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.

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.

I'm on reality TV!

We where watching some serious trash the other night and ended up on MTV's "I'm from Rolling Stone". The show is about a bunch of kids who get a chance to write for Rolling Stone magazine. My favorite thing about this show is trying to see whose art is on the wall in the office shots. I've seen some nice Phillip Burkes, Anita Kunz's, CF Paynes..and good god, one of MINE!

That's Otis Redding by the way. I did it a couple of years ago for one of RS's "Immortals" issues. I'd do it differently today.

Happy Birthday Mr. Cash

Johnny's my favorite. Hands down.

For an amazing story that I wish was mine, click here:
http://www.drawger.com/marcart/?section=comments&article_id=2768

Rick Rubin Final

Here's the final art for the Rick Rubin sketch I posted below. Man, this took a looooong time! I intended to use this as a promo postcard, but I'm not sure if I want to do work that's this involved. I like how it came out, though.

I looked at a lot of Van DerWeyden, Memling, and other Flemish masters while I worked on this. I also had the pleasure of listening to all the bands/artists while I worked, which added some inspiration. Even Justin Timberlake. Just don't tell anybody I did that.

If you're wondering, on the left there's the Dixie chicks, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, and Johnny Cash. On the right, it's Anthony Keidis and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, and Justin Timberlake. And that's a Slayer t-shirt Ricky's wearing.

Whew!

Rick Rubin(sketch)

I'll expose myself here as a music geek. I'm a big fan of certain music producers. While alot of people like to play name that tune with the radio, I like name that producer. It's not as hard as it sounds after you get to know someone's sound. Think about 80's era AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Bryan Adams. It was all John "Mutt" Lange, who's married to Shania Twain (who has a similar sound.If there's a musician you like who seems inconsistent from album to album, it's probably because they're surfing producers. Sometimes this is good, sometimes not.

Now my favorite guy is Rick Rubin, whose Zelig like presence in music has more of a zen feel. That is, once you know he's produced a band, you say "yeah, yeah, I hear it now", but it doesn't hit you over the head like alot of guys whose fingerprints almost obscure the artists voice. Rubin cofounded Def Jam, worked with the metal band Slayer on their most memorable album, and plucked Johnny Cash from the waste bin, shined him up and let us hear what a treasure we nearly lost. Listen to Cash's American Recordings from the 90's to hear what I'm talking about. He tried the same thing with Neil Diamond with excellent results.

I've included just a few of the more popular artists Rubin has worked with here:The Dixie Chicks, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Beastie Boys. I would usually try my best not to have this many people in a piece, because I think it waters down the impact of an image, but I'll try to make this work.

Norman Mailer

Here's the final Norman Mailer portrait. I looked at fair amount of early Chuck Close paintings and daguerrotypes while I was working on this. At first I was going to try to include a concept that would make reference to Mailer's latest book, but the further into the painting that I got, the more I enjoyed just having the focus itself be the...well, focus, I guess.

I struggle with wanting this sort of piece to have photorealistic elements while still leaving evidence of the hand that created the work in brushstrokes. Working digitally, it's easy for people to dismiss a piece, thinking there must have been a button I pressed to get the end result.

When I can, I try to have my caricatures have the feel and dignity of a well painted portrait. I suppose you could say it's like dressing up a chimp in a tux, but it's what I do.

Have A Nice Day

I heard a report on the radio this morning (while driving my big SUV to Starbucks) that Sydney, Australia, will soon be uninhabitable because of drought and rising temperatures.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, we had the warmest winter on record here in the greater Boston area. In the midst of that time, I had watched Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth", which basically says we're fucked.

A couple of my favorite TV shows are 24, in which we are always in danger of terrorist induced annilhilation, Battlestar Galactica (Really!), where the last of the human race is desperately trying to escape being wiped out by it's own technology (the Cylons). Yes, I like some comedies like Larry David, and The Office, but really, they're all about discomfort.

"The Road", by Cormac McCarthy was my "favorite" book that I've read in a while. It's about a doomed father and his love for his son in a doomed world.

There doesn't seem to be a good way out of this #@%*!! war we're in, and frankly, I think all the Democrats are as lame as the Republicans, just in a different way.

My mother had a close call with cancer last year, my father is creeping up there in years, and I'm already into my 40's when I should be kicking ass, but I feel like I'm still thrashing around most of the time.

Generally, things are actually very good with me, it just seems that theres an underlying sense of gloom and doom in the world around us. Maybe I've just awoken to the human condition. I need a new hobby or something. Maybe I'll try to start believing in God.

Maybe it's just January.

Norman Mailer sketch

I'm starting in on a portrait of the writer Norman Mailer for a review of his new book "The Castle in the Forest" It's about how Hitler became Hitler.

It was about 8 degrees outside today, and about 40 in the studio. I felt how this guys looks.

Howard Stern/Borat

When "Borat" came out last fall, there was an uproar over the antisemitism, misogyny, and overall crude humor in the movie. I saw the movie, and I thought it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. At times, I caught myself laughing when I probably shouldn't have been, but then I realized everyone else was in hysterics as well.

It got me thinking about where this kind of humor came from, and it didn't take too long for me to realize that guys like Mel Brooks, Henny Youngman, Don Rickles, and more familiar to me, Howard Stern had been doing this kind of material for years.
The common thread of course, is that they're all Jewish. The only thing that really separated Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat" from these guys is that he employs a candid camera/punk'd format. We get to feel as though we're in on the joke, but at the same time, the joke's on us.

It's in this spirit that I thought to do an offensive sendup of a Madonna and child.

Tail Wind

I probably shouldn't make this public, but what the hell. I'm pitching some ideas to different magazines as a way of being able to control the content of my illustration work. I figure that if I present myself as more than just a hired gun I'll have a bit more longevity than I would otherwise. Besides, my favorite part of the whole creative process is coming up with ideas and solving problems.

For this sort of thing, I'm trying to combine common terms in cycling with other common cycling related situations. Always try to make money from your hobby, that's what I say.

Money grubbin'

This was done for a regional magazine. Not my region, but a very nice one just the same. The story is about how the presidential contenders tend to keep coming back to the same area because it's a rich (pardon the pun) area for fund raising.

In case you can't tell, that's Hillary, MCain up top, Rudy Giuliani on the right, and Obama front and center.

MLK

This painting is hanging up in my living room. I'm proud that my young children have known who Martin Luther King Jr. is for years. It's nice when something I do can teach my children about the world we live in.

On the other hand, I also have some paintings of some real derelicts hanging up. Let's not dwell on that.

The Road Final

Normally, I'd work this to within an inch of it's life. But the subject matter and composition are so different than what I normally do, I thought I'd just leave it as it is. For me, it conveys the feeling of the book.

I should mention that I've been looking at a lot of Carriere lately, and that monochromatic influence shows through.

The Road (sketch)

I've been reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I'm not a writer, so I'll spare you a book review. If it was a painting, I'd say it's a Norman Rockwell painted by Francis Bacon. It's giving me nightmares.

Diablo

I just finished this for a "ocean activity oriented" magazine. The story is about a guy who unknowingly went swimming in a lagoon that was home to a big alligator. People living in the houses surrounding the lagoon looked on in amusement while the guy was swimming. Later, someone said to him "If you see Diablo, say hi for me". Turns out the community had sort of adopted the alligator, named him, fed him, etc.

At first I wanted to capture the horror of how it must have felt to just barely get away with your life. But after sketching a few thumbnails, I unconciously drew a sketch of an alligator as a pet. Collar, leash, doghouse, the whole bit. It amused me enough to send it to the AD as my idea, and he liked it.

Juggling

Man, when it rains it pours. I'm working on jobs for Bloomberg News, Sail magazine, Portland Monthly, Golf Digest, and one I won't name because I'm putting the sketch up here. This will accompany an article on how Howard Stern basically did what the Borat movie has done as far as using anti-semitism, racism, and misogyny for years. I decided to take the offensive approach a lttle further and do a satire on a Madonna and Child icon. Thanks god for art directors who aren't afraid of offending!

Led Zeppelin

This was to be my first (only?) cover for Rolling Stone magazine. I got the call on my birthday, and I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me. Anyone who knew me when I was a kid knows how much I loved Zeppelin, and the cover of Rolling Stone has always been the brass ring of my illustration career.

So, I got the call and was like, "Yeah, suuuure, I'll draw a little picture for you. But the guy on the other end sounded sincere, and the small part of me that hasn't been turned to blackened stone held out a little hope that it was the real thing. Turned out it was.

After about a dozen sketches, a final was approved and I went to work on the final...uh, final. The trouble with working digitally is that clients feel free to ask for changes more often than they did before Photoshop was so widely used. So, after I finished the "final" and sent it, more changes, etc. No big deal at all, though. This was a COVER for Rolling Stone.

After I sent the final final final, I jokingly said to the AD, "So what are the chances this thing will actually see a newsstand?" He paused and said, "Well, you never know, usually Jan (Wenner, the publisher) comes in and says "I love it", or "I hate it". Well guess which one it was for me. They went with a colorized black and white stock photo instead.

The thing is, after spending so much time sweating over this thing, I can't even see it any more. It's almost as though I have no idea whether it sucks, or if it's just okay or what.

Anyway, here it is.