TCOB

A busy fall session of business-related assignments. My piece about the lingering effects of a financial crisis ran in the Economic View section of Sunday's New York Times.

Assignments like these can be challenging. Economics-related articles can induce eye-glazing at the best of times. My job is to counteract that effect. When coupled with the disastrous results of the worldwide economic troubles, you have to resist the urge to go over the edge of the cliff. Although one of my sketches did just that.

Here's another piece for the same section, about charging fees for services that have been offered for free. Citibank suffered a huge backlash and ridicule after placing a $5 user fee on debit card usage.

Great to work with art director Minh Uong on these. 

Mecanismos Launch

The Oeno Gallery is a beautiful spot. Owner Carlyn Moulton has been fantastic to work with in launching this show. Mecanismos opened on the weekend, and I took a bit of time to recover from the tension and excitement of launching a solo show.

The show runs through the holidays and will be up until January 3. There was a lot of work involved in getting it together and I am very thankful for all of the friends and folks who showed up at the opening, and to those who bought pieces as well.

I stopped by the gallery this afternoon, when things were quiet to take some photos of the space and the work in place.

Oeno Gallery

I worked with Oeno Gallery to produce a book, including all 100 prints. It includes an introduction by Gary Taxali and I also talk about the process of creating Mecanismos, influences and ideas that went into the work.

$60, contact me if you would like to get your hands on one.

Not so Supercommittee

A new series of spots for the Wall Street Journal, about the possible outcomes of the budgetary 'supercommittee', ranging from full success to complete failure. The cynic in me is completely unimpressed.

possible outcome: successful probability: very low

possible outcome: partially successful probability: low

possible outcome: failure, triggers engage   probability: low

possible outcome:complete failure    probability: very high

And a snapshot of the icons in place on the page

 

Show Ready

I am very excited about getting the upcoming Mecanismos show together. It opens November 26, at Oeno Gallery. Part of the challenge in launching a show like this is finding a way to get one hundred pieces framed and ready to hang. I worked with Carlyn Moulton at Oeno and we decided to handle the framing on site.

I have been working with Ivan Tanzer, matting the pieces and then assembling the frames. It is meticulous and demanding work, but anything this repetitive has a certain zen-like quality to it. I think that all artists get lost in process at times. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

I also appreciate getting everything together well ahead of schedule. A luxury for someone who works to short deadlines on a regular basis.

If you are in Prince Edward County or passing through, please join me at the opening or drop by to see the show. It runs from November 26 through the holidays until January 3.

Land Lines

I threw my fax machine out the other day. It had been sitting on my desk for years, gathering dust, occasionally whirring, beeping and spewing out junk ads. Jamming whenever I tried to send something out. What an odd and crude beast in an age of wireless, handheld communications.

I do remember how cool it was when I bought my first fax machine. When I started out as a freelancer, I would deliver sketches and finals by hand, an having a device that could send ideas to clients for approval. I dreamed of the day when I could send artwork over the wire, and in full colour too!

I received an assignment from Gretchen Kirchner at Forward magazine for a full-page illustration. It's all about companies that still use antiquated (fax and landlines) to get their message out in the wireless age. After developing and drawing this character, I made the move with my fax machine.

Here are the sketches I developed for the project, I had a lot of ideas ready to go on this one. I think we developed the right one.