Influences

What artists' work influences and informs you guys?
Here are some of artists that have had an impact on me:

Ben Shahn

Hergé

Alex Toth

Kyle Baker

Alex Katz

Alice Neel

Night Watchman

Night Watchman, 9 in x 9 in, thread on stretched fabric, 2008

Jordan Awan Interview

i've had the wonderful opportunity to interview the talented jordan awan for lost at e minor! you can read that article here! unfortunately, what appears on the site is a rather significantly abridged version of the original interview. so luckily jashar has posted the interview online in it's entirety. you can read that here!

Devotion To Thread

Woodland Pattern with the support of the Milwaukee Arts Board presents........
Devotion To Thread
May 17- June 14, 2008
Reception May 31st, 5-9pm

Visiting artist Garth Johnson will give his "Extreme Craft" talk at 7pmIt's funny Drew should mention Diem Chau– I'll be in a show with her and a bunch of other awesome stitchers come May! It's curated by Faythe Levine who is currently finishing up a crafting documentary called Handmade Nation. (She's is also a fellow musical saw player!)

Check out her sites!

indiecraftdocumentary.blogspot.com
devotiontothread.blogspot.com
If you're in Milwaukee next month definitely check out the show. It should be pretty fantastic!

+++More info below:
Woodland Pattern
720 E. Locust Street
Milwaukee, WI 53212
414. 263. 5001

Featuring work by 15 national artists:
Chris Niver, Diem Chau, Emily Eibel, Jenny Hart, Kate Bingman-Burt, Kristin Loffer Theiss, Lisa Solomon, Merrliee Challis, Orly Cogan, Pippi Zornoza, Rebecca Schoenecker, Shannon Rankin, Steve Macdonald, Xander Marro, Melissa Woods

Highlights:

• Limited edition hand-assembled catalog, free to visitors

• Reception & visiting artist talk on May 31st at 7pm with Garth Johnson of www.extremecraft.com
• Decal-O-Mania! Workshop with Garth Johnson, Sunday May 31 (contact Woodland Pattern for more information)

Curator's statement:
When I received my February/March American Craft Magazine there was a statement in reference to fiber artist Lenore Tawney talking about her "Devotion To Thread". It struck me as the perfect title for the upcoming show I was putting together for Woodland Pattern that would focus on artists working with components of "handcraft". I am pleased to bring together 15 artists from Milwaukee to New York, Alabama to California, that all work in a variety of mediums and methods, with the common "thread" of thread in their work.
My hope for this show is that the viewer will not only walks away with a new appreciation of using hand and machine embroidery, sewing, needlework, and handcraft within art, but will also feel inspired to go home and create. I am honored to be working with such a creatively diverse group of artists that are at varying degrees within their artistic careers willing to come together and celebrate their devotion to what ties them together, thread.

This is a guy Diem Chau (diemchau.com). Michelle sent it to me and I was just kind of intrigued with the materials, and the idea of creating transparent sewn drawings.

here's a sneak peek of some stuff i'm working on for an upcoming group show (also includes the amazing kiersten essenpreis!) at the ag gallery in williamsburg. i'll be sure to post the all the info on that when the date gets a little closer.

robert l. jamieson

did this portrait of seattle columnist robert l. jamieson for the stranger last week (same issue as jashar!). the article was simply asking 'who in the world reads this guy's column?'.......hands down i had the worst reference to paint from on this one, EVER. just a tiny thumbnail that the ad was able to dig up online, literally 100 px x 100 px. but i think it came out alright in then end.

Orphan Works Bill

Read Mark Simon's original article on how this bill will effect illustrators here.

Blogger Meredith Patterson's rebuttal can be read here.

And finally, read a level-headed analysis of the bill from Newsarama blogger/ lawyer Jeff Trexler. Trexler's last paragraph was especially well put:

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that in law writing, as in law practice, the battle is often won in the drafting stage. Multi-billion dollar industries that stand to benefit from harvesting others’ intellectual property have been pressing Congress on this issue for years, and you can be sure that the pressure did not relent between 2006 and today. Speaking as a historian as well as a lawyer, I would observe only that the blogosphere’s insistence that artists wait in silence while elites write the law is not lacking in irony.

Contact your elected officials here!

Ground Zero. All the accoutrements necessary for illustration: electric guitar, NY Mets hat, window for staring, balsa wood glider, fix-a-flat, and of course, adequate dissaray.

Finally got a baseball preview ish. The job I dream about every spring. Thank god the feature wasn't about the Yankees!

max baucus, no friend of the canadians

i recently did this (somewhat unflattering) portrait of montana senator max baucus for domenic macri over at report on business. up above is the rather colorful initial version that i turned in. what can i say, i like it colorful. the art director requested that i make his suit black, however. so below is the version that was finally accepted along with some painted drop caps to go along with the story.

Get Loweded!

"Chas Roberts," The Stranger, April 23, 2008

This piece was done for Seattle's only newspaper, The Stranger. It'll go alongside an article on Chas Roberts, the host of a monthly cabaret, Get Loweded.

Read the full article here.

New Flying Machine

For Business Week

KCET's Illustrator video interviews

Check out interviews with Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd, Jaime Hernandez, Carol Lay and Johnny Ryan.

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Find first grade Emily!
(Click the image for the answer.)

...and on bass- Ilana Kohn!

WFoF's very own Ilana Kohn made her rock debut last night at the Mean Fiddler! Here's the penultimate song from their set...

**side note from ilana: working on that moving around thing....

Canceled contributors!

My first go at illustrating contributors was unfortunately quelled by the untimely demise of Skybussing magazine! Here's Graham, Tony and Susan. Let me know what you think!

Good Life

To celebrate the release of his new newsprint comic, Good Life, Taylor McKimens will be signing at the PictureBox Departmental Store.

Taylor McKimens PictureBox Departmental Store April 6th, 3-5 pm

To PictureBox:

121 3rd St.

Brooklyn NY 11231

(entrance is on Bond st.)

F or G train to Carroll St.

Exit at Smith and 2nd place.

Walk down 3rd St. to Bond.

work, workspace, more work...

Howdy,

I did this last week for Esquire about the documentary "Surfwise." Look it up, seems interesting!

Also, here is a picture of my workspace... Josh Cochran described it as "like a submarine!" which is the coolest way anyone could ever have described it. That's my bed on top.

And I just heard back from CA and AI-- I got two pieces into the next American Illustration Annual and one into Communication Arts. My first time in Comm. Arts after like 3 years of goose egg.


thanks!

f.

Shazam!

I've revamped my website. Check it out- jasharawan.com

Jordan Awan solo show opens 4/4

"I Think I've Come To See Myself At Last," acrylic on canvas, 8"X10", 2008

Pink Elephant Projects presents

Jordan Awan
It's Not That I Don't Want To Live,
It's That I Don't Want To Die

Opening Friday April 4, 8- 10pm
April 4- May 10, 2008

PEP
64 Washington Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11205 Saturdays and Sundays 1-5pm

Directions: G train to Clinton- Washington, exit via NE Washington stairs, walk north 4 blocks to 64 Washington Ave.