I’m so proud to have been a part of the Book Review for so many years. It was my first assignment back in August of 2000 and is still one of my favorite publications to work for. This illustration was for the back page essay about Erich Segal’s 1985 novel “The Class”, and books about the culture of Harvard in general. I was originally asked to not show any books in the art, but this one worked so perfectly I had to try it, and they went for it. And here is the runner-up:

Thanks for looking!

Free Gas

It comes up every year when the mayor announces steep new cuts to city services like the fire department, park hours and libraries. A huge number of city political employees who do not perform street services or need to criss-cross the city eight hours a day as part of their job get free gas from the taxpayers, including 100 or so political aides to the Los Angeles City Council and another several dozen aides to Villaraigosa. It’s unheard of in most major cities, a holdover from times past. In an obscure garage that no private citizen could ever access, the free city gas pumps sit, churning out free gas all day long in an era of $4 gas for residents. It took public embarrassment for the city to close its $1 million/year calligraphy office — city employees who did nothing but create fancy scrolls for the city council to hand out to various civic groups and insiders every Friday during a ceremony of mostly hot air. Will the yearlong free gas and free cars for the personal aides to the council members and mayor become the next big embarrassment?

Here is something in this month’s issue of Christianity Today about the autobiography by Barnabas Mam, a communist who had an encounter with faith in Cambodia during those turbulent times in the 70s. He managed to discover and develop a strong christian following all behind the fences of a concentration camp. The book mentions church farming, which is a term I wasn’t familiar with, along with the nightly executions and interrogations and I wanted the art to reflect the guilt and trauma this man endured. Thanks to Gary Gnodovic for the great assignment. Below is the approved sketch.

I was thrilled to work on this assignment for Entertainment Weekly last week for their Summer Music Preview issue! I was asked to do a half page illustration depicting Nicki Minaj, Chris Martin, Thom Yorke, and Madonna on stage, as well as some portraits of Drake, Fiona Apple, Common, Jessie J and more! If you haven’t picked up a copy, do so this week! Thanks so much to Aaron and the editors over at EW. Really fun job!

Editor’s Note

Letters

Miscellany

Various spots

I had the honor of illustrating the words “Invest” “Pick” “Plan” and “Spend” for SmartMoney Magazine last month. The art director pretty much let me do whatever I liked, so I tried every metaphor possible with these. But I wanted to avoid using dollars or dollar signs, bears, bulls, etc. The “Plan” section was mostly about saving for retirement… a rocking chair just couldn’t be avoided, but I like the idea of someone creating a chair from scratch, like an artist painting one. The “Invest” piece was originally a sketch for another job, but it seems to make more sense here.

Here are a couple recent covers I illustrated for Washington Post Express ‘Lookout’ section. Both were very fun ideas to work on, thanks Lori!  Thanks for checking in.

Here’s a fun project I got to work on for City Pages, based on an article about violence and bullying in the workplace. Once I got the idea for this visual it made me laugh out loud, because it’s pretty much how I used to feel about clocking in to a day job, and it seemed to be a good fit for this article. You can see more of my recent work here.

Last month marked 10 years that I’ve been illustrating this column. It’s been a great run and I am very fortunate to have a weekly assignment that has lasted this long. Here are a few of my favorites from the past decade…

The worst cities for travel-related taxes and fees:

Disgruntled flight attendants:

High-end hotels starting to bounce back:

The proliferation of yellow light traffic cameras:

Airline alliances:

You can read the full recap on my blog here, thanks for looking!