Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend! Here's a quick illo I did for the NYer:

"Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys," The New Yorker, June 6, 2011

Check him out in action here:

Ronnie + Excitebike - 80's Bonanza!

"Endangerous", 22" x 28", Gouache on BFK

Thought I'd post another piece from the "History of the World" I just got around to tiling together from the scans.  Thank god Pratt has those big scanners and I had Matt Maher helping me out.  On a side note of self horn-tooting, Owen and I got nice write up in the Albany Times Union about the show!

Plus on a side note, here's a preview of part of my submission for the iam8bit Show out in LA.  I chose Excitebike - which for some reason was the most nerve wracking game I've ever played.  I just remember trying to push down on the gas so had my thumbs would be sweating and cramping.  What's more fun than that I ask you?!

When Your Cash Flow Slows

"When Your Cash Flow Slows," American Medical News, May 16, 2011

Read about doctors' "tactics for tight times" here.

Thanks, Jennifer!

For Asgard!

"Thor," The New Yorker, May 9, 2011

Here's an illustration I did for the upcoming "Thor" movie for the New Yorker. The assignment was well-timed— I had spent the day before reading "The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill," the opening arc of Walter Simonson's legendary run on The Mighty Thor.

art by Walter Simonson

Here's the movie trailer:

Opens May 6th! Can't wait!

Emily's got it covered.

Emily's work is featured on the cover of PUSH Stitchery: 30 Artists Explore the Boundaries of Stitched Art from Lark Books. It's out this September but you can preorder your copy here!

Here's the uncropped version of "Hey Courbet":

Hey Courbet, Emily Eibel, 2009

The Wright Brothers

Piece for the History of the World show about the Wright brothers as kids, and finally got to use the Guillow's Jetstream Glider I've had tacked to my wall for three years.  These things are the best!  I used to get these instead of candy at our local drug store on our way back from church, and play with my big brother.  Thought it made a nice parallel with Orville and Wilbur who were inspired by a toy helicopter as kids.  As well as amazing - the glider pioneered somewhere around 500 BC,  powered manned flight pioneered in 1903 - a rather large time period of improvement, and yet 50 years after Kittyhawk we were testing the edge of space and traveling at supersonic speeds.

Illo dump!

Here are a couple of new illustrations for The New Yorker, plus some sketchbook stuff:

"Warpaint," The New Yorker, April 4, 2011


"Bill Cunningham," The New Yorker, March 21, 2011

(in case you're wondering, yes, they're all on a conference call with each other)

Studies in Orbs and Years for the "History of the World" Show

The year was "1953", suburbia was sprawling, and baseball fields were shrinking to back yards, and balls were slowly evolving "wiffles" . . .

The year was 200 - or rather two hundred years since Earth collided with another planetary body, blowing it to smithereens (which would eventually become the moon), and then began it's re-coagulation into the orb we all call home.  Fireworks were millions of years in the future but I thought it would be nice to commemorate the "Bicentennial" of this collection of rock, molten rock, rock ice, and bits of water.  Why Legos?  Well, it was just a planetary toddler: innocent, but constructive in it's own growth.

Side note: we got our window vinyl!  Designed as a wacky grid by Owen Sherwood and myself, and photographed by Caroline Corrigan, Education + Exhibitions Manager up at the Art Center.  Thanks, Caroline!

History of the World - How to install a *#&@!% in 6 easy steps!

 1. Insall something on your face.  See how you like it.

 2. Get Matt Shropshire to help you (background).  He's super, super helpful.  Optional - do the show with an old buddy (Owen Sherwood, foreground).  Can your old buddy do a pensive look like this?  If not, cut him out of your life.  If he can, have him do half the work.  What a buddy!

 3. Tchotchka.  You need it.  You're not all that creative, so the crap you collect in your studio? Use it.  Again, you're not that creative, and this makes you look smart and sophisticated.  The best places to look are Wal-Mart and the crawlspace under someone else's house.

 4.  Install giant drawings on the wall of the gallery.  This ensures a memorable show: at least by the guy using the 15 gallons of matte white to cover them up when the next show goes up.  He'll go to his grave saying - "It took me eight coats to cover up that guy's painting, and he had no hope whatsoever of selling it.  What an idiot." Zang!  He'll remember you for life!

 5.  Spread crap all over the place while you're doing it.  During the installation, give the space that care-free "there might just be paint rags in this bag, but it could be an unfinished sandwich from Monday" vibe.  This is imperative.  AND - on day five, chicken curry smells like watermelon.  Fantastic.  You're almost there.

6.  Right by the front window, place a hand drawn icon featuring a famous internet cat.  I chose Maru (thanks Courtney).  While most people feign interest in politics, the Arab Spring, health care . . . at their core, they just want cat videos, and preferably of cats who, like Maru, are bad at spacial relationships.  Famous cats are the currency of the new millenium.    Draw those folks in.  This also works if you own a pet store.

In conclusion - feel free to do your own twist!  Play jazz!  Remember, we created the exact history of the world in a gallery.  You may want do something different, and lesser!  Good luck.


PS - I'm super proud of the work Owen and I did - and thanks to Caroline Corrigan, Amy Williams and Matt Shropshire at the Arts Center in Troy.  Even with the long days, and no sleep, it was fanti-billy-tastic, and It'd be great to see as many folks as possible at the reception on April 29th!

The Upcoming Show . . .

Mr. Owen Sherwood and myself will be hanging our show "History of the World" at the Capitol Region ArtCenter in Troy, NY in two weeks!  The work's coming along really well, and it's been great to step outside myself a bit and try some new approaches.    I'm mixing a more personal interpretation of history with a bit of autobiography.  It's sort of a mental cheat sheet of the "History of the World" more than a linear start to finish.    The image above is actually a drawing from a photograph of my great grandfather, Jessie Wood (in orange) and his ball team in the late 1800's.  Threw in a couple more preview images below.  The show opens on April 4th, with a reception on the 29th.

PCWorld Spot

New spot for Beth Kamoroff at PCWorld about Firefox creating software to make it's users untraceable to advertisers.  I have a few more to upload - but blogger is being a real pain with not allowing pics up . . .If anyone has a solution for the dreaded "server rejected" thing that pops up, I'd love to know!

I haven't posted on WFOF in a while! Here are some illos from the past few months...

The New Deal Pieces!

Had another opportunity over MLK weekend to work with the great Larry Gendron from The Deal.  The magazine uses lots of illustration and great illustrators, so it was really nice to get a cover and interior piece.  The basic angle on the piece was about risk management, and companies changing their financial stances to be more protected.   I got going on this sort of circus theme with the first two sketches and was really happy that Larry wanted to use both.  It made for a long weekend, but a good one.  I even squeezed in a little cross country skiing with the fam, and a gigantic leg of lamb dinner courtesy of my Aunt Grace and Uncle John.

 

"Is This Thing On?" - Gallery1988

Gallery1988 is opening the "Is This Thing On?" show tonight at their Melrose gallery at 7 tonight, and here's my submission: Tim and Eric in a piece called "The Nephews Muscles".  I'd seen a bit of their stuff before, but it was great to watch all the "Tim and Eric: Awesome Show, Great Job" episodes.  Holy hell - funny, crazy - sort of insane anti-funny really.  Check it out if your out in the left coast sunshine!

New is Good.

After months of planning and about a million and one emails between myself and my web guru, Jashar Awan, the new site is up, running, and ready for your viewing pleasure!

New sections include design+lifestyle and interiors work, as well as a tight portfolio facelift in the art+illustration department.

Jashar did a stupendous job of programming the site and making my, often-too-particular-vision come to life.
Spend some time, take a look around and let me know what you think!

Everybody Go Print Shopping Por Favor!

Wee...machine made Riso print "Tra La La," something I've been itching to try and finally!

On the other hand, a handsome 7-layer handmade silkscreen "GooB" print available also in my shop.

Happy Holidays!

"Goonies" print on sale!

My "Goonies" print from the Crazy4Cult show is on sale here from Gallery1988!  The signed numbered edition of 35 is ready to order just in time for Christmas.  A great gift for that age old question: "What do you get the "Goonies" fan who has everything?"!

Shouts and Murmurs

I illustrated the Shouts and Murmurs article, "Community Service," by Allison Silverman in this week's New Yorker!
Check out the article here. It's a good one– particularly if you're a Brooklynite.

Here's an earlier version of the illustration before a dimension change!

Thanks again, Nick and Jordan!