The National Book Festival

2 weeks ago I received a call from Carrie Lyle at the Washington Post asking if I'd be interested in illustrating the cover of the Book World section. The project turned out to be a full-color cover illustration used for their special 12-page edition regarding the National Book Festival. They were looking for something fun that suggested books/words/reading as well as a sense of place (it's held on the DC National Mall). Carrie mentioned afterwards that the section editor loved the cover and that The Library of Congress folks did e-mail to say they liked it as well. Whew!!! . . . Hard to top that. I am very grateful for this opportunity! Thank you, Carrie.

Libya's Muammar Gaddafi

Violence, death and Gaddafi. Here is a recent, self-initiated portrait illustration of Muammar Gaddafi. I had the urge to create this image last week and since then, Libya has been quietly rising to the top of the news . . . again. Rebel fighters are saying that they've obtained Libya's top-secret battle plan to retake Misrata. Has Gaddafi backed himself into a corner? His black, curly, iconic hair, has he grown enough over the years to weave his own noose? I couldn't help wonder what it might look like to create this concept. Here is the final result. Collage, mixed media.