I'll come to your emojinal rescue

I worked on this series for a story on The Verge that details the way the texting-based therapy app TalkSpace operates. Like many of the new app-based businesses out there promising to "disrupt" the old way of doing things, it's not without its problems. Namely, the fact that the people who sign up for the app and text with the platform's licensed therapists are completely anonymous to those therapists. A setup that becomes problematic when the patient informs his or her therapist of suicidal thoughts, urges to hurt someone else, or any behavior that can put someone in danger.

Not only is it unsafe for the patient (or the person they are threatening to harm), but it's also required by law that the therapist notify law enforcement. Impossible under the current, anonymous arrangement. Aside from this, the article also covers the unfair labor practices the company engages in (similar to other disruptors like Uber), such as treating the therapists as employees, with regard to pay structure and work schedules, while refusing to provide employee benefits like health insurance and social security.

Meanwhile, regulators are looking at the TalkSpace business model in an attempt to figure out just what exactly the app is: a simple texting platform for people and therapists to connect, or something closer to a clinic that directly employs licensed therapists, thus requiring a whole different kind of operation. One that is required to follow the rules that all healthcare outfits are bound by.
Thank you to Michael! 

Head over heels for The Atlantic

I've been looking forward to posting about this for a while now, but have been pretty busy. I have a piece in the current issue of The Atlantic (the September issue), for Caleb Crain's book review of Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Purity. I always love doing book review illustrations, and the fact that it was for the work of such a talented writer was the cherry on top.

 I'm not going to go into a long description of the plot- you can pick up a copy and read the review, or better yet, the actual book- but suffice to say it revolves around a 23 year-old woman named Purity, or Pip for short. Pip doesn't know much about where she comes from: who her father is, or even her mother's real name. In order to find out who she is, she gets involved with a clearinghouse for internet leaks, thinking that the web must surely have some answers. It's on this journey of self-discovery that she apparently runs into trouble. As Crain explains, "Franzen has always been fond of putting his characters into a psychic distress so disorienting that they make decisions that topple them into even greater psychic distress." There are multiple mentions in the review of characters seeming to "fall" or "topple" into these situations, and continuing to plunge, "like Wile E. Coyote ricocheting down the sides of a canyon..." I felt that showing the character in some phase of tumbling was the way to go, and the AD agreed.

I also made a wider version for the website, which is also how it's displayed on my site:

This was a lot of fun to work on. Thanks so much to Lauren!
 

The Laughing Monsters

I was commissioned last week to do an illustration for the book review of The Laughing Monsters, by Denis Johnson. The piece appeared in the Boston Globe over the weekend. I only got a few lines from the review, so I had to find other reviews and synopses of the novel to get a clearer picture of what the book was really about. I won't go too far in depth (better to read the actual review, or better yet, read the book), but basically the main character, Roland Nair, works for NATO and is sent into West Africa to locate an old anti-terrorism buddy of his, Michael Adriko. The review describes Adriko thusly: "A native of Congo who has ended up affiliated with the US Army by way of Ghana, Michael is a figure cloaked in so many lies, mysteries, and identities that the novel makes little effort to render him 'believably...'" From what I could gather reading as many reviews as I could find, the main themes of the novel seemed to be ever-changing loyalties, enigmatic identities, and the relationship between these two characters- one driven by greed and power, the other seemingly nothing more than a thirst for chaos. I had one firm idea hit me early on, and turned in only one sketch, however I was pretty confident it would work. Luckily it was well received and I was able to proceed with the final:

Following along with the themes I could surmise, I wanted the identity of the figure to be obscured- it also worked out that scribbling over the face with a black pen looked like a ski mask/balaclava. The characters make their money in this world of rebels and terrorists, not always in opposition to them. The Boston Globe review can be found here.

(I did not make the cover illustration above) It seems like a really intense and intriguing novel, and the illustration was a lot of fun to work on. Thank you to Kim, the AD on this!