I've Moved!

I've moved my blog over to Drawger.

http://www.drawger.com/dalestephanos/

Come visit!

Liam

I don't mind when the kids play video games because it means they'll hold still long enough for me to draw them. I think Liam was killing Darth Vader at this point.

Bloomberg

This was supposed to be a cover for the Village Voice. Apparently it wasn't used. I like it though.

Getting killed is funny for me. I put a lot of time and energy into these pieces and I end up, well, caring about them. When they get killed like this I actually feel sorry for them. Not for me, but for the art. Is that weird or what?

Anyway, there's poor Mayor Bloomberg, underprepared for the effects of global warming on New York City.

Ted and Jack

I've never been a big Kennedy fan. Here in the Boston area, the Kennedy's are like royalty. And like royalty, the public seems to be split into lovers and haters. I've never been either, but if pushed, I'd usually be in the more critical camp.

Last year, though, my wife had the opportunity to interview Teddy at his home in Hyannisport. She's one of the few journalists I've seen who has managed to get him to reveal himself as a real human being instead of the caricature that we're usually presented with (Often by yours truly).

He went through his home with her, showing old photos of the family, telling stories about when he was a kid walking on the beach with his mother, and most interestingly to me, about the small artistic rivalry he had with his brother Jack. At one point he stopped in front of a painting Jack had done when he was young (not bad) and explained that Jack was the better painter of the two, but Ted explained that he always tried to keep up. He seemed choked up. It was a rare moment of vulnerability and he kind of won me over. I've been looking at him as, well, more human since then.

My wife later recounted her story at a family gathering that was full of, let's just say, not Kennedy fans. She felt honored to have been able to sit in a historic home and speak frankly with a true historical figure, and get paid for it. Instead of saying "Wow, what a great experience", there were lots of "I hate that guy" type comments. It got me thinking about how in politics, we easily dehumanize the other side so that it's easier to ignore their point of view.

This piece took a lot of twists and turns. I'm still not sure if I'm done or if it will take another turn, but here it is. I'm also showing a Ted Kennedy that I did years ago. It shows the evolution I've made in a number of ways. Not bettter, but different.

Spring!

Ah, Springtime in New England. The spring flowers pushing their way through the mud, the suddenly balmy temperatures... the SNOWSTORMS!

A little blizzard's not going to get in the way of a cook out around here.

This is the Year!

It's just not the same. It used to be that us long suffering Red Sox fans had a certain pride in the fact that we could withstand the fall from the very highest highs of being thisclose to winning a World Series to the soul crushing lows of having that same certain victory stolen from us at the very last moment.

Then the unthinkable happened. The Sox actually did it. And suddenly, we weren't so special anymore. Our suffering was no deeper than any other run of the mill franchise fan's. It sounds sick, but I actually miss the days when we were perrenial losers, Wile E. Coyotes, charging with unreasonable hope off the cliff in pursuit of the dream.

I did this piece the year the Sox won the World Series, and I was planning on doing a children's book on the whole broken hearted fan thing. Then the $#@*!!'s won, and killed the idea.

There's still the Cubs though.

Ted Kennedy sketch

I'm just starting in on this Kennedy piece. I'd like to do an Andrew Wyeth-esque sort of thing. I've been making a conscious effort to try to let the pose and mood of the work say what I used to say with a funny background or situation. We'll see where this ends up.