News

I was contacted a few weeks back by the A.D. who hired me for Harper’s about a year ago.  He was doing some A.D. work for High Times Magazine and hit me up for this little ditty.  I’m very on the fence with the legalization of marijuana. I don’t personally like the stuff and very few people outside of Snoop Dogg and George Carlin ever gain any kind of genius while smoking, but if its your thing and it makes you happy, go for it!  To me, it’s synonymous with drinking.  I prefer a drink when relaxing and I rarely become genius while tipsy (or sober). Where I identified with this article  was in the hypocrisy of the situation.  After California had stated that medical marijuana clinics would be considered a legitimate  business, our government suddenly decided that it wasn’t legitimate. Then they started shutting places down and arresting people.  I’m sure there are all sorts of gray areas, but the fact that people were getting busted for doing what they were told was okay to do is WAAAAYYYYY LAAAAAAAME! So here is my depiction of our law enforcement going way over the top to bust people who legitimately use marijuana as a medication.  It was the AD’s idea to turn the patient into a little old lady.  It was a great suggestion! I decided to make her look like my great grandmother Elsa. Alright  all you Hulkamaniacs, say your prayers and take your vitamins and I’ll see you next week!

After an airline mash up of swapping, switching, loosing flyer miles and not to mention lots of plain old cash, a trip originally planned for London became a business trip to the NYC.  At the advisement and help of my former instructors (Kids, don’t burn those bridges!), I was able to put together a make shift contact list of art directors in New York.  A week before I left, I contacted these A.D.s and was able to get quite a few appointments.  On top of that, I was contacted by the art director of Scientific American for a spot that was due the day I would leave!  The article was about the correlation between life longevity and religion. Studies had shown that the ability to delay gratification often lead to healthier life choices.  Many religious folks believe that after life, the well behaved get eternal life in God’s house. Harps, wings, peace, and Muzak, the whole shebang!  Sooooo, those who believe in the afterlife bonus round, often have highly developed levels of self control in delaying gratification thus tend to eat healthier and wear their seat belts.  My illustration depicts Coach Father showing support for Average Joe who is trying desperately to not consume Satan’s sinfully tasty banana split and all the empty calories it contains. Mmmmmmm! Delicious! A Freudian looking scientist observes.  I would like to see the scoop that scooped that giant ice cream, then I would like to see the forearm of the guy who used the giant scoop.  I imagine that I would feel self conscious about my body and start a regiment of push-ups.  Tune in next week True Believers, when our illustration hero takes a step to the left.

Almost a year ago I was asked by the folks at Backpacker Magazine to do the cover of their winter catalog “SNEWS”.  I obviously jumped at the opportunity because I like to draw and getting the cover of anything feeds my ego.  I like it when everyone knows I’m awesome.  It’s a hole that can’t be filled, a monster with and endless appetite, a vampire trying to comb his hair with a mirror.  Accept me!  The art director told me what they had in mind and sent me some samples of past covers so I went to work.  One of the things I realized about illustration on this assignment was that the work that I do, or any illustrator for that matter, is more than helping someone communicating their idea.  When an art director chooses an illustrator, they are also choosing that illustrator’s personality and experiences.  I was really proud of this image.  What made it special for me was that I was able to draw my dog Rebo into it.  I had to put Rebo to sleep a few months before I got the assignment and this was a great way to remember him.  Rebo was on the cover of newsstands everywhere!  I couldn’t be happier.  So I feel like Backpacker could have picked any number of illustrators to do the cover, and I’m sure each of them would have done something personal, but they didn’t.  Backpacker chose me and I chose to have my dog on an adventure playing in the snow.

Below is a quick mock up of what the cover looked like with text:

I was asked to submit an image for a collection of art work for a friend’s art magazine.  The theme was very open ended, the idea being  women and science fiction.  A blank piece of paper might as well be a mountain. I had no idea what to make.  Now, if you and I sit down to lunch, allowing me to enjoy your company as you are unquestionably enjoying mine,  and if given enough time (not exceeding 20 minutes), I will go into some banter on the topic of science, science fiction, new technologies, or make some Back to the Future reference.  In other words, I like this stuff.  Alas, sitting at my desk trying to think of what to draw was like trying to stand up to Biff Tannen.  When faced with such freedom, I like many find that I have been given a soapbox and suddenly nothing to say.  I’ve been in this situation before and always think back  to this class I used to take in stage improvising.  My teacher would say, “Why pay for therapy, when you can just say it all on stage for free?”  With a slight adjustment in perspective I was able to take a wonderfully open idea, about the progress of women, the adventures of the imagination, and the fluidity of art, etc. and funnel all that stuff down down down until it was it’s most rudimentary element: My narcissism.  So I made this image with nothing more than the frustration of relationships on my mind trying to show the “turn the other cheek” mentality of compassion to the blinding ferocity of black and white logic.

An afterthought: Finding other planets to live on is kind of saying that this one is irreparable.  I’d like to think that everything has another shot.

The Descendents saved my life.  When I was a fat kid and super nerd in high school, like many fat kid super nerds, I used to get really depressed.  I had my little chubby heart broken a few times and definitely wanted to throw in the towel on occasion.  Fortunately, I found the Descendents, or I should say, the Descendents found me.  Inventors of pop-punk, they sang songs of break up minus the whiny “What am I gonna do without you?”  Instead, these rocking punks embraced their nerd culture and still wear that badge with pride.  These guys, especially their lead singer Milo Aukerman, kept me kicking and had a extremely heavy influence on the person that I would grow up to be.  They basically taught me that there are a lot of things that are out of my control so I should be a good dude, do the best I can, and pursue what makes me happy.

The band hadn’t played a live show in over 10 years and were billed to play a couple of months back in Long Beach.  Not only had I just moved to Long Beach, but after doing a comedy  album cover for my buddy Ed Galvez, he bought me some tickets.  Massive score!!  I went to the show and found out that my tickets were far left nose bleed seats, but that was only after I had dim-wittedly wandered past security and found myself 50 feet from the stage.  I had gotten separated from my friends so I stood there amongst strangers.  I waved a closed fist in the air singing, screaming along to every song and feeling 16 again.  It was the best.  I went home and did an illustration for myself of Milo.  On a whim I emailed the Descendents sending the image along with a letter thanking them and expressing what an important role their music has played in my life.  About a week ago I got an email response from Milo himself thanking me for the image, telling me that it was awesome and that it really made his day.   He invited me out to FYF Fest on September 3rd to watch them play and get to meet him in person.  I’ll be taking some pictures for sure!!

Asking myself “Why not?” has opened more doors than it has closed for me.  After Listening to the Descendents, I’ve found that being a good dude, doing the best I can, and pursuing what makes me happy doesn’t always get me what I want, but it does have it’s own rewards.  Thanks Descendents!!

Early this year I was asked by Giant Robot to participate in a group show titled “Year of the Rabbit”.  As I’m sure your lightening quick wit has already accessed, the show was themed after the this year’s Chinese zodiac, the rabbit.  After an array of thumbs and sketches I had drawn, I eventually came up with something I though would make a nice print.  I think it’s the nature of artists to put bits of themselves into their work and so in some way, every image is some form of self portrait.  I titled my print “The Weight of a Tiger”.  I couldn’t help but contemplate all the things I had gone through the previous year, (the Chinese zodiac tiger) what I had learned about myself, and what I was going to do with my present self from that day forward.  This print was a lot of work!  5 layer silkscreen on Classic Crest 130lbs double cover weight. Edition of 30.  I still have some left that I will have available on my BUY page. I also did a digital version since I’m awesome and I wanted to.  A side note, on the topic artist self portraits; I apparently consider myself Hugh Hefner.  Everyone that has spoken to me about the print has referenced Hefner at some point and to be honest, it never even crossed my mind until it was mentioned to me.  It makes sense though, I am totally awesome and I really like pretty ladies.

The Weight of a Tiger (silkscreen print)

The Weight of a Tiger (digitally remastered!)

Online dating serves many purposes.  I can’t say much for it’s ability to find me a lady, but I did learn a lot about myself and how to interact with total strangers.  (As I’m typing this, I can’t help but feel like I’m in an episode of Doogie Howser M.D.)  In the course of about two years I corresponded with over 300 women, went out on easily 80+ dates, and actually considered 3 of them girlfriends.  Prior to interweb lady finders my stats were as followed: Ages 0-29, Women known, approximately 30, Dates, 8? Actual Girlfriends, 2  1/2. (Half being, I thought that she was my girlfriend and she did not)  Through this battlefield  of digital connections I was able to take a crash course in social interactions and unsurprisingly started to meet people in the analog world with ease.  One of the interesting side effects of the numeric dating pool is meeting the friends of your “left-click”romance.  After dating a few really nice girls for a stint and meeting their peers, even after the romance fizzled, many of these new acquaintances stuck around and were upgraded to friend status.  Which brings me to the point of my post, Lisa Nguyen.  I met Lisa through one of the romances I downloaded from such sites as “Okstupid” and “Patch.com” and because of similar art related interests our paths crossed many times.  One day I woke to a phone call from a mutual friend who had the terrible job of  telling me that Lisa life was ended tragically at the age of 27.  Because Lisa had so many friends and was so involved in the art community, an art benefit held in her memory.  All of the art work was made by friends and displayed some of Lisa’s own work.  The money raised was donated to a scholarship at Cal State long Beach in her name.  I made two new prints for the event.  Each one in is a 3 layer silkscreen print in an edition of 27.  It’s an odd thing that the internet has simultaneously made the world much smaller and in a completely different way infinitely bigger.  Lisa will be missed tremendously.

“Till We Meet Again”

“Stay Gold”

Hold fast true-believers and check in next week for: Year of the Rabbit

This post should have went up 6 months ago! Okay, because I have tons of family, I never have any money, and I’m really really talented, I like to make presents for everyone at Christmas. Over the course of a month or two I would stop by the local cigar shop collecting cigar boxes for a dollar a pop. I was able two narrow the types of boxes down to two sizes. One size box would have been better but you work with what you get. I sanded the box lids down removing the finish and the debossed logos. I primed the exposed wood with some white water-based Kilz paint and let it dry. After taking a few measurements, I built a jig to modify my screen printing setup to allow we to print on items much thicker than paper. With the help of my friend Kelsey Short, we worked through the night printing on all the cigar boxes. After they dried, I felt that the overall color was a little too cold and bright so finished them with off with a wash of yellow. I still have a few left, if I get some requests for more I’ll make them available on the site.

This box has my XS650 and is about saying “So long” to some old hat.

This box has part of an older drawing I did back in school about my cultural background.

Yes, that is a wind up squid and a cat kazoo! So sweet.

Some friends of mine are in a really great all girl band called  Cunt Sparrer.  They are a cover band of the England based group similarly named Cock Sparrer.  Needless to say, these girls rock! A large portion of their set are great versions of the original Cock Sparrer songs and in addition, they also so cover some songs from other awesome bands to mix it up.  As a fan of their music as well as their beer drinking party attitude, I made them some beer mats to help keep those bar tops beer ring free.  This was my first time doing a 60up and I broke two corner cutters rounding the mats, but I always want my stuff to be badass and completely pro.  This was a 3 layer print and an edition of 180.

A couple of months ago I was asked by Harper’s Magazine to do the March cover.  What?! I know, right?!  I mean I’m just getting out of the gates here with my career and a serious hardcore magazine that’s been in publication since 1850 asks me for the cover!  Of course I said yes and got right to work.  Usually I have so much to say, but in this instance all I can say is that working for Harper’s was awesome!  I hope I get the pleasure of working with them again.  Oh, and one last thing, it was SO cool to see my work on the cover laying in a pile at various magazine stands!!

Here is the published illustration:

Here is the unpublished version:

Bragging rights: