Keep those balls in the air!

"The Flying Karamazov Brothers," The New Yorker, September 13, 2010

...and the official caption for the illo:

Four jugglers tell jokes while keeping all their balls in the air, in “The Flying Karamazov Brothers,” at Minetta Lane Theatre.

This is you. No, this is you.

My buddy Owen Sherwood and I are going to be doing a two man show curated by Emma Copely (do check out her paintings) up in the Collar City, the Home of Uncle Sam, beautiful Troy, NY at the Capital Region Artcenter.  We both grew up right outside of Troy so it's going to be sweet to have a big space to fill and show all our old high school enemies that we are . . . artists. . .  As part of the show, we're doing a little project: This is you. No this is you. : a series of insults back and forth that we'll eventually be putting together as a sprawling piece for the show.   Fortunately, I had the good sense to make it a blog: Owen has the foresight of drunk garden tool trapped in a cabinet.  We're just getting started and it's a lot of fun,  so keep checking it out from time to time!

Melissa Ling

Check out Melissa Ling's work.  Another recent Pratt graduate, she's got a great sense for quiet images that really have a visual punch to them, along with some knockout drawing skills!

Nick Cave - no, not that one.

So - I mistakenly atributed this to Nick Cave the singer/writer, thank you Jordan Awan for pointing me in the direction of the Chicago based performance artist Nick Cave! Who can keep track!? Well . . . apparently people who read:). They're still super fun. I still love how much Jack Kirby I see in the bottom costume - looks like one the Celestials!

Sachin Teng

Another one of my former students who's doing some really nice work. Sachin's got some pretty nasty skills and he's as good on traditional as digital. I think what I like best about his stuff is his use of subject matter as design element, without turning it into simple pattern - he really keeps it dynamic.

PC World

Sorry about the posting binge, but I figure better to throw stuff up when I got it, 'cause often I don't! :) Some new spots for Beth Kamoroff at PCWorld about Google's semi-web-monopoly, and a recall of Sony laptops that were literally melting (!?) Aren't you glad you're a Mac person, reader? All this confirms one of my worst fears: apparently, computers are the future.

Phillip Knight's Sketchbook Book

I was delighted to be a part of UK illustrator and designer Phillip Knight's new book "GARP: Sketchbook Process" which includes some really great illustrators and designers. It totally gives you the voyeuristic pleasure of picking someone's brain along with peeking in their sketchbooks. One of the other people featured and a new favorite is Iain Macarthur - I love his mix of obsessive tightness and pattern, coupled with his pure draughtsmanship and dynamism.

Owen Sherwood

My old college roomie and great illustrator Owen Sherwood has some new pieces up on his blog including a great series on the world cup. I love his combination of pencil and digital.

The end of Lance . . .

I was listening to the Tour a bit this year and thought I'd do a little Lance Armstrong piece. I got to admit, the guy's tough, but with the doping allegations and his being 38 (almost 39) he's really out of contention. This could be part of a Roger Clemens, Brett Favre, Michael Jordan retiring then unretiring athletes series:). It's got to be hard to let go, but at some point, just let it go fellas!

Kelsey Bohlinger

I love this new one from my friend Kelsey Bohlinger for a local radio station T-Shirt contest. As a recent graduate she's just getting warmed up, but I think she's going to be a monster!

No, it's Captain Crazy4Cult!

Kiersten and I are part for the Crazy4Cult show opening On Friday, the 9th in LA at Gallery1988. I took on my beloved Goonies. Watching Goonies over and over again for work? No problem. Just made me miss my after school fruit roll-ups and the smell college ruled loose leaf paper. For the show I did a 22"x22" map of the underground part of the movie and 12 of the costume portraits like the ones pictured above including Mikey, Chunk, Data, Brand, Mouth, Andy, Francis Fratelli, Jake Fratteli, and of course, Willy. If you happen to be left-coasting it, check it out!

Sahr Ngaujah in "Fela!"

Sahr Ngaujah in "Fela!", The New Yorker, July 5, 2010

Sahr Ngaujah currently stars in "Fela!" on Broadway.
Read "Say Yeah Yeah" by Hilton Als here.

Caminos del Inka

"Caminos del Inka," The New Yorker, June 28, 2010

(click to enlarge)

Caminos del Inka perform the music of the Americas at Tanglewood this August.

A Very Interesting Piece...

...On the lack of Critical History in Illustration

http://www.printmag.com/Article/The-Forgotten-History-of-Illustration

I Love Nevada Politics.

Had a fun job for the super nice Rachel Perkins at the Las Vegas Sun last week about the Senate race Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is struggling in. Basically, all of Reid's attacks have been aimed at Sue Lowden, while Sharron Angle has toiling away in relative safety and is now surging in the Republican Primary polls. This one actually made the Newseum Top Ten Front Pages of the day which was pretty cool. If you're a news nerd like me, the Newseum in D.C. is a pretty interesting concept.

Vacation Pictures!

I kept a little sketchbook while I was out in California, and posted the results (or the more sucessful ones at least:)) at my blog.

East River Country: Arthur Miles

Flier depicting forgotten Texas cowboy and throat singer Arthur Miles for a night at a bar I sometimes DJ at.

You can his one song here it here.

Captain Scribble

Doing all these motion graphics things is starting to wear off on my illustration.

Matchbooks! America's Design Library!

Michelle picked me up a sweet matchbook collection at the Brimfield (MA) Antique Show for 5$! This is but a taste. I hate to be one of those illustrators who moons over when overthing was illustrated but uh . . . I'll draw Mister Pancake! I love the processed color palettes too and the hand drawn type - especially the PROX logo.

new portfolio site

Please check out this site that I'm using as a temporary portfolio space as I take some time to do a much-needed update to spoonstudio.com (Jashar, help!)
The navigation is extremely basic, but the images are big and bright and hopefully do the work some justice.

See it here:
http://wotherspoon.grandportfolio.com/