Today's Political Climate

Election season is upon us once again. Whew! I’ve been fortunate to illustrate some politically motivated images for leading editorial publications over the last few years . . . Here are a few I wanted to share. Many Thanks to Wesley Bausmith, Heather Hopp-Bruce, Dennis Brack and Meredith Bowen.

“Obama” for The Los Angels Times

“In Godless We Don’t Trust” for The Boston Globe

“Thinker” John Stuart Mill for Foreign Policy Magazine

 "Labor Daze" for The Washington Post Capitol Business Section

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.

Experimenting with personal work

A couple of portraits that I've been experimenting with are shown at the very top of this post. These two images lead to the creation of my Gaddafi portrait 2 weeks ago and shown below in the previous post. I've been playing with how much detail and or how simple the illustration needs to be. How much is to much? How much is not enough? What resonates with the viewer best? I've also shown some previously commissioned portraits for The Los Angeles Times and PASTE magazine here, all collage and mixed media.

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.