A papal piece post

Trying to catch up on posting a few things. Here's a somewhat recent piece I did for the Boston Globe Op-Ed section. This was about Pope Francis' upcoming (at the time it was published) visit, and how he differs from Popes of the recent past:

My immediate, and ultimately most successful idea was to show the three previous Popes' hand blessing someone/making the sign of the cross. But Francis' would be making a heart shape. It came from focusing on the following passage from Mary Gordon's piece: "The most important thing about him is that he is a man of compassion. He wants people to understand that God is a God of love and not judgment..."

Thank you to Nathan Estep, AD!

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!

In love with a roadie

This piece for the L.A. Affairs section of the L.A. Times ran this past Saturday, and follows the story of a woman in a relationship with a roadie, who's currently working with a band out on a world tour. The author explains the difficulty in not seeing her significant other for months at a time while he's working. But, as she expresses: "There are some things in this life that are completely worth it, and he’s one of them."

I had the idea of using a concert tour t-shirt as a calendar, with her crossing off the tour dates until she sees him again (In the rough draft of the story, she mentions that they'll meet up in Japan). You can read the story here. Thank you so much to the awesome Wes!

Why? Why was I programmed to feel pain?

This piece appears in today's Op-Ed section of the Boston Globe. The article discusses the growing phenomenon that views robots as beings worthy of our empathy. There are citizens waiting for the moment that robots are given artificial intelligence, in order to introduce legislation protecting them, as well as a thriving sexbot industry in some countries.

 People aren't even waiting for robots to become sentient through AI, before forming bonds with them. The story mentions soldiers that served with IED-detecting robots in Afghanistan, that become attached to their mechanical comrades, and a study that shows how reticent people are to "harm" toy robots that they've been given. It's a really interesting article, you can read it here with a subscription.

Thank you to Corinne!
Also, I couldn't help thinking about a Simpsons episode when reading this story:


It's the one where Lisa finds an "angel" on her school archeological dig.