Recently Corrie and I climbed Kaaterskill High Peak. The day was gorgeous and the hike was exciting, with steep sections, several scrambles, and two plane wrecks! Although the actual summit is wooded, wonderful views can be seen from Hurricane Ledge on the south side. This watercolor sketch depicts the view looking southeast over Platte Clove and towards the Hudson River. More images from our hike can be seen here.
This is the invite i quickly designed for my nieces upcoming 4th birthday party. Unfortunately the invites never made it to her friends school mailboxes, as her school was closed on Monday (and has been ever since) as the school is located near where the fires are burning in San Diego, and all the roads are closed. I am supposed to fly out there next friday… I guess we’ll see how it goes. She was so excited to see herself on an invite. (Her actual quote: “I AM SO EXCITED!”) Btw, she really is that cute and sweet and blonde. 🙂
Also – this weekend (and last weekend) was POST (Philadelphia Open Studios). Brian and I participated from 12-6 on Satuday. It was busy and fun. (So busy and fun that i didnt get to take any photographs!) Anyway we got some great feedback and I even got a lovely mention on a local design blog: design-phan. Thanks Caroline!
Also – i have 2 pieces in this toy art show at philadelphia’s city hall. The opening reception is next Thursday from 5-7pm. I’m not sure if NY has something like this, but in Philly, it’s a great opportunity for artists. (Especially since Philadelphia closed it’s Office of Arts and Culture in 2004!) How crazy is that?!?
If you didn’t figure it out already, a disproportionate share of the Invisibleman crew met each other at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, back in the early 90’s. In my last year in the illustration program, I was lucky enough to land in Roger DeMuth’s class, which set me on the course I am now traveling.
Roger is a man who has abundant shares of talent, craft and shrewd promotional savvy. These of course are the skills a freelance illustrator needs to be successful, and they have served Roger well.
This summer my wife and I dropped in for a visit at Roger’s house in Cazenovia, NY where you’ll find his enviable art-filled studio attached to a beautiful home nestled in a lush garden of his own design.
Roger binds his own miniature sketchbooks (painted with equally small watercolor sets, usually using a bottle cap with a little orange juice as the medium). He also builds precision custom drawing travel kits that tuck away all the required implements for drawing in a handsome case, replete with handsome stamped leather detailing. Tucked into shelves you’ll see hilariously cheap chinese novelty toys, frog popup books (lots of frogs), a sizeable stash of antique pen nibs collected from ebay, and dozens of clever mockups for toys and such delights as the Kitty Condom.
Read on to see a slideshow of our visit.
This is a photo of an advertisement, something I’ve always enjoyed doing. A must-see show is “Richard Prince: Spiritual America.” He did a Marlboro cowboy Ad series, (and many others). This highly anticipated survey features a wealth of Prince’s photos, paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the last thirty years. A fun filled show for all ages. It’s at the Guggenheim till January 9.
The Clown Olympics hosted by The Brick Theatre in Williamsburg last night. Events ranged from ‘Solo Trips and Falls’ to ‘Kiddie Pool Synchronized Swimming’.
I recently worked on a project for the Wall Street Journal Online which tracked the rate at which the arctic ice cap has melted over the last quarter of a century. Click here to see the astonishing rate of decrease since 1979 – with the past six years or so of particular worry (you may have to turn your popup blocker off for the link to work… sorry). The magenta line is the median ice extent and is an average of where the ice would normally be on September 1st of each year (around 7.5 million sq miles). As you can see above this summer only reached 4.4 million sq miles. The graphic also covers how arctic tourism industry is booming as visitors want to catch of glimpse of the environment before its gone.
About 10 years ago I did an illustration for the Vermont weekly ‘Seven Days’ about a couple getting caught in a blizzard while hiking up to the Stone Hut which sits atop Stowe. The hut was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936 and is a special place; perched as it is atop the famous Nose Dive trail. Recently the Stowe Guide contacted me about reusing the art though I recalled having sold the original (pre-computer days: no scan). But I had a few sketches and drawings stored away and thus did a Dr. Frankenstein and stitched, spackled and redrew the drawing above. The original story by David Healy is a great tale and can be read here.
This is another illo for the “Soapbox” column in Publisher’s Weekly.
Author Steve Weinberg laments the fact that once you are a bona fide published writer, you immediately become besieged by people looking to get their manuscripts (of varying degrees of quality) published.
He writes:
“When my telephone rings, I almost always check the caller ID before I answer. If the number and name look unfamiliar, I assume that the caller probably is (a) a prison inmate, or (b) a would-be author seeking advice about publishing a book.”
Only 30% of people visiting Alaska get to see the summit of the second highest peak in North America, because it is usually obscured by clouds. Fortunately, we were blessed with great weather.
Most people know it as Mt. McKinley but the locals prefer to use the original name, Denali, which means “The High One” in the Athabaskan language.
