Wednesday, June 18, 2014

THE PEQUOD: Stubb

8 inches by 10 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
June 8, 2014

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Monday, June 16, 2014

THE PEQUOD: Daggoo

10 inches by 8 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
May 27, 2014


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Saturday, June 14, 2014

THE PEQUOD: Queequeg

10 inches by 8 inches
acrylic paint, ink and marker on watercolor paper
May 31, 2014


Thursday, June 12, 2014

A BESTIARY: Golem

11 inches by 14 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
May 22, 2014


Wednesday, June 4, 2014

INVISIBLE CITIES: Isaura

The tenth of Calvino's 55 Invisible Cities and my fourth illustration for the project, Isaura. You can see the entire series so far, which includes work from my partners in this project Joe Kuth and Leighton Connor at our tumblr Seeing Calvino.

"Isaura, city of the thousand wells, is said to rise over a deep, subterranean lake. On all sides, wherever the inhabitants dig long vertical holes in the ground, they succeed in drawing up water, as far as the city extends, and no farther. Its green border repeats the dark outline of the buried lake; an invisible landscape conditions the visible one; everything that moves in the sunlight is driven by the lapping wave enclosed beneath the rock’s calcareous sky."

10 inches by 8 inches
ink on watercolor paper
June 3, 2014


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

INVISIBLE CITIES: Zora

The seventh of Calvino's 55 Invisible Cities and my third illustration for the project, Zora. You can see the entire series so far, which includes work from my partners in this project Joe Kuth and Leighton Connor at our tumblr Seeing Calvino.

"Beyond six rivers and three mountain ranges rises Zora, a city that no one, having seen it, can forget. But not because, like other memorable cities, it leaves an unusual image in your recollections. Zora has the quality of remaining in your memory point by point, in its succession of streets, of houses along the streets, and of doors and windows in the houses, though nothing in them possesses a special beauty or rarity. Zora’s secret lies in the way your gaze runs over patterns following one another as in a musical score where not a note can be altered or displaced."

10 by 8 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
May 13, 2014



Thursday, April 24, 2014

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

INVISIBLE CITIES: Zaira

The fourth of Calvino's 55 Invisible Cities, and my second contribution to the project is Zaira, pictured below. You can see the work of Joe Kuth and Leighton Connor, the other two artists working on this project, at our tumblr Seeing Calvino.

The challenge with drawing Zaira was to find a way to visually show the relationship of architecture to events that take place in, on and around that architecture over time in a manner which is both complex and recognizable. I struggled with this one, but I am quite pleased with the result.

Title: Zaira

10 inches by 8 inches
ink on watercolor paper
April 20, 2014




Wednesday, April 2, 2014

INVISIBLE CITIES: Diomira

The third collaborative project I am happy to announce is a series of illustrations depicting each of the cities from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. I am undertaking this endeavor in partnership with two good friends who are also artists, Leighton Connor and Joe Kuth. These will exist on a tumblr named Seeing Calvino, since we hope to continue to explore his writing in future projetcs.

The way this works is that each week, on Wednesday, one of us will post our illustration of one of the cities. We are moving through the book sequentially, from beginning to end, as one might undertake a journey. For now, we have established the rotation of me first, followed by Joe, followed by Leighton, and back to me to repeat the order again. It is a daunting and exciting project because there is so much latitude in Calvino's pieces, and so many ways to stumble. I feel like I'm getting a good handle on it, and I am excited to see what Joe and Leighton do as well.

I will be cross-posting my own illustrations on my blog and tumblr as well as the Seeing Calvino tumblr, but you will have to visit Seeing Calvino to see the work of Joe and Leighton. Here is my first piece, and the first of the Invisible Cities. This one time, I am reproducing the entirety of what Calvino wrote about Diomira, to provide some context.

"Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy toward those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time."

Title: Diomira

10 inches by 8 inches
ink on watercolor paper
March 31, 2014