Check Out The New JohnMacConnell.com!

YOU BIG JOHN MACCONNELL FANS (MOM), may have noticed a few things have changed around here. I'm very excited to announce the launch of the new JohnMacConnell.com! The site still showcases my professional illustration and graphic design work but has some new sections I'm very excited to tell you about.

Follow Me on Instagram! @JohnMacConnell

I JOINED THE INSTAGRAM BANDWAGON a few months ago, and so should you! I love it! Get a glimpse into my process and inspiration! Follow me @JohnMacConnell!

Boys of Summer: Artwork from the the Pines Nude Drawing Group

THE LESLIE LOHMAN MUSEUM presents 

Boys of Summer: Artwork from the Pines Nude Drawing Group

Opening: April 5th, 6-9 PM

April 6th & 7th, 12-7 PM

Prince Street Project Space

127-B Prince Street, New York, NY 10012

(Between West Broadway and Wooster Streets)

FEATURING WORKS BY: Anthony Gonzales, Carlos Pisco, Dan Evans, Duane Neil, George Towne, Grant Aronld Anderson, Ian Sklarsky, John MacConnell (THAT'S ME!), Kenneth Nadel, Richard Des Jardins, Rob Clarke, Robert de Michiell, Shungaboy, Todd Yeager, William Bil Donovan, W. Douglas Topper, and archival images from the Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society.

If you're in New York, please stop by the first weekend in April for this show at the Leslie Lohman Musuem. It is my first since finishing grad school. It is a collection of drawings and sketches that I created over the last two summers on the beaches of Fire Island with the Pines Nude Drawing group. Mine and other work will be for sale. Postcard designed by me!

The New York Times/Advocate Magazine

So Cool! The New York Times on December 1, 2011 published the article, After Pushing Gay Marriage, Cuomo Is Thanked With Money. In it they reference the Advocate Magazine's September issue with "his smiling image on the cover." I made that smiling image!!! They even link to it. :)

Just in case you've forgotten it, I've taken the liberty to repost the image for you. Also, did you see the About the Artist blurb the Advocate wrote about me? Well, in case you haven't, here it is.



Big thanks to my friend Dave Lin for pointing it out to me!

The Advocate: The Cuomo Evolution

Check out my illustration for the cover for the September issue of The Advocate!

Marriage Equality has been passed in New York State and this issue talks to the man who pushed for it, Governor Andrew Cuomo. I know you want to run out and go grab it now, but it's not on stands, yet. So, you're just going to have to settle for reading/seeing my artwork on the Advocate website.

I'm so honored to have been asked to create the image for this monumental issue and I'm excited it turned out so great. Once it becomes available you should get one right away. Trust me, it's going to be a hot commodity. I think I'm going to frame mine. :)

The Village Voice: Bloomberg's Machine Politics

Go out right now and pick up a copy of this week's Village Voice! Now, go to page 10! There it is! There it is! This is the first image of a series that I'm doing for the Village Voice!


After the doing a piece for the movie, "Hanna," the Village Voice has brought me on to do a weekly illustration, paired with their writer Harry Siegel. The column is very traditional, in the sense, that it will be digging and revealing, reporting on local politics. This week's article looks at Mayor Bloomberg. The mayor has been caught using Bloomberg.com email address for office communication, leaving messages off the record. Read more about it on the Village Voice website.


The Village Voice is printed on a weekly basis and distributed throughout the red boxes every Wednesday morning. Pick it up every week to see my contribution!

Website Update

Lots of things going on these days! Look for a lot of posts coming up. I'm really excited about a project that hits newsstands in August. I'll definitely be posting about it right away!

In light of all the work I've been doing, I decided that it was past due for me to update my website--in particular, the Design page. Many of these projects were already listed on the site, but I've finally taken the time to flesh some of them out adding many new pictures and brief project descriptions. Of note, I've divided the projects by type and added Jean-Paul Viguier: Cool Models, Covergirl, and various logo concepts to the list. The Illustration page remains mostly the same, with the addition of new projects.

There's still some work to be done, though. Some of the project descriptions could still use a little work and I'll hopefully be adding a project or two more, shortly.

So, please go check it out and remember to visit the About page and Like me on Facebook!

Backpacker Magazine Asks, "Are you Tough Enough?"

And I answer, "Most certainly not!" But, I'm happy to do some pretty exciting illustrations of these tough guys.

First, we have the smokejumper. These guys jump out of airplanes, into the middle of forest fires to put them out... OUT OF AIRPLANES, INTO FOREST FIRES! Simply unbelievable. Let's not forget they're carrying 110 lbs of gear and have to worry about getting caught in the 150 foot tall ponderosa trees on their way down...

Also, listed is the Sherpa or mountain guides of the Himalayas. They spend their days living at 13,000 feet helping whoever wants to climb Mt. Everest this day or next. Unfortunately, they end up climbing 10x the amount of their clients and have to organize the transport of the 8,000 lbs of gear throughout the hike. But I hear you can't beat the views.

This was a super fun job to work on, though. Totally felt like I was getting to draw superheroes for this project. And really, I think I was--these people save lives every day. I just wish I could have gotten to draw something for each of the other jobs which included Gurkha soldiers, wildlife biologists, river raft guides, outward bound instructors, and Navy SEALs.

Check out my illustrations and of course the rest of the article in the May 2011 issue of Backpacker Magazine, on shelves now.

Follow-up on Hanna the Village Voice

Here it is! Just thought you'd want to see for yourself. :)

Hanna the movie for The Village Voice

Quick! Run out and grab the current Village Voice! It's their Comics Issue in honor of MOCCA Fest which is taking place this weekend. I created this illo for their movie review of HANNA which opened this past Friday. If you can't find it on the stands (I had trouble), you can check it out here. Yay comics!

Runner's World: Is Less More?

This is huge for me. It has been a dream of mine to be published by Runner's World Magazine. And last month this (sort of) came true. In last month's issue of Runner's World I contributed a piece for their article "Is Less More?" an article on the future of running shoes.

I was shaking, I was so excited to get the assignment. The only catch--it was iPad exclusive. Which is super cool in its own right, but I'm still aiming for the magazine. At least I know they like my work over there and I'm not just killing tree by sending all those promos to Pennsylvania.

It's too bad I have to wait until Xmas to borrow my sister-in-law's iPad to see it...

Illustration & Graphic Design Explosion!

So many things to blog, so little time. I've been procrastinating on posting so many different things. I'm months behind! This, I just had to share because I'm sooo excited. Sign-ups have begun at Long Island University Brooklyn Campus, where I will be teaching in the spring. I can't wait.

:)

The Crying Show (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition)

CLEAR YOUR CALENDARS FOR THIS SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010! This day, (8:00/7:00c) my episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will be airing, on ABC! Set your DVRs, VCRs, Tivos, tripods with a camera, or whatever you have to to be sure not to miss it!

Back in November, I was contracted to create a mural for a young girl who's into theatre. It was a rigorous process to concept, draw, ink, color, and email (yes, email!) the final result to be install in just ONE week. All of it was worth it, though, because I hear the house turned out beautifully!

Working for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EMHE) was truly and exhilarating experience. The show really does take place over a week timeline (assembly in 72 hours), making the sketch-to-finish process a major challenge. Although the project was stressful at times, I'm excited to have had the opportunity to work with EMHE to give a family the home of their dreams and I can't wait to see the expressions on their faces.

In case you miss it (and you better not) or you just want to watch it over and over again (better idea!), you'll be able to find it for all your viewing pleasure on ABC's website.

Oh, and I almost forgot; the special guest hosts are pretty spectacular!

Extreme Muraling

There's a certain makeover show that happens to air on Sundays that I just did a mural of the Paris landscape for. The image covers three entire walls plus the ceiling!

It was an extremely difficult project because if the short time table I had to work with. I'm extremely happy with the result, though. Honestly, it just came out beautifully. This may be the fastest I've taken a project from start to finish and is certainly the largest files I've ever worked on. Did you know that Photoshop has a Large Document Format for files that exceed 2GB? I do now...

Not certain of the date/time of the airing of the episode, yet.

More to come!

Playboy: Light, Sweet & Crude

I'm not an avid reader of Playboy Magazine (or patron of any kind) but I'll be picking up an issue this month. This month is their annual Collegiate issue and somehow I managed to land an illustration in it.

Every year they have a annual College Fiction Writing Contest, and over a year ago, I submitted an image to illustrate the winning story. Well, it took a while, but the story has finally been published, and my illustration was named a Runner-up! "Light, Sweet, Crude" by Purdue graduate Christopher Arnold is about a young, hotshot, Houston-based, oil trader from humble oil drilling roots. The story deals with his rocky relationship with his father and shady (at best) oil trading practices that lead him to international scandal. It's actually a really great story and doesn't feature any scantily clad women at all!

Congratulations to Christopher Arnold (writer) and Mike Marsicano (illustrator) for winning and getting their story/illustration published!

Past the irony of the publication, I'm super excited to have this as my first published editorial piece! Now, I suppose I have to go out and actually buy an issue...

Sweet Street Anatomy

I'm a little bit of a science nerd. In high school I excelled in my science classes, and Biology was my favorite. If art school hadn't worked out, the plan was to go into med school, no lie.

As a runner (especially as such an injury prone one), I'm very conscious of they way my body works as it seems every season I hurt a different ligament, tendon, muscle, bone as a result of my body's inability to properly metabolize iron, calcium, vitamin X, Y, or Z.

This all shows through in my art. My art is about the body; athletic, injured, writhing, active, or even stagnant body. I find the body infinitely beautiful and intriguing inside and out. To make my art I'm always looking for reference. I've got quite a few anatomy books and if I had a dollar for every Google Search I've done on organs or otherwise, I wouldn't need to make art.

Every once and a while, I find a really great gem of a site. Sites I bookmark and return to over and over again. One of these sites is StreetAnatomy.com. It seems these folks seem to share my obsession with the body and regularly share some really great findings of organs, bones, and otherwise in pop culture, sub culture and anywhere else they can find it. They've been a great inspiration.

The other day, I sent them an email letting them know how great I think their blog is. In return I received a sweet message back and was super excited to find myself posted on their site. I'm just so excited I can't contain it.

Boy I'm glad I became an artist and am not helping someone with an awkward rash right now.

Alice + Olivia Spring 2010 Fashion Show

It's Fashion Week here in New York! For most people not much changes this week until you find yourself standing next to a 6'2," 110 lbs, blonde girl on the corner near Bryant Park or in the Meat Packing District.

Last night I got to step a little deeper into Fashion Week by attending designer Stacy Bendet’s Alice + Olivia Fashion Show/Party. I got an invitation after being hired to create illustrations for the show. The show consisted of a Parisian theme for their Spring 2010 collection and I was asked to create pen and ink drawings of things quintessentially French: the Eiffel Tower, Pont Neuf, street signs, windows and then some fun accessories for the models to hold: balloons, ice cream cones, and flowers.






The show was a ton of fun to attend with a live performance by the french band the Plasticines, and I was super excited by the way the illustrations turned out. I was worried they might not hold up being blown up in size a couple hundred times, but they held together on the wall just as well as they did on paper.

I'm not very good at the whole celebrity sighting game, but I nearly brushed shoulders with Heather Graham as she strolled through the show. There was one girl everyone was taking pictures of that I had no idea was. Turns out it was Ashley Greene one of the vampire stars of that hit (that I haven't seen) Twilight. Also in attendance were Lindsay Lohan, Mena Suvari, Nikki Hilton, Jared Leto, Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl and some stars from the new series of 90210 and Melrose Place. I guess I need to catch up on my pop culture before heading to my next show...

You can check out some pictures of the celebrities (some posing next to my drawings!!) and the rest of the pretty clothes at the following links.
http://shop.lucidnewyork.com
http://www.zimbio.com

There's even a YouTube video!

This project was a ton of fun and I really wouldn't mind doing more like it (hint, hint, nudge to anyone reading).

Tweet Tweet

I'm on Twitter! (Actually, I have been for a few months now...) If you can't get enough John MacConnell (and who can?), you can follow me on a day by day basis! Come check out my Twitter page and subscribe to find out updates on my art, running, and random thoughts. More John MacConnell than you ever thought possible!!!!

If you've haven't heard of twitter or have thought tweets are for twits and have been ignoring it, it's a really cool site. Although I to post a thing or two a day, I mostly use it to follow my favorite artists, news organizations, and friends. Everyone keeps me up to date on the latest in arting and running trends.

You can see on my page who I am following, but some of my favorites are Runners World, Running Guru Mike Young, PhD, illustrator Luc Latulippe, and designer Ben Kutil.

Check it out!

Yuko Shimizu(Red)

Okay, that title doesn't really work. But WOW was I surprised to walk into the Gap and find Yuko Shimizu's artwork on their t-shirts. Not only on shirts, but part of the Project (RED) campaign to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa. First of all, I'm really happy to see illustrators and designers being so involved in such a global epidemic, and also, just congrats to Yuko for contributing.

It's not just Yuko, though. Other illustrators and designers have their work on the (RED) shirts including illustrator/designer Mike Perry, illustrator Steve Wilson, artist Jess Rotter, graphic artist Supermundane (Rob Lowe), illustrator/designer Si Scott and illustrator Hiroshi Tanabe. You can check out many (but unfortunately not all) of the shirts here and purchase them here (or at your local Gap retail store).

This is just another example of why I want to steal Yuko's career. In high school I used to work at the Gap. Maybe I can call them up and see if I can pull some strings to be in the next run of shirts. Don't hold your breath...

and PS, please forgive the poor camera phone photo...

What is Illustration?

Believe it or not, this is a question I get asked all the time. I've just finally accepted that the general public has absolutely no idea what illustration is or where it can be found. When asked, my general answer is that I want to do editorial illustration you might see in Runner's World Magazine or the New York Times, cause this seems like the easiest thing to explain. Even this gets the surprised response (from avid runners/readers) "Runner's World has illustration?" Yes, as a matter of fact, it does. Last month's issue had over 20!

Anyway, my interests stretch much further than that. I have interests in seeing my illustrations anywhere from the newspaper page, to billboards, subway stations, sneakers, bedsheets, and yes even to the children's book page. And as I think of it, my list will keep growing.

It's always nice to find illustration inspiring a new generation (Hopefully, one that will know what it is). A friend (Thanks Anna!) forwarded me this article "A Is for Artwork That Lures Bronx Schoolchildren to New Libraries" from the New York Times about illustration showing up in the classroom. One of the main dreams I could have for my work would be that it would inspire and stimulate. These illustrators including Maira Kalman, Christoph Niemann, and Yuko Shimizu can be assured their's will. The Robin Hood Foundation has been raising money and support to build new libraries for the public schools of New York City. Sadly, here they're a luxury for a school and not a staple. 

These illustrator were able to help out by contributing their hand by creating murals for each of these libraries. The murals are both beautiful and thought provoking. I would love to be a part of this. This is the kind of illustration I want to do. This is what illustration is.

Yay illustration!