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New York Magazine, “My Own Worst Enemy”

Wednesday, October 22, 2008


Here’s an illustration I did for this week’s issue of New York Magazine. It was for a review of the new Christian Slater TV show called “My Own Worst Enemy“. Most of the collaged photos were supplied by the Art Director, courtesy of NBC.

People seem to be digging the TV show, but a certain family member of mine, who shall remain nameless, deemed it “confusing”. Sorry Christian -still a fan though. Gotta love Heathers.

P.S. The headline of this post may have gotten your hopes up for some kind of juicy rant about how New York magazine is my own worst enemy. Sorry to disappoint, but New York mag and I are total BFFs (although I also have a crush on it that it doesn’t know about…shh!).

P.P.S. Great working with you again, Stevie!!

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Seeing Spots

Saturday, October 4, 2008


If you are lucky enough to be an art director on my mailing list, you will soon be receiving my SPOTS postcard! If you are unsure as to whether you are so lucky, feel free to drop me a line, and I’ll make sure that you are. :-)

While designing the card and arranging the spots on a grid, I had a sudden childhood flashback…

SCRATCH ‘N SNIFF STICKERS!

Sadly, my postcard is not scratch ‘n sniff. But hopefully it will bring you a similar feeling of joy and satisfaction.

Actually, I could probably make some cool stickers out of my spots. Hmmm, I smell a new project…and I didn’t even have to scratch anything!

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Things That I Like: Bugsy Malone and Paul Williams

Friday, September 19, 2008

If you have not seen Alan Parker’s 1976 film Bugsy Malone, I command you to netflix that sucker NOW. It combines the gangsters and showgirls of the late 1920’s with amazing 70’s-style musical numbers, with cast of all kids. It’s like Xanadu meets Goodfellas…meets Sesame Street. Oh yeah, and it stars Jodie Foster and Scott Baio!

I’ll let Jodie give you the details:

I know that I am not alone with my Bugsy Malone obsession, because the amazing soundtrack has been surfacing like crazy in commercials and pop music. Lily Allen and rapper Dizzee Rascal remade “So You Wanna Be a Boxer” into the very less-awesome “So you Wanna Be a Gangster“. And last year, “You Give A Little Love” was used prominently in a Coca-Cola commercial which aired during the Super Bowl.

And that brings us to the man who created the soundtrack for Bugsy Malone, Mr. Paul Williams:

Other than Bugsy Malone, here’s a few more reasons why Paul Williams is cool:

-He co-wrote the song “Rainbow Connection“, “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song”.

-He appeared in Smokey and the Bandit, and on The Muppet Show, The Odd Couple, The Love Boat and Match Game.

-He’s from Omaha, Nebraska

-And most importantly, nobody, and I mean NOBODY wears tinted aviator glasses like Paul Williams. Ya hear that Kanye?

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“One Million Monkeys Typing”, Paste Magazine

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

You may be wondering “Hey, where are the other 999,999 monkeys?” The answer is, I do not know. Maybe check between the cushions of your couch.

Actually, I do know: Since this illustration was to run as a small spot, the AD and I agreed that a single iconic monkey would read more clearly on the page. You can stop looking for those other monkeys now…

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“Stay Away From Seattle Day”, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Seattle Metropolitan recently commissioned this illustration about the unofficial Seattle holiday known as “Stay Away From Seattle Day”. The holiday dates back to 1990, when the city was being inundated with an unwelcome number of tourists. Oddly, doing this assignment really made me want to visit Seattle. Sort of like the reverse of that Groucho Marx saying: “I don’t care to belong to any club that would have me as a member”…um, but in reverse. Oh, never mind.

Thanks for the fun assignment Chriss!

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Heinous or Genius?: Empire Bail Bond signage

Monday, September 8, 2008

This is the first post in a series I shall call “Heinous or Genius?”, where I will debate whether to classify something as totally awesome or truly loathsome.

We shall begin with the new signage for Empire Bail Bonds at 93 Court Street in Brooklyn, NY.
EXHIBIT A:

(Side note: This is my first animated gif. Yay! I suddenly have the urge to make thousands of them! OK, back to the subject at hand…)

Yes, it’s gorgeous at night, you may say. But you must witness it’s full glory in the light of day:

When I first noticed this signage, my first response was OH….MY….GOD (with major pauses for extra drama). So many questions: how, why and WHAT?? I was horrified, but secretly began to wish I had a light-up empire state sign to hang on my living room wall.

I think the most offensive part of this sign is the fact that it is a PLASTIC PICTURE of a famous sparkling building slapped on the facade of an ACTUAL decaying once-beautiful building. It makes me feel bad for the building’s feelings. So humiliating.

Okay, so how could this sign possibly be considered “genius”? Well, I saw the sign ONCE, and I still remembered the name of the business days later. I’ve spotted tons of bail bond companies in NY, but cannot name one of them. Bottom line, the sign achieved it’s goal. If I have any scrapes with the law, who am I most likely to call: Empire Bail Bonds!

Empire Bail Bonds: 1
Neighborhood: 0

Verdict: Both Heinous and Genius

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The “New York City, Real & Imagined” Book Project

Thursday, September 4, 2008

This Summer I attended ICON5 (The Illustration Conference), and participated in a related collaborative book project titled “New York City, Real & Imagined”. Each artist was asked to create an illustration that portrayed their vision of NYC. I’m a native New Yorker, and LOVE city imagery so I was thrilled to participate. Rather than work digitally, I decided to collage this image the old-fashioned way: with scissors and glue, which was immensely satisfying! I enjoyed the project so much, that I’m working on an NYC series.

At the conference, the original art was exhibited in a hand-bound book (at left) and as a slideshow in the main ballroom, with the images projected about 20 feet high. I’ve never seen my artwork at billboard-scale, and I have to say it looked hot! I cannot believe I didnt bring my camera to capture it!

The book project was conceived and organized by the lovely illustrator Julia Breckenreid. The book’s cover was hand-bound beautifully by Toronto-based bookbinder Don Taylor and the project was sponsored by Legion Paper. The artwork will be exhibited this fall at The Maryland Institute College of Art.

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Oldie but Goodie: New York Times, Op-Ed

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Occassionally I’ll stumble upon something cool in my job files that never made it into my portfolio for one reason or another. When that happens, I’ll post it on the blog as an “Oldie but Goodie”. The first entry in this category is an illustration I did last year for The New York Times’ Op-Ed page.

The editorial was titled “Mind Over Manual“. It explored the limitations of the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic handbook (the “DSM”) and how it might hinder a doctor’s ability to accurately diagnose a patient’s mental illness. The final art was well-received, but looking back, I cannot believe I made all of the doctors men! Soon after it was published, the author contacted me for a copy to hang in her office.

P.S. Thanks for the assignment, Minh!

P.P.S. Hmm, I just noticed that almost all of my blog posts include an image of eyeglasses or sunglasses. Weird…

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The Awesomeness of Needlepoint

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

This post is about the awesomeness that is needlepoint. Like most people, I had seen the occasional needlepoint-upholstered chair and those pillows with messages about friendship. Last year I even purchased a framed vintage needlepoint dog portrait from rad illustrator Laura Levine’s cool and mysterious store in the Catskills called “The Mystery Spot”.

Then I discovered Jonathan Adler. WOW. Adler’s needlepoint designs have a pop ’60’s-70’s sensibility. Images of men in aviator glasses and disco divas with false eyelashes (SO Liza). One pillow is even meant to look like a ticket from studio 54. LOVE IT!

So, ever since I’d seen his work, I’d been super-eager to learn needlepoint. This Summer, I learned that my pal, the talented illustrator Alanna Cavanagh, was also an Adler fan and had the mad needlepointing skills I so desired. In the dojo of needlepoint, Alanna has become my sensei (the Pat Morita type, not the John Kreese type, of course!)

Here is my first needlepointing attempt. It’s the beginning of a sunglasses case. The black background is not intended to encourage one to wear sunglasses at night. It was merely the color yarn I had the most of. (NOTE: I do not recommend needlepointing round shapes for beginners, unless you are smarter than I am.)

NOTE: For the millions of men out there that secretly yearn to needlepoint, please seek inspiration from Rosey Grier of The New York Giants:


xoxo
gossip girl

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7up Commercial by Robert Abel

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

This commercial basically references every visual thing that I love: Busby Berkeley and the musicals of the 30’s, Xanadu and neon signs, the combination of photography and pop graphics, and of course ELVIS. I doubted that it was Elvis actually singing in the commercial, but I learned that the director, Robert Abel also directed the Elvis documentary “Elvis on Tour”, so it’s a good bet! Some of Abel and his teams’ most recognized projects include the visual effects for the movie Tron and some fantastic Levi’s commercials.

The coolest part of the video below is that the credits are still attached and a talented commercial director can still gain new fans even after his passing.

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