fwiw

Here's an illustration/design I did recently for an Express Jeans project to promote an entertainment industry backed 'responsible driving' campaign targeting young drivers and texting later this year. Potential use would be for T shirts, stickers etc. I've admired some of the great graphics Express has put out over the years so it was cool to be able to have a chance to work with them on this. gtg.

Thrills and Spills...

Last weekend I checked out a piece of Richmond's subculture called Slaughterrama. I'd heard about this event for a few years and couldn't pass up the opportunity to see it when my brother-in- law called and said he was going. Local bike clubs and their national 'chapters' compete for bragging rights in the steel skeleton of an abandoned factory along the James River. The favorite bicycle competition I saw had to be the bike jousting, where competitors holding PVC poles with stuffed animals attached to the 'business end' of them are pulled into combat on metal chariots.

The various club 'coat of arms' displayed on banners and the back of denim vests, along with the 'unrehearsed' organization of the event gave it the feel of something you might see in Mad Max or some renegade biker gang movie. There were also some incredible modified bikes being peddled around. I got to take a short spin on the chopper bike above, which was just there for viewing purposes. Being 6'3" it wasn't exactly smooth peddling, but still fun (fortunately no pics of that).

Green Future...

This was an illustration I did recently that appeared on the cover of the Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times. The article was about 'Reinventing America's Cities" by improving their infrastructure with WPA styled initiatives like functioning public transportation and public park systems, and innovative architecture.

In a small nod to the newspaper industry (and actual investigative journalism) in the future, while the web will be bigger and better than ever, people will still read newspapers- at least on their morning hi-speed train commute. : )

Robotics...

"I need electricity- If you wanna make me flip- Hit me with a micro chip- I'll be a diode, cathode, electrode- Overload, generator, oscillator- Make a circuit with me..."
'Make a Circuit'- The Polecats

Where would the 'future' be without robots? Not the kind that explore far away planets, or diffuse bombs, but ones like Rosie from The Jetsons, C-3PO, Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, or the robots gone bad in I Robot. The streamlined parts and geometric industrial shapes on robots like these help add style and intrigue to 'the future'- and inspire new mechanical creations like the one I did above.

Check out illustrator, and all around good guy, Danny Pelavin's robot page, which features robot art done by various illustrators. You can find one I did in the third row.

Some amazing mechanical men-and women made out of found objects can also be found on this cool robot site.

Intelligent Tinkering...

One of my favorite quotes is “The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts" by Paul Erlich. This could also be modified to apply to moving stuff out of and back into a workspace.

I had a new carpet put down in my studio last Friday, which meant I had to move everything out on Thursday, then move it all back in and get reconnected Friday afternoon. It was a little tough on the back, but worth it- and so far everything is back together and working. : )

I took advantage of having to empty cabinets and move flat files to go through a lot of the contents and get rid of stuff I no longer need. Illustrator 6 for Dummies, Photoshop 3 User Guides, a rubylith pad (!), outdated mailing lists, old promos, and now defunct ISP software were a few of the things that got tossed.

Like a lot of people, but maybe more than most, I like to collect things- lots of things. Everything from old ashtrays (ceramic and metal), to coffee mugs w/ company logos, to clothing hangtags, to matchbook covers. All are relatively modest compared to my collection of old paperbacks- which, like the kudzu in my backyard, continues to grow and take over my bookshelves. I've also collected a fair number of odds and ends which don't fit into any category other than they're stuff I like. When I put my studio back together I rediscovered some of these. Above are a few I scanned.

Lucha 2 and a West Side Story...

Here's an alternate version of "Lucha' with a more cinematic feel.
Initially I was thinking of a background image (maybe a knife fight or urban fire-escape etc ) and pulled up some gang movie clips on YouTube for ideas, including a few from the film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. Instead I ended up keeping it simple and just floated everything on a black background. Maybe there will be an updated 'Sharks and Jets' Bad Vamp image in the future. : )

Speaking of the West Side- No, I wasn't part of a gang , but I did meet Leonard Bernstein once. When I first moved to NYC I shared an apartment on the West Side at 105th and Bway- (not exactly Shark and Jet territory anymore) and my roommate Leslie was friends with him through her boyfriend who was one of his protégés. Coming home late one night I walked down the hall into the living room and there was L.B. hanging out with them. True to his extroverted nature he got up and greeted me like he'd known me for years. A few years later my wife and I went to an engagement party that he hosted for Leslie and Michael at his apartment in the The Dakota, which was very cool.

Pixels on the Track...

This is a fun project I did last month for an IBM publication. It was a cover and inside illustration with a transportation/travel theme - which I always like. The story had to do with servers, 'storage engines' and open source applications, with names like SugarCRM and Joomla. I tried to style the train to be a cross between a freight train and a more streamlined passenger train. The inside piece featured the train pulling boxcars featuring made-up product logos that symbolizing the different open source applications.

Some of the other train images I've done include a poster for Air France and a logo for Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, which if you watch the movie to the very end you can briefly see after the credits roll. : )

Ride the Wild Surf...

In between illustration and design jobs ( which I'll be posting soon) I've been working on an alternate version of my Bad Vamp 'Wanton Wave' poster. I mainly reworked the colors and moved some elements around. I like the new night-time surfing theme of this version and right now I'm leaning towards getting this one printed first.

In non- illustration news, I went up to D.C. this past Saturday with my friend, and fellow illustrator, Kelly Alder to see the Raveonettes. I saw them last year in Baltimore as a 3 piece band, and they put on a great show, but I have to say that this show was an even better and definitely worth the drive, and navigating the pre-inaugural D.C. traffic.
Here are a few videos - vid 1 , vid 2 ( I won't subject you to the pixelly footage I shot. These are from the same show- different angles and definitely higher quality)