Christmas Cards

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

I hope everyone had a fun last night and has made it out of bed this afternoon.

In high school, I used to watch one of my teachers hand make her own holiday cards every year. It was an immense task, as she hand cut snowflakes, snowmen, pine trees, and the like for what look like 50-75 cards. It was obviously a labor of love, and the pieces she created were truly amazing. At the time, I thought it was an amazing gesture and hoped that one day I'd be able to do the same.

Mrs. Gould was instrumental in my art training and my senior year helped me get into art school. After I graduated, I was overjoyed to find myself on her Christmas card list. Year after year, she has sent me a card since (which is more cards than I'd like to admit). I think in that time I have (maybe) organized myself enough to send out Christmas cards once... It's made me feel a little guilty that I'm still on her list, but I'm so grateful to receive them and have saved them all. 

This year was different! Above you can see the card that I created for friends and family for the holiday season. I was so excited to send one to Mrs. Gould, especially. They're not quite a match to Mrs. Gould's cards intricately handmade cards, though. I hand-drew a single image, scanned, and printed with my HP LaserJet it at home; instead of hand-drawing all the cards individually. Also, I created less than 50. They came out beautifully, and it is a start, though. In the end, it was a fun process and a tradition I'd like to continue.

I received a few emails and comments from my friends and family that had received the cards, including from Mrs. Gould. They noticed that they were custom and wanted to let me know they were excited to receive them. If you like doing home projects, I really recommend trying this one year. You'll be glad you did!

Pools: Reflections by Kelly Klein

BIG NEWS!!!!! 

Pools: Reflections by Kelly Klein is now on sale. Pools: Reflections (published by Rizzoli, designed by Sam Shahid) is Kelly Klein's follow up to Pools, published in 1992. The original was a history book of the medium, filled with classic beauties and many vintage images. The follow-up, 20 years later, takes a contemporary look at the pool. The images show works of art and new architectural feats, as well as, pools that have been abandoned and taken on a second life. It is also the first hardcover book that has MY NAME IN IT!!!! Such an exciting moment for me!

At the end of last year, Pools: Reflections' designer, Sam Shahid, recommended me to Kelly Klein to assist her with image research as well as some minor production tasks. I jumped at the opportunity to work with Kelly. She began as a designer for Calvin Klein and later moved into editorial and fashion photography, with an impressive laundry list of clients. Later she began authoring books, curating simply beautiful stories of pictures. Some of her titles include Pools, Underworld, Horse, and now Pools: Reflections.

I learned so much from the experience and from Kelly. She has such a keen eye for beauty and amazing scope, that enabled her to collect this vivid story. Additionally, it was an education of the world of photography. I have become acquainted with so many new artists I can hardly handle it and I'm so excited to continue to learn.

The icing on the cake is that the whole experience was tons of fun. Kelly was a joy to work for and it didn't hurt that I got to work out of her swanky office, first in the Meatpacking and later in Chelsea. This last week I was a little star-stuck at the book launch party. The event was held at Barney's (who is selling the special edition, that comes with a hard-case and t-shirt) and the room was filled with celebrities from the fashion and photography world. I was able to identify the likes of Bruce Weber, Calvin Klein, and Simon Doonan; but unfortunately, I'm sure I missed some other folks since I rarely get to peek into that world.

Last, but not least, all profits from the sale of Pools: Reflections will go to ACRIA an HIV/AIDS charity that works to develop new medication and is searching for a cure.

I'm so happy I got the opportunity to work on Pools: Reflections and with Kelly Klein, and it's is so exciting to see my name printed in a hardcover. Be sure to buy your copy today!! If you're nice to me, I'll even autography it for you. ;)

Food Network Magazine Teaches Us How to Stuff Sausage

Summer is officially here and the Fourth of July is just around the corner! Do you have your plans made??? I bet they include some sunshine, friends, and, of course, GRILLING! Time to get out the ketchup, mustard, hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages. Mmmmmm, love that charcoal taste.

How cool would it be if you made your own sausages this year?! Well, you're in luck! Just run to your closest magazine stand and pick up the latest issue of the Food Network Magazine. In just six easy to follow and oh-so-well illustrated steps, chef Michael Symon tells you how on page 160! Oh wait, those are my illustrations showing you how! Bet you didn't know I was an expert sausage stuffer! Enjoy!

M Booth Asks, "What's Your Challenge?"

Today was a pretty exciting day. I spent the day in the offices of M Booth - A Global Communications Company installing a mural. It was quite the experience. The office was teeming with energy; and I couldn't believe how welcoming the staff was. They brought me in to add a little pizzazz to the new dry-erase board they installed. (Which alone was pretty cool. Did you know there is dry-erase paint???! Just a few coats and ANY wall can become a dry-erase board! Whoa!)

Seems they take a team strategy to all their work. The new board's sole purpose is to help stuck team members find solutions to the challenges their facing. It asks, "What's Your Challenge?" Anyone can leave a post and everyone can reply. It's like a live Facebook wall!

Floor to ceiling, the wall was about 9 feet tall. They decided to devote the top two feet to a little something to spice it up and stimulate creative thinking. This is where I enter the picture. They asked me to come in and fill the space with fun, funky, and fresh images. It was a fun little afternoon in my studio brainstorming what to draw. You can see here some of my favorite ideas from the mural.

After checking out the Keith Haring Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (You can read about my trip.), I was excited to work on the wall. What a great way to prep for a project! So much respect to Haring. You can bet that dry-erase markers are so much more forgiving than sumi ink!

Beyond a few little things (a slightly too short step stool, strange metal gratings hanging from the ceiling, and a lack of yellow markers) the installation went really smoothly. It was great to be in the hallway. People were constantly walking through telling me how excited they were about the wall. And by the end of the day, the mural was complete! It came out great. I really hope they get a lot of use out of it. The team approach to work in their office is outstanding.

A big thanks to Lauren and Andrew for bringing me in today to create the mural. They were such great hosts!

The Village Voice: All the Single (Black) Ladies

This is one is a few weeks late. Here's an illustration I did for the Village Voice, published on November 9th, 2011. Steven Thrasher talks to Ralph Richard Banks about his book, Is Marriage for White People.

Read it on the Village Voice website.

The Village Voice: Spinning Out of Control

The eighth installment from Harry Siegel. On newsstands October 5th.

Read it on the Village Voice website.

The Village Voice: Casinos Head to NYC. You Lose.

The seventh installment from Harry Siegel. On newsstands September 28th. And currently front and center on their site! (Well technically, top-right...)


Read it on the Village Voice website.

The Village Voice: Parading While Black

The sixth installment from writer Harry Siegel, illustrated by John MacConnell. On news stand September 14th!

Read it on the Village Voice website.

The Village Voice: Ground Zero Tolerance

The fifth installment from Harry Siegel, illustrated by John MacConnell. This one might be my favorite one, yet!

On the Village Voice website.

The Village Voice: Koch v. Obama

The fourth installment by Harry Siegel, illustrated by John MacConnell.

On the Village Voice website.

The Village Voice: Sharpton's Racket

The third installment from Harry Siegel, illustrated by John MacConnell.
On the Village Voice website.

The Village Voice: The Next Major? You Don't Care, Do You?

The second installment from Harry Siegel, illustrated by John MacConnell.
On the Village Voice website.

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!

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...

Harlem United Artists

"Harlem United Artists is an outgrowth of Harlem United's Art Therapy Program. The art created expresses the thoughts and feelings of the artists and represents the power of art in the healing process. Proceeds of all sales will directly benefit the Art Therapy Program."

As you may, or may not, know I work full-time for Harlem United Community AIDS Center, a nonprofit that provides housing, healthcare, and prevention for the Homeless living with HIV/AIDS as Coordinator of Special Projects. Recently, I got to work on a very special project that just came to fruition. Now available are Holiday cards featuring art by five talented clients of Harlem United.

The Art Therapy Program, which is part of our Adult Day Healthcare, held a competition do create work to be featured by this project, as well as artwork for the label. Winners were chosen and the cards are finally in!

I was able to contribute my talents by laying out the front and back of the cards and working with the printer to pull together this first of a kind project at Harlem United.

Each boxed set contains ten cards, featuring five images (two cards of each images). Boxes are $10.00 each. Please email info@harlemunited.org for purchasing options. Proceeds of all sales will directly benefit the Art Therapy Program.

Say Hello to SneakerDry!

EXTRA EXTRA, Read all about it! SneakerDry keeps feet dry!

Back in June some friends and I debuted a new project. SneakerDry is an innovative product that every runner can use. How many times have you gone running and come home with soaking wet shoes? I can't count the times that on my run I encountered that unexpected monsoon, open fire hydrant, or puddle that looked especially splashy, only to return home with drenched, smelly shoes.

Don't Fret! SneakerDry is here to help. Before, it might take days for my shoes to fully dry out before I could run in them again. I dare not put them in the dryer--who know what shape they'd shrink into... Now there's a new solution. Just shove a few sheets of my trusty SneakerDry into my shoes and before I know it, I'm ready to go! And don't worry about paper waste; SneakerDry is completely recyclable!

SneakerDry first hit the scene in June as the program for the race program for the Front Runners New York, Lesbian and Gay Pride Run 2010. It was a big hit, providing useful information about the race, sponsors, and runners before the race, and then saving shoes afterwards.

The product is still evolving as we develop ways that you can customize it for your own particular race and as we get it ready to sell in stores. Please feel free to contact me or Damian, SneakerDry owner/founder, if you're interested in using it at one of your functions at Damian@SneakerDry.com. The website is currently under development, where you'll be able to purchase SneakerDry, as well as, upload your own artwork to make your own custom SneakerDry.

I've contributed all the artwork for SneakerDry. Everything from the logo, info graphics, to the layout for the Pride Run. It's been a super fun project to work on, combining my interests in running and design.

Because of the popularity of the newspaper during the 50s, I've been relying on it for as my influence. I picked up one of those great Taschen Icons books (50s Fashion: Vintage Fashion and Beauty Ads) and thinking of (one of my favorite movies) The Incredibles for inspiration. I'm really happy with the result--a logo that can stand independently and work as the header for our paper. I used the typeface Las Vegas by the type foundry House Industries and allowed it to dictate the shapes I used for the rest of the logo.

The most fun part for me were the graphics to describe how to use SneakerDry. It was a real challenge to simply the step and come up with images to represent the concepts. The best part was stretching to draw in a style I'm not accustomed to. I love the little runner man at the end of the steps. I'm hoping the project allows me to create some more similar work. I've already gotten to draw a little biker man for the project, as those bikers have to deal with the same problem.


There's definitely more to come on this project. Please contact me if you're a race director and are interested in using SneakerDry at one of your events.

And remember, Dry Feet are Happy Feet!!