On April 8, the U.S. will experience its first total solar eclipse since August 21, 2017. (Don’t miss it because there won’t be another one visible from here until 2045.) The eclipse’s path passes directly over Conway, Ark., home of Hendrix College. To celebrate their front row seats at the celestial ballet, the Windgate Museum of Art is hosting a multimedia, science and art exhibition that looks at humankind’s long-held fascination with the moon. The museum’s director, Christian Cutler, asked me to create a poster to help promote the show. They liked it enough to include in the exhibition, too.
If you’re in the area before April 13, you should check it out.
Bullies
Last summer, New Jersey implemented several policies and protections for LGBTQ+ students in the state's 593 public school districts. Since then, reactionary and religious conservatives have been disrupting public meetings and attempting to take over local school boards. Citing “Parental Rights”, their goal is to roll back these changes so that they can discriminate against gay and transgender students. New Jersey Monthly has a run down on the groups of adults who believe bullying kids for being themselves is a winning political issue and the state's efforts to stop them.
Elephant in the room
Conservative are hard at work undermining higher education. In the past few years state legislatures have passed laws stripping college professors of tenure and restricting what they can teach about topics like race and gender.
Now theses conservatives in state houses across the country have discovered new weapons to wage the culture war–footnotes, quotations and citations. Following Claudine Gay’s resignation as Harvard’s president, many in academia are worried that we’re about to see a stampede of politically-motivated plagiarism accusations and investigations.
Read about it in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Thanks to Wes for the assignment
Send me an angel
New work for Texas Coop Power.
Author Martha Deeringer recounts her family’s move to the country and the addition of a new family member–unflappable donkey, named Bright Angel.
After this made it’s way into print, I got this message from the writer:
I LOVE the donkey illustration. Looks just like her.
I’ll take that as an indication of a job well done. Thanks to Jane for the assignment.
Campus Clashes
New Year, new work for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
To kick off 2024, the magazine looks at the challenge of trying to simultaneously protect students, free speech and academic freedom in the wake of student-led actions and protests over the Israel-Hamas War and the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Art direction by the the excellent Wes Watson.
That's a wrap
In 2023, people continued to hire me to draw stuff for them. For this, I am eternally grateful. Here’s some stuff from the year that was that I enjoyed working on.
I was on the R Train (and the E, F, G and 7 trains, too). Public art is great, and I’m honored that I got to create some for the MTA. Sorry if it jinxed the Mets and Yankees.
I broke out the gouache and India ink for the first time in a long time for The New Yorker. Françoise and Genevieve asked. What was I gonna do, say no?
Generative AI ‘art’ was all over the place this year. I made this for a story in The Wall Street Journal that asked whether or not people would care if AI made their favorite piece of art. It turns out they would!
(Good luck to The New York Times in their lawsuit against ChatGPT and OpenAI)
I live in Bay Ridge, in the shadow of the Verrazzano and frequently serenaded by foghorns. In my free time, I drew something and it was good enough for American Illustration and the 3 x 3 Illustration Annual. Thanks to the judges.
I got to draw a bunch of travel stories in the Wall Street Journal, as in years past. It’s great to have such loyal clients who keep coming back to you.
Succession ended, but it gave me an opportunity to draw rich folks getting crushed (metaphorically) by TV writers (congrats on the big contract win) for the LA Times.
“Nobody wants to work anymore!” A recurring, if incorrect, complaint heard throughout the year, netted a few images for variuos business publications.
The Peabody Institute of Music (and the rest of Johns Hopkins University) opened a campus in Washington, D.C. To celebrate, they commissioned this piece showing the intersection of art and democracy.
There are real estate deals to be had in Manhattan, according to The Property Chronicle. (Tell me where they are please)
It’s been a dynamite year. None of this would have been possible without the tireless work of Joanie Bernstein or the support of my family.
Let’s blow the roof off this place in 2024!
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Would you like your favorite piece of art less if you found out it was A.I.-generated?
The Wall Street Journal asked its readers how they felt about machine-made art. Some see it as a powerful tool aiding artists and writers in their process; others fear that it might threaten the livelihood of creative class. Many though them recognize that while the technology is getting better at blurring the line between what’s real and and fake (as long as drawing hands isn’t involved), it can’t create anything original. At best A.I. can mimic what already exists, churning out derivative pictures and stories.
For the time being, at least, creativity is still a byproduct of the human condition.
DaDaDa DaDaDa
I had the pleasure of working with Barbour Design on the refresh of the ESPN Daily’s podcast title. My contribution are ripped headlines and shifting colors behind the logo. I spent a few years designing newspaper pages at both The Ithaca Journal and The Record. I’d like to think that the muscles I developed doing that work haven’t completely atrophied, especially since seeing prop newspapers on TV and in movies drives me nuts with how unrealistic they often look.
Below are some other concepts that were explored in detail, but ultimately not used.
This was a fun project to work on. Let me help you with your podcast or any other branding project.
Local Knowledge
Here’s some work I made for Civian.
Civian is a company that collects and analyzes real-time, hyper-local data to help governments and businesses identify where to direct their investments. What better way to show that than a data-driven neighborhood?
Below are some neighborhoods that were explored, but ultimately weren’t pursued.
Any day spent drawing buildings and cities is a good one, so let me help you with your next streetscape-inspired project.
Guest rooms
The latest A Matter of Life and Décor column in The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the importance of having a comfortable, modern guest room. The consequences for not having one are high–your adult children might choose to spend the holidays with their in-laws.
I’m not gonna lie, mid-century-inspired neon signs are more fun to draw than bedrooms. Thank you, AD Kelly, for picking the fun idea. Some others, that didn’t get invited to stay at Mom’s house are below.
Work-Life Balance
Here’s something for the German business magazine Handelsblatt about the generational divide in the office.
Gen Z has different priorities when it comes to work. The youngest part of the workforce is more likely than earlier generations to prioritize their mental health or leisure time over face time at the office. This attitude has hiring managers and their older co-workers perplexed and frustrated. They see a generation of entry-level workers demanding perks that took them years to earn. Or worse, people that don’t want to work. Yet, the boomers have no choice but to adapt–soon everyone born after 1997 will make up most of the workforce.
Belwo, some ideas that didn’t quite work hard enough.
Learning to Fly
A global consulting company needed art for a project highlighting the importance of middle managers. They called me to help and I gave them this metaphor about air traffic controllers. They’re not piloting your organization, but they’re absolutely essential to keeping your business flying.
Below, some ideas that weren’t cleared for take off:
Hire me to help tell your next story.
Burning Down the House
Here’s something I drew for The Boston Globe’s Books section. This piece of art accompanies a review of Hope: A Novel by Andrew Ridker. The book chronicles 18 months in the life of a Brookline, Mass. family with a self-destructive streak. The misadventures begin with a poorly-conceived dinner party that blows up the facade of a perfect suburban family-life.
Below: some ideas that didn’t make the cut
…and here’s how it looked on the page. (Thanks George!)
Eat the Rich
The rich may rule the world, but on TV they take it on the chin. The Los Angeles Times’ Envelope takes a look at how the wealthy are portrayed on Emmy-nominated shows and it’s less than flattering.
In the past shows Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Dynasty made extreme wealth something to aspire to. Now, in the age of extreme income inequality, TV writers are more likely to portray the ultra-wealthy as callow, capricious, out of touch with reality and downright monstrous as is the case on shows like Succession, Yellowstone, You, Loot, Industry White Lotus, and House of the Dragon.
Below, some ideas that didn’t make the cut:
Meet the new boss
Is your next boss going to be artificial intelligence?
The latest issue of The Property Chronicle takes a look at AI and thinks the technology will radically alter how companies and governments make decisions by eliminating personal and institutional biases from the equation. That’s potentially bad news for managers who could see themselves made obsolete by streams of data, but good news for individuals who will find themselves dealing with a lot less red tape.
It looks like it’s already happening in the entertainment industry, with studios using AI to decide which movies to greenlight.
Here’s a fun idea that featuring robots and humans tearing down institutions that ultimately didn’t make the cut.
Maybe next time. It seems like there’s going to be a lot more AI stories coming down the pike.
Short Layovers
Some people love them, others are filled with dread at the mere mention of them. Regardless of how you feel about them, there’s probably a short layover waiting for you, if you’re planning on flying this summer. The Wall Street Journal has tips for navigating them so you don’t miss your connection. I made art.
Fear Factor
Whether it’s spiders, heights, germs or other people, confronting your phobias can be overwhelming. But doing it can also change your life for the better. The spring 2023 issue of Real Woman has a rundown of five effective strategies for facing and overcoming your fears. I made art.
New York, New York
We’ll take Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island, too…literally.
The spring issue of The Property Chronicle sends their ‘Undercover Investor’ to New York, where he finds that there are deals to be had on commercial real estate.
(Someone lend me a few bucks so I can buy the Flatiron Building)
Schedule Problems
Summer’s almost here, which means you probably have vacation plans. Well the airlines also have plans and they may include cancelling the flight you booked months ago. What can you do if you show up to the airport only to find out your plane isn’t leaving? The Wall Street Journal has the answers.
Subway Series
I have two kids–an 11-year-old who is absolutely obsessed with baseball and a seven-year-old who is a huge railfan. My apartment is filled with competing discussions of wRC+ and R-211s. As a parent, it can be a challenge to find activities that satisfy both kids’ interests. Thankfully, taking the train to the game is one of them. So, When MTA Arts and Design asked me to participate in their ongoing art card program, there was really only one possible solution.
Keep an eye out for this celebration of baseball and outerboro elevated trains on the way to the game this summer. LFGM