AI-36

I was given word last week that two illustrations of mine will be in the American Illustration 36 show.
My piece "Emergency" from my Jesus' Son series was chosen to appear online in the AI-AP Archive:

And a piece I did for the Los Angeles Times on nonlinear storytelling in recent films was selected to be published in the annual hardcover book:

I'm very excited to have something in the show, and looking forward to seeing this year's book! Thank you to AI and the jury members!

You're a loudmouth, baby

Just wanted to post this real quick: a recent Op-Ed piece from last Sunday's Los Angeles Times. The Op-Ed by Stephen Marche explores the phenomenon of "mansplaining", which he explains is a term used "to describe male domination of speech" (and coined in an essay by Rebecca Solnit).

Read the piece here, it's an interesting one. Thank you so much to the wonderful Wes Bausmith!

On No-Fly, No-Buy

I would have liked to post this in a more timely manner, but I had to take a brief hiatus from work while we moved across the country to our new home in Cambridge, Mass. We're not sure how long we'll be here, at least a couple years, but it's a nice change from a place I've never really lived outside of since I was a kid.
Anyway, this piece appeared in the L.A. Times Op-Ed, shortly after the Pulse massacre in Orlando. It's a debate arguing whether having one's name on the No-Fly list should prevent that person from purchasing guns.

It was a super quick turnaround because it was going in the Sunday paper, but it was such an important subject to undertake after such a horrific event, I was honored to get the opportunity. This idea was one of the first I had, and it easily won out. My AD Wes gave me the whole page for it, and his layout looks great. I hope to post other recent pieces when I get some spare moments- there's a bit of a backlog. Stay tuned...

Music T.V.- but with music

This full-page piece for the L.A. Times' Envelope section was out last week. The story follows the recent musical trend in television. With roots going back to shows from the 90s like "Gypsy" and the less popular "Cop Rock," the craze has been gaining steam over the last several years. Whether it's dramas based on musicians and the music industry, such as "Vinyl" and "Empire," or musicals broadcast on t.v., like "Glee" or "Grease," television is all about the tunes lately.

You can read the article here. Thank you to my AD, the terrific Wes Bausmith!

Society for News Design 2015

I'm pleased to report that I received an Award of Excellence from the Society for News Design, for a recent piece for the Los Angeles Times. My AD Wes notified me last week that my illustration for the article "The NFL's willful ignorance" was given the award:

I'm very honored to be given this recognition by SND. And a big thank you to Wes, who was an immense help while working on this assignment!

Cupid, upload your bow

With apologies to Sam Cooke. This piece for the LA Times was actually finished up a couple weeks ago, but it just ran in the Sunday LA Affairs section yesterday. It's for an essay describing the relationship a man had with a woman he met through Twitter. They exchanged various communiques via social networks online, and grew fairly close. However, after they met in person and went on a few dates, the relationship soon fizzled out.

I've heard hundreds of anecdotes about people meeting online, and falling in love, but I thought this essay was really interesting in that it gave an example of when love over the internet doesn't work out. I thought of this concept of a digital cupid sheepishly picking up his cursor/arrows that failed to hit their mark. I also had another sketch that I think would have worked well:

A bouquet of wilted thumbs-up flowers, showing that a relationship based solely on "likes" and whatnot will eventually fade and wither. Thank you to Wes, my AD on this!

My friend Jake, who I went to art school with and now resides in L.A.,  sent me a pic of my piece in the Sunday paper. Thanks, Buddy!

Let's shake on it

This illustration for The Los Angeles Times appeared in yesterday's Envelope section. The story follows the release of several films involving con artists in recent weeks: Blue Jasmine, American Hustle, and of course The Wolf of Wall Street.

Believe it or not, this image did not come easily. What follows is a series of missteps, almost theres, and not quites:

These sketches focused more on the mention in the article of various awards that movies featuring con men have garnered over the years. One and two are attempts at showing that the flashier con men do better than the low key figures, when it comes to critical and audience acclaim.

This round focuses more on the consequences of the con men's actions, and how they ultimately become victims of their own greed (with the exception of the Wall St bull with award laurels for horns), but they still don't capture the main theme running through not only the article but the movies' storylines. Plus, we wanted to include a wolf somehow, since The Wolf of Wall Street was a slightly bigger piece of the story than the other two films. So after pulling out some hair, cursing myself, and pacing back in forth in front of my sketchbook, an idea hit me and I scribbled this pathetic doodle:

I tightened the "sketch" and sent it in. That was it. To quote my AD Wes: "Bingo." Finally.
Thank you to Wes for his always helpful insight, his ability to steer my frantic thinking towards a more coherent direction, and especially, his patience.
Happy New Year to all! 

Slavery in Movies

This piece is out in today's L.A. Times, for an article on how slavery has historically been depicted in movies:

The story reviews movies that dealt with the "peculiar institution," going back to Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1903, through 2012's Lincoln, and how the vast majority shy away from showing the true brutality of slavery. Excepting Tarantino's Django or the television classic Roots, the few that did explicitly show the violence and barbarity, such as Amistad, weren't box office draws. Up until now, Hollywood has preferred not to risk putting off audiences with such scenes of depravity. Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave changes all that by putting the reality of the brutality of slavery at the forefront. You can read the article here.

After turning in the sketches, it was a toss up between numbers 1, 3, and 5. We ultimately went with number one, obviously, but I think the other two would have worked out as well. They focused more on the idea of the most offensive aspects of slavery being hidden or cut out of movies.
It was a great assignment to work on. Thank you, Wes!

It takes two to tango

This "L.A. Affairs" illustration for the L.A. Times ran this past Sunday. The essay described a recent experience of the author's during a ballroom dance lesson. The fact that her dance partner and fiancee is also a woman seemed to complicate things. In dancing, as well as everyday life, neither woman was used to letting the other lead. As they both struggled to make the other follow, they realized that instead of competing, partners need to work together. In dancing, as well as everyday life.

 While researching ballroom dancing, I came across images of dance steps. I've never been a dancer, never taken a lesson, and the numbers and footprints and arrows looked intimidating to me. So I exaggerated them to make the steps look as complicated as possible, to compare dancing to the complexities of any relationship. Here's the full page (minus the advertisement at the bottom):

Thank you to Wes! This was a really fun piece to work on! Read the article here.

Not too young to get married

Didn't have much time to post this piece for the L.A. Times over the busy weekend, but it ran in Sunday's L.A. Affairs section. The story is by a woman who was just engaged for the first time at 37. She explains that getting married at that point in life gives her an advantage, as she has many friends' marriage experiences to learn from.

I wanted to focus on how the author uses her friends' marriages as guideposts for her own relationship, and this concept came pretty quickly. You can read the essay here. Thanks so much, Wes, for your input on this assignment and for your concern Friday morning.
Next post: a cover for the Phoenix New Times.

Praising poison ivy

This illustration ran in the Op-Ed section of the L.A. Times this past Sunday. The author wrote a very informative piece on poison ivy- from its benefits to nature, to its appearances through American history. There's also a frightening bit about possible effects on the plant from rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere (Hint: No, its not in any danger of going away).



Read the article here, which also displays my illustration- surprising, as that doesn't usually happen with Op-Ed pieces. Wes Bausmith is the awesome AD who commissioned this, and put the headline in the ivy vine/dress. Very cool.

On a side note, the article to the right of my illo is an excellent piece written by Hagit Borer. Borer is an Israeli-American who will be on board The Audacity Of Hope, an American vessel taking part in the next flotilla bound for Gaza. I recommend reading her article as well.