Dining or Harbinger of the End of Human Civilization? . . . yess . . .

2010-09-20T16:28:00.001-05:00

Recently wed Wes and Kiersten whisked Michelle and I away to a undisclosed secret location veiled in the shadow of the Pulaski Skyway, beyond the swamps of Hoboken, and past the black gates of the New Jersey Turnpike to the magical fiefdom of Lydenhurst. There the secret revealed itself in the form of a towering parapet (as large as the local zoning board would allow at least) made of authentic poorly reproduced stone - alas, we gazed upon the castle of the Lyndenhurst franchise of Medieval Times! Much merriment was had as the local king regaled us with his alternating basso/falsetto voice about the location of fire exits. The lord chamberlain explained in the best king's english the castle smoking policy. . . It was as if time itself had peeled back the curtain of reality!

OK - enough snark - it was super fun. If you love cheering for staged sporting events, if you love eating with only your hands in almost complete darkness, if you love regional theater rejects spouting utter nonsense in poorly imitated British accents . . . and I do . . . Get thee to New Jersey! (Or check their web site for a location near you!) It was an AWESOME surprise. Nice one W + K.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

2010-09-18T11:22:00.001-05:00

Had a fun time doing a little painting down at the Brooklyn Bridge park, and taking some super lame, but still fun Hipstamatic pictures.

Favorite Things

2010-09-14T09:15:00.002-05:00

Got to take my favorite train ride up the Hudson River from NYC to Albany, and stare at some great rail bridges. If you've never had the chance to take that ride, find an excuse to do it. It is beautiful country.

This is you. No, this is you.

2010-09-10T08:34:00.000-05:00

My buddy Owen Sherwood and I are going to be doing a two man show curated by Emma Copely (do check out her paintings) up in the Collar City, the Home of Uncle Sam, beautiful Troy, NY. We both grew up right outside of Troy so it's going to be sweet to have a big space to fill and show all our old high school enemies that we are . . . artists. . . As part of the show, we're doing a little project: This is you. No this is you. : a series of insults back and forth that we'll eventually be putting together as a sprawling piece for the show. Fortunately, I had the good sense to make it a blog: Owen has the foresight of drunk garden tool trapped in a cabinet. We're just getting started and it's a lot of fun, so keep checking it out from time to time!

Hotel Fire

2010-09-02T11:18:00.003-05:00

Summer

2010-09-02T07:54:00.000-05:00

"As a Boy I Contemplate the High Dive/Sweet Moves"

DMV

2010-08-24T14:28:00.001-05:00

Ahhh . . . The good times. FYI, the line was about four times as long as this drawing.

PC World! New Client! Yippee!

2010-08-13T09:49:00.000-05:00

Some new spots for Beth Kamoroff at PCWorld about Google's semi-web-monopoly, and a recall of Sony laptops that were literally melting (!?) Aren't you glad you're a Mac person, reader? All this confirms one of my worst fears: apparently, computers are the future.

Doodle Dog

2010-08-13T09:24:00.000-05:00

My Sketchbook . . . in a book . . . The world has turned itself inside out!

2010-08-12T10:02:00.001-05:00

I was delighted to be a part of UK illustrator and designer Phillip Knight's new book "GARP: Sketchbook Process" which includes some really great illustrators and designers. It totally gives you the voyeuristic pleasure of picking someone's brain along with peeking in their sketchbooks. One of the other people featured and a new favorite is Iain Macarthur - I love his mix of obsessive tightness and pattern, coupled with his pure draughtsmanship and dynamism.

New Freddie!

2010-08-10T18:41:00.001-05:00

A new Freddie Mercury portrait for the archives!

For Michelle

2010-08-09T11:02:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday!

Aahh . . . Brooklyn

2010-08-09T08:01:00.004-05:00

Got to spend last night on Kiersten Essenpreis' and Wes Cox roof in Bushwick with our friends Jen and Jed Heuer to eat some lobster and celebrate my beloved Michelle's blank-ty something birthday with lobsters and cupcakes. (Hard to phrase that so it doesn't sound awkward but I want to link to everyone's site - they're all so damn good!) It was a lovely evening emotionally and physically with the great sunset and breeze coming in. Jen and Jed are headed off to Portland for the year next year, and there's the looming possibility of Kiersten and Wes eventually moving to Chicago, and I had the feeling I've had a couple times in the past ten years - things are going to change. Roof time with great people in the Borough of Kings seems just a little too nice to last.

The THING

2010-07-28T14:11:00.003-05:00

Was up last night watchin' some netflix and got a-doodlin' on one of my favorite Jack Kirby characters, the Thing. Man made out of orange rock. Brilliant.

I hate to say I told you so . . .

2010-07-13T13:55:00.004-05:00

Hate to repost, but since the oil is still flowing, I thought I'd throw up my 30Reasons.org poster from 2008. The week this got poster to the 30Reasons site (Nov 08), Obama drastically weakened his stance on offshore drilling which was quite a disappointment. I was really excited when he initially planned to put a hold on drilling new areas and reassess the current leases held government's incredibly corrupt Materials Management Office. Would it have stopped the current crisis? Probably not. Preemptive tactics may have disastrous results in foreign policy, but as far as environmental policy goes, it's a pretty good idea. It also made me realize what a theme it's been in my own work and especially the "Pink Gold" book I made in 2005.

No, it's Captain Crazy4Cult!

2010-07-08T18:39:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow night in LA at Gallery1988 the Crazy4Cult show opens hosted by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier. Here's a peek at some of my contributions inspired my me beloved Goonies.

GO BEARS!!

2010-06-21T10:32:00.003-05:00

If your softball team seems to be mired in mediocrity and nursing a 2 and 8 record, there really is only one solution to be had - new uniforms. In between jobs last week and general paying gigs, I put together a new t-shirt design in hopes of a more productive finish to the season and a play-off berth. Thanks to a design by cousin James last season, we led the league in fashionable t-shirts, and I'm hoping with my contribution this year we can at least be a reigning dynasty in well-outfitted-ness.

P.S. - If you're in the Williamsburg/Bushwick area, go check out the Archive! It's great place runs by great people.

More Nevada Politics!

2010-06-14T08:54:00.002-05:00

Another one for Rachel Perkins at the LV Sun. Jim Gibbons, the current governor of Nevada and political maverick/constitutionally confused whackjob has just become the fist incumbent governor to lose the primary in the state's history. Thus not being allowed to even run for his office against his democratic counterpart, he is now a stupendously lame duck - thus the overly large duck transport vehicle. I had a lot of fun on this one. Gibbons has a perfectly square head that's really fun to draw, and since I rode an overly large hollowed out water fowl to school for six years of roughest years of my life, I was happy to rock one here. I'll leave you with this quote - “Racial profiling should be for terrorism. If you look like and act like a terrorist, if you’re coming across as a bad person, you’re going to do harm to our citizens, whether it’s deal drugs, commit crime or commit a terrorist act. Absolutely we ought to profile everybody that looks like a terrorist. I don’t have a problem with that. But if they want to have a racial profile of Irishmen, then I’m going to question that.” - Soon to be former governor, Jim Gibbons (R).

Extra! Extra! REID all about it!

2010-06-09T08:00:00.004-05:00

Had a fun job for the super nice Rachel Perkins at the Las Vegas Sun last week about the Senate race Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is struggling in. Basically, all of Reid's attacks have been aimed at Sue Lowden, while Sharron Angle has toiling away in relative safety and is now surging in the Republican Primary polls. This one actually made the Newseum Top Ten Front Pages of the day which was pretty cool. If you're a news nerd like me, the Newseum in D.C. is a pretty interesting concept.

California Draw'rin!

2010-06-01T09:33:00.013-05:00

Michelle and I just finished up a wonderful vacation out in California and here's the little sketchbook I was keeping.

Dead Pets Society

2010-05-20T09:56:00.002-05:00

For some reason we started a tradition in my fam of pet names starting with the letter "S". Why? Well, my brother and I, in our infinite childhood wisdom and creativity decided to name our first cat Scott - after the dog next door . . . As per why Sophie is faceless, she's not actually dead. Yet. But she's getting up there and I wanted to get a head start on the whole set.

Matchbooks! America's Design Library!

2010-05-19T09:21:00.001-05:00

Michelle picked me up a sweet matchbook collection at the Brimfield (MA) Antique Show for 5$! This is but a taste. I hate to be one of those illustrators who moons over when overthing was illustrated but uh . . . I'll draw Mister Pancake! I love the processed color palettes too and the hand drawn type - especially the PROX logo.

Cleaning up the Gulf

2010-05-07T09:24:00.003-05:00

Reports are not good. I saw a short video on the NYTimes site about how folks are just waiting around to start the clean up but are being told to hold off. That's gotta be a terrible sense of foreboding.

Dinobot!

2010-05-03T08:18:00.005-05:00

I know a dinobot when I see one, and Autobot "Sludge" was outside my house all weekend. He had been tearing up the street on Vanderbilt using his foot-stomping earthquake thing disguised as a loud metallic chewing up of the concrete. He would have been tired, which is why he didn't try to contact me. I did not, nor should any one ever, attempt to feed a Dinobot luring them with hand held energon cubes! Their primitive minds will not distinguish your hand from the cube!

Swedish Torture

2010-04-29T22:35:00.000-05:00

Pineapple Face!

2010-04-28T21:15:00.003-05:00

Manuel Noriega has been in the news of late, and I recently listened to the This American Life episode "My Pen Pal" in which he figures prominently. It must be a strange life to be bounced around from prison to prison - Miami, to France, to . . . perhaps back to Panama. You can say a lot of bad things about Sr. Noriega, but he did facilitate one of the great nicknames in history - Pineapple Face. Brilliant.

Valeriya Volkova

2010-04-27T17:28:00.002-05:00

If you haven't seen her work, you're in for a real treat. Part of what I like about her work is that we seem to be interested in the same things, especially buildings, squares, and rectangles (to be broad about it:)). In fact, there's a really fun overlap with her pool piece (above), and a little watercolor doodle I did a few years ago! She totally kicked my ass on this one.

Captain Phil Harris - RIP

2010-04-20T08:22:00.002-05:00

I've probably spent more time than I should watching Deadliest Catch marathons. It's a pretty great show, partly because of the beauty of the tossing seas, partly the amazing bounty of crab, but mostly because of the guys who man the boats, and Captain Phil in particular who passed away from a stroke at 53.

Mini-illos!

2010-04-18T22:27:00.003-05:00

It's fun to work small scale, especially with some "for fun" editorial pieces. This top one about the Icelandic volcano eruption and the flight rerouting all over Europe, and the bottom one about a fire at a local pizza place.

Blues Highway!

2010-04-18T16:10:00.005-05:00

Piece for the April issue of GO Magazine for the great Shane Luitjens depicting a combination of a few stops along the Blues Highway including the birthplace of James Cotton, the crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul (which is actually just a legend attributed to Johnson, but which probably was really about Tommy Johnson), a farm where Pinetop Perkins worked, and the venue run by Hardface Clanton who helped launch many blues careers.

Another little spot for the same ish - this one portraying the Friendship Oak, which if you stand under will you stay friends forever.

Snappah!

2010-04-18T15:38:00.003-05:00

I've been working on a short comic based on some music fables written by a friend. The characters are all animals, and my character was "the Critic". I chose to portray him as a snapping turtle. Of course the week I finished, I went down to see some of my fam in Virginia and ran into this 18 inch snapper sunning herself on the grass. A perfect opportunity to get some reference immediately after I could have used it. Ah well. It was still a pretty awesome sight.

Congrats, Mr. President!

2010-03-23T16:30:00.002-05:00

There is a classic sense of American obstinacy. Usually, we end up unlawfully invading another state, maintaining discriminatory legislation, or doggedly adhering to a plea of innocence to a charge of infidelity. Rarely is it displayed in the cause of half-assed reform. It's not glamorous. It's not sexy. But, by gum, we got ourselves some honest to goodness health care reform. Half-assed reform, but reform nonetheless. Six months ago with the Tea Party screaming at town halls, death panels around every corner, and more caricatures of the President as Hitler than was tasteful under any circumstance, I thought health care was as dead as your neighbor who couldn't afford health care. And yet, President Obama stuck with it, bored the entire country, and got it through. Kudos, Mr. President. It's a big W. Have yourself a beer summit.

Doc Jingle!

2010-03-17T13:05:00.005-05:00

Need something for that hard to please nephew? How 'bout a Gap Kids shirt drawn by me! (You can buy it here) I had a lot of fun doing this tee, and it strangely coincided with a piece for GO Magazine where I also did a one man band as a spot for part of a larger piece. No joke - same two week span. It was nice to have the smaller GO piece done to help out with the bigger GAP piece. Weird how that happens, huh? (One-man-band pieces are also nice for having an excuse to listen to some Hasil Adkins!)

Oldies

2010-03-12T09:21:00.003-05:00

I've been cleaning out my computer and came across some older images - 2002/2003 stuff. This one is still one of my favorites. It's called "Process". The guy in the lower left is the artist, the baby headed airplanes are ideas, and the two headed guy represents the right and left brain each trying to block the ideas from getting to the artist's head - which is often my problem. I feel like I have some really great left brained ideas, that then get overruled by my right brain, and vice versa. My favorite paintings are the ones that straddle the subjectivity and objectivity, and for by those standards, this was a very true painting me. Plus, it was one of the first ones where I used more middle mixtures with high chroma accents, and got away from out of the tube color harmonies.

Play Fake Ball!

2010-03-09T16:31:00.004-05:00

As a little gift I, a Mets fan, sent this lil' painting to the Commissioner of my fantasy baseball league, reigning league champ, and Red Sox fan. It's just a little reminder from me that it can seem like you've got things all wrapped up only to have it all roll right between your legs (which will then force a game seven which you will lose).

Kurt Westergaard

2010-02-26T14:22:00.004-05:00

Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew the inflammatory images of the prophet Mohammed a few years ago for Josh Baker at Metaleap for use in Paste Magazine. If you don't know the story, he's a couple of attempts on his life, the last being a Somali guy who tried to break into his house with an axe . . . As if us illustrators and cartoonists don't have it tough enough as is! You'll notice the angry Muslim man on the right side of the sketch did not make it into the final, and I think it was a good edit. I find my flesh to be rather susceptible to axes.

Thought I'd throw in some process work, too.

Da' Bomber

2010-02-26T14:13:00.002-05:00

It's fun to go on the GAP site and see some of the illo I've done for them in use. They're all done about a year in advance so it makes for nice surprises to see what's out at any given time.

Heavyweights

2010-02-25T14:05:00.001-05:00

Nothing like a sweaty mass of man, muscle, and pink duking it out. The fight for the World Heavyweight Homoerotic Belt has begun!!

All things being sequel . . .

2010-02-25T11:51:00.002-05:00

This is one of my favorite, although puzzling, NY phenomenons. I've seen many examples of these sequel-esque restaurant names around, almost always with Chinese restaurants, but now in my neighborhood there's a new entry. Apparently, there is a bar somewhere named CHANCE. The owners, owing to apparent success, decided to open up a second bar located on my block. In doing so, they decided to pass up the myriad of applicable titles that maintain the congruity using the original name: Second Chance, Another Chance, or any other phrase involving chance (I'm sure you can think of a few) . . . and decided on CHANCE II. Is it the propensity of pop culture? Of too many over promoted sequels? Do people not know enough words? It's probably some sort of tax thing. Even so, I'm disappointed. The "II" will always be attached to a sub-par, uncreative, over hyped version of the original that should take place on a boat, in space, fifteen years in the future - OR as I would advocate, never at all, and certainly, never on my block.

American Medical News . . .

2010-02-16T14:55:00.002-05:00

Piece for Annemarie Neff at American Medical News about doctors alotting too much power to their practice managers. I like offices. So many good rectangles!

Tree

2010-02-14T16:05:00.000-05:00

Is it time for spring yet?

Tanzanian Snow Day!

2010-02-10T11:38:00.002-05:00

Thought I'd do a little snow day painting, and found a good pic to work from in a Salvation Army bought book about Tanzania.

Heavyweights in progress . . .

2010-02-04T09:08:00.002-05:00

Working on some more sports imagery. This is a detail of a boxing painting I'm working on. I was reinspired by some of the great Josh Longo's muscle men.

Banshee

2010-01-29T11:33:00.004-05:00

One of my points of extreme embarrassment as a child was when I first got into comic books. The characters were new to me, and as an X-Men reader in the Chris Claremont era, the number of characters and universes was pretty daunting. But I was into it and wanted to ask the cooler, older kids about stuff I didn't know, and mostly about the new (to me) character of Banshee. However, when I got up the courage to ask, I couldn't remember his name, and stuttering I said, "You n-n-n-n-know, the loud one?". Not cool. Even in the comic book world of uncool cool.

Simon Says . . .

2010-01-14T10:50:00.002-05:00

Here's a piece for Wes Gatbonton at Las Vegas Weekly in more of painted style, which was a lot of fun especially working on a portrait.

And the finish . . .

2010-01-06T17:13:00.002-05:00

Dreamin' of summer . . .

2010-01-06T10:51:00.003-05:00

A little painting after a sketch I did in August when my Vermont fishing license was still valid. Those were happier times . . .

Only Two Holidays Behind, and off to Society!

2009-12-31T13:49:00.003-05:00

Another CityLife illo for the Thanksgiving ish - still catching up on my posts, butIm getting there:). Plus, I got two pieces into the Society of Illustrators which is bo-gnarly and right around the corner, opening on January 8th! Here are the big winners. . .

Hot Dog on a Stick!

2009-12-09T11:23:00.002-05:00

Piece for Maureen Adamo for a first person account of life at the famous west coast franchise, Hot Dog on a Stick. Suffice to say, life at the Stick closely mirrors my own restaurant experience, so much so that it reminds me that in my nightmares, Im back in food service.

Cwismas is coming!

2009-12-01T18:32:00.001-05:00

Orthopaedic Surgery

2009-11-25T19:51:00.003-05:00

A compilation of hospital sketchbook work modeled after a display case in the Ortho Hall in Albany Medical Center. I don't get a lot a hard sketchbook time there but I do what I can, and it's fun to montage some snippets.

2009-11-23T20:07:00.002-05:00

For the super-nice Jaun Mims at Retail Traffic.

New Site Updates!!

2009-11-07T05:29:00.003-05:00

So, I finally got around to updating the site. God bless wi-fi in hospitals.:) Lots of the new stuff I've been posting on the blog.

'tis the season . . .

2009-11-03T20:01:00.001-05:00

Finished this guy up to submit to Society. I've been wanting to do a football image for while and had the chance to finish it up the day before my Ma's car crash.

Calling for thoughts and prayers . . .

2009-11-02T16:45:00.002-05:00

My Mom was in a bad car accident, and I don't want to miss any bases - so I'm asking anyone and everyone to say a little prayer, mantra, meditate or whatever you do, to try and help her out. While the exercise may prove to be one of futility, and the cosmos an unwelcome place for the transmission of focused positive energy, or human will and love too weak to surpass the limits of our own skulls, or even if the idea itself seems ludicrous and naive to you - she's in a lot of pain, and what could it hurt?:) I'm quite an atheist myself but maybe the transmission of these things comes more subtly. Maybe thinking about someone who's hurt and helpless turns into a kindness for a stranger, which is passed on and on to maybe somehow helping my Mom. Who knows? An infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters will eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare - let that rattle around your head and then think something nice about someone who you dont know - it may set into motion something wonderful - it may be the first few lines of Shakespeare that turn the infinite impossibility into reality.

Armstrong to Moon

2009-10-26T13:33:00.000-05:00

Mowin' Lawn

2009-10-22T20:03:00.003-05:00

Another gouache experiment . . . Trying to learn some lessons from the Batman. And hoping the Batman will start telling me about beating people instead of gouache, but for now, just gouache.