Video Gamery

"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!!!

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!

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!

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

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

 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)

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!

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!

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!!

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 . . .

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!

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

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?

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!!

"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!

 

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

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

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!

 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!