Here's my latest illustration for the Blotter, Creative Loafing's weekly crime report. The item involved a drunk driver who, when asked to produce his ID, handed the officer a gold Magnum condom, among other items. The background is a manipulated photo I scanned from a magazine page. Kind of a different approach for me.
Here's my newest creation for AirTran's Go Magazine. (I'm posting it a few days early because I was excited about the final product.) The technology and business column this month offered advice on how to inspire employees to create company-wide "knowledgebases," which I guess come in handy in lean times like these. After reading all the somber economic navelgazing in today's New York Times, I was darn near ready to throw myself into oncoming traffic. Seriously, can't we all turn out thoughts to words like "prosperity" and "abundance" for the next few weeks?
This week's Blotter illustration popped into my head as a fully formed image, and those tend to be my favorite drawings. The final version of it had a very children's book feel, I thought.
The item involved a woman who reported a $2000 bracelet stolen while visiting the Georgia Aquarium. Watch those tentacles!
I had fun creating this week's illustration for the Blotter, but I also thought it raised an interesting question. The item in the CL crime report had to do with a man nicknamed "Spider-Man" who was accused of beating his wheelchair-bound girlfriend and stealing her pain medicine. Given the grim subject matter, I didn't think my usual playful comic style of drawing was appropriate. What emerged was the more sinister-looking style you see above.
My question is: Do you think it's bad for an illustrator to play around with multiple styles of art like this? Or is it better to just choose one thing and always do that? (I'm thinking here of artists like Luc Latullipe or Steve Mac, folks who have settled on their one signature style and seem to do only that. I really love their work.)
The week before my drawing was far more playful, a carefree doodle about a man caught shoplifting sausages. Fun times!
It's Election Day in America and I'm a wreck. I've already pushed back tears twice this morning, once when I read about the death of Barack Obama's grandmother, and again after watching this spot (via Andrew Sullivan):
I am baffled to be experiencing such an emotional reaction to this election, but it seems to me that a lot of us are going through the same anxiety right now. Perhaps these are the tears that need to come at the end of an ugly era of American history, and tears that reflect the hope of a new era that just might be dawning.
I still can't let myself believe that Obama will actually win this thing -- typical Democratic superstition, I guess -- and I also realize that even if he does win, real "change" won't happen immediately. The clogged machinery of government will not correct itself overnight, and even an inspirational president can't do the job single-handedly.
But above all else, I've come to see this election as a possible symbol of American resiliency. It's our chance to say to the world, "We get it. Bush was a total clusterfuck. We're sorry 'bout all this." It's a fundamental choice of optimism over division, unity over segregation. Even if Obama should only prove to be a middling president, the fact of his ascendancy speaks volumes about the enduring power of the American Dream. I'm confident that he will be far more than middling.
The song that keeps playing in my head today is by India.Arie. Read the lyrics here. And here's a live performance of it:
