Today my interview on DesignIsMyThing, Facebook site, is posted (link Below). My interview is #100. The site is a Q&A for to various compelling designers and creative types. Cool site/good reads.

http://www.facebook.com/designismything

In the interview I talk a little about how all the work I do is derived from intuitive experiments in the sketchbooks and how the Micro/Macro stuff is rooted in basic Philosophy 101. This is the original image in my sketchbooks that started the whole thing and below is the Harvard Business Review piece I talk about in the interview. 

I was auditing a Philosophy class for kicks years after my college graduation and the one day the professor was talking about "spheres of justice". I went home and just started working in the sketchbook and above is what came out. I title it The Primordial Sphere Of Justice in the aftermath, made a postcard of it sent it out and that particular direction for my work was born and continues to this day.

Here's the Harvard Business Review piece mentioned in the article. The author of the article was really struck with the image and wound up buying it and the spot illustration. I threw in the drop caps I did for the article because i'm a completist.

 spot

 drop caps

These are some images from the travel sketchbook I keep. Everything in the book is drawn on the scene.

Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, NY

 Brewers Bay, Tortola, British Virgin Islands

I

Il Duomo, Florence, Italy

 Anatomy Of An Editorial Assignment: These are some of the original sketches I submitted for an editorial assignment about how algorithms used for high speed trading are actually learning to become smarter, faster and even unethical and need to be policed somehow. The article really scarred the hell out of me but my instinct was to portray the mind that is now in the machine rather than spook the audience with a hellish portrayal. The comments from the art directer were that the sketches were too metaphysical, the piece was more about the sleuthing and that the 0's and 1's were good.

These are some of the revised sketches. Art director and editor loved 'em but there was an article about China a few pages deeper in the mag and asked if I can change the color scheme away from a China red and also change the large 0's and 1's to Stock Symbols.

Here's one of the the revised final sketch before final art with a different color scheme.

This is the final art I turned in except that I got an e-mail asking if I could delete the whiskers on the dragon because and editor thought they made it not look like a dragon so...

Here's the final art that was published. Very spooky that the week I was working on this piece the very subject of this article about algorithms going out of control in the markets actually caused a pretty intense event in the markets that made worldwide news. I had a friend who actually programmed some of these and when asked who he worked for he would joke, Skynet...

One of the things I do enjoy about editorial and the process of editorial is how plastic and malleable ideas and images are. I thought this was a good example of how a final piece of illustration goes through this process of manipulating form and idea to get to a specific communication through a dialogue with several individuals. This, in contrast to the "this first sketch is brilliant, we love it, go to finish" thing.

I'm going to start adding random sketchbook pages to the blog. nothing as ambitious as a page a day sort of thing but i do have thousands of images that no one ever sees unless they request the books, stop by the studio or happen to catch a lecture of mine. I used to drop off the sketchbooks with my portfolio and folks really loved rummaging through them. This usually resulted in an image or two being sold directly out of the books but these days portfolio calls are so rare as the web basically functions as a portfolio. Once, Metallica requested my sketchbooks so i sent them off hoping they'd have some Yagermeister spilled on 'em...but they just broke lock on the carrying case and asked me to submit art for St. Anger (my solution was sooooo much cooler then what they went with. i'll post those images and that story some day as it's rather rock & roll story... ;). These are from a Molkskine travel sk-book.

These are the two new pieces for the Affordable Art Fair http://www.aafnyc.com/ this week in NYC. I was up there dropping off work the other day and saw a nice range of work. Check it if you have the time.

System Reality 1, 13.75x4.25

System Song 2, 25"x18.75"

Much fun with concentrated watercolor dyes. "Get Well" card for a friend.

I'm really into these concentrated watercolor dyes for this series. Here's the palette explorations, process photos,and final piece before it's cut from the board and framed for the Affordable Art Fair show-NYC May 6-9.

System Song 2, 19"x25". The colors are much richer and vibrant in person. Check it at the show.

These images are some of the framed pieces that will be shown at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC, May 6-9th.

System Blue 1, 22"x25"

System History 1, 13"x 20"

System Gravity 1, 21x22

System Between 1, 31"x41"

This is the palette used for the piece below which will be shown at the Affordable Art Fair in May. I show this to give some idea of the true colors of the piece as they never really translate and, i think it's cool. I'm thinking that there will be at least 10 pieces in this series.

SYSTEM SONG 1 detail

SYSTEM SONG 1 framed

Amazing jazz pianist Kris Davis new album art (front, back and booklet). Designed by the lovely Elisa Bates with images from my sketchbooks. Dig.

Everybody loves hand lettered type and lingerie. Here's a series for a recent Maxim Lingerie feature. Interestingly the type is a bit pulled back from the original approved sketches as at the final hour the Chief Editor thought the original direction might detract from the photos..?

Recently I traveled to PETERS GLAMALEREI STUDIOS in Paderborn Germany to oversee a public art project for the MTA subway station in Rockaway Beach, New York. Directly below is the original art I created that will be painted on glass blocks and installed in the spring of 2010. The following images show the initial fabrication process, some glass experiments I did while I was there and some inspiring images from the town of Paderborn.

One of the large studios at PETERS STUDIOS. The studio where I worked was up the stairs.

These are the initial test blocks I arrived to. I thought the technique and execution was fantastic but the only problem was that the colors needed to be more saturated and vibrant more like the way they appear on the computer screen rather than any printout. Since the community where the art is to be installed is a vibrant mix of cultures, each that have their own colorful associations, the colors needed to reflect these associations and vibrancy.

The new color tests based on our discussions before firing.

These are the new color test I woke to the next morning after our discussions about how color should function in the piece. Perfect...

The original art was created in the computer as a RGB file to take advantage of light so we referenced the actual computer file on screen to decide on final colors.

Blocks in the frame which represents the actual final space between the blocks after installation being masked for the next color application and firing. Notice the one to one final art printout underneath for reference.

The same blocks as above after firing. Gray 50% neutral rainy day in background.

Test for the color and frisket of the faces section based on a 600dpi and a 300dpi file. 600pdi, pictured on the right, was the clear standout. The overall spiral image of the heads was originally drawn in a small moleskine sketchbook and scanned for inclusion in the art.

Freshly fired blocks right out of the kiln. It takes several days to fire and cool this many blocks.