A + FOC = Tacos

Buying frames at thrift stores is a dicey proposition - most have mildly offensive art in them, but this one was a double whammy.  I got a great wood frame for "Unbearable", and this print by SOI Hall of Famer F.O.C. Darley - all for $18.  It's a lithograph on great aged paper and I couldn't resist painting with gouache on top. The best paintings I did in college were on top of old paintings, so I thought I'd give it a whirl again.  I think there still some left to do on this one, but for now, here it is.

SCENE Magazine Starmap

A new map for Dean Quigley and Delphine Barguidjian at SCENE Magazine - going to be used to show what neighborhood celebs are living in.  Had fun tackling Manhattan.  I've been hoping for a reason to do that little isle for a while.  I must say in doing reference (and looking for apartments in NY) that many of those boundaries are in much dispute.

Valentine's Day

A little image of awkward love for the age inappropriate lover.  And for the record - I had headgear (I was surprisingly psyched about it).

Mama's Boy

Mama's Boy - 11" x 14", microns on bristol

New extended doodle.

The Trilogy Maps and Pee Wee with details!

Here they are, with some details not available anywhere else.  I've been working on these for the past few months for the current show at Gallery1988 with the great Bennett Slater (work and prints available to buy here).  It's great to see the buzz on these - people seem to really love them - which is awesome. . . In case you were wondering, they were A LOT of work!  At 130-200 hrs per painting all done by hand, they are the most complicated things I've done (yet), and I'm not one to shy away from complication!  So enjoy, nit pick, relive the Spielbergian/Lucasian genius in all it's glory. 

To the trilogies!!

"Paths of Hope", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Hope" detail

"Paths of Empire", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Empire" detail

"Paths of Return", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Return" detail

"Paths of Raiders", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Raiders" detail

"Paths of Doom", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Doom" detail

"Paths of Crusade", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Crusade" detail

Collaboration with Bennett Slater
"And Knitting, and Knitting, and Knitting", 18" x 24"
Acrylic and oil on wood 

"And Knitting, and Knitting, and Knitting" detail

New American Medical News Piece - All about the Zen!

Here's a new piece I finished for Jennifer Wenger at AMN during the CRAZY week between Christmas and the opening in which I also had do my collaborative piece with  Bennett Slater for the G1988 show.  Happy with how everything came out, and really happy with this piece about doctors using meditation and other zen Buddhist techniques to enhance their ability to be totally present with patients, and prevent themselves from burning out.  Not only was it fun - but a good reminder to take a little time everyday to straighten out your head.  I also had a good time looking at a lot of Japanese woodblocks for inspiration, mostly Hiroshige and Hokusai - and merging it with my current stuff.  Those prints were a HUGE influence on me when i started to move away from strict realism, and I had forgotten how many little tricks I had stolen.  Especially with the maps I've been doing of late, the flat, fixed style of perspective in particular, the deep focus - those guys were amazingly creative manipulators of the picture plane.  I've still got a lot to learn.

Hiroshige

Hiroshige 

Chikanobu

Angelenos

Show pics coming soon, but I thought I'd toss up a little sketchbook while I was bussing around Los Angles before renting a car.  I do love me some public transpo.  Characters abound.  Anyway, for you northeasterners like myself, I'd like you to take notice of the dress - and tell you it was 70 degrees and sunny when these were drawn.  It's a different world out there. 

Map Prints available at G1988!

Print available of the Indiana Jones, and Star Wars maps at G1988!  The prints are full size - and with bleed, 20" x 24".  Here's a larger version of Raiders so you can follow along - watch out for snakes. . .

Sneak Peak!!

Nice piece about the Star Wars maps for the upcoming show with Bennett Slater Jan 5th at G1988 Melrose!  You can get a look at the whole finished SW trilogy for the first time . . . :)

http://www.slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-the-original-star-wars-trilogy-as-maps-by-andrew-degraff/

Map Madness! Jan 5th, G1988 Melrose!

Getting psyched for the January show with Bennett Slater at Gallery1988 Melrose!  Here's a small version of my Empire Strikes Back map.  Each character is represented as a colored line, and follows their progress through the entire film.  The alternating colored lines represent characters traveling together who have a special bond, sometimes for only a short time like Chewie(brown) and 3PO(yellow) when Chewie is repairing him.  Han(navy) and Chewie have a bond, R2(royal blue) when co-piloting for Luke (light blue),   R2 and C3PO . . . 

     All three of the Star Wars movies will be available as full size prints (sorry, no price yet) which are 18.5"x22".  Im also doing all three of the first Indiana Jones movies.

Sketchbooking 3? or is this 4?

North by Northwest Passage Prints for sale 11/22!

Tomorrow - on Black Friday - Gallery1988 will have my "North by Northwest Passage" prints for sale.  It's an edition of 50, 16" x 16" for $75, signed and - if I do say so myself - darn pretty.  So do little Christmas/Hanukkah shopping for that special Hitchcock fan in your life (or just treat yourself to a little wall candy!).

Penn Stater Spots

Here's two new spots for Carole Otypka at the Penn Stater about the effects of texting on the world of english education, and asking whether this is abomination of language or simply a more effective abbreviated direction.  I'm firmly on the side of abomination.  2B or not 2B.  That s the ?.

Sketchbooking 3

Some of my students have a diptych project to do, so I thought I'd start treating these pages more like diptychs.  Fun to play with that call and answer dynamic, especially with collage elements from my new beloved Standard American Encyclopedia.

Sketchbooking 2 - Indoors

Here's some new sketchbook stuff.  I bought some old encyclopedias at Circle Thrift on Frankford in Philly, and I've been collaging them into my sketchbook, and then just seeing where they go.  The prints are great - they have that great black and white weathered xerox look on nice slightly yellowed paper.   It's been a nice end of the day art activity.  More to come!

Sketchbooking

Did a little drawing down at the Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie Campus in the Philly Navy Yard, and out at Terrain at Styer's.  One of these days I'm going to spend a day down at the Navy Yard drawing.  It's pretty incredible - the boats, the ferry terminals, the docks - I dig it.  I did the aircraft carrier first, and then pre-prepped the gouache on the drive out to Terrain.