Am going to try and stay on top of things and post original artworks for sale, regularly. But also try and keep them current, at least topic-wise.
In lieu of latest news, here are a few of my personal favourites, which I’ve decided to part with. They deserve to be framed and seen, not just stored!
Also, the stars are saying now is a great time to invest in artworks, which never depreciate in value. Win-win for all!
My scanner needs replacing thanks to obsolescence, so the ‘actual’ art pics were taking with point n shoot, so they might look a little dark. The paper I use is is bright, warm white.
Please click on first images of each piece for details.
Use contact form for inquires. Thank you!
‘It is I Who Styles Donald Trump’, The Walrus Magazine, 2017
This piece was for a fictional work by Lynn Crosbie, which described in wondrous detail the styling of the hair ritual of you-know-who, from the point-of-view of the First Lady. Melania and her Mel-lamia assistants concocting the (ex)President.
It is I Who Styles actual piece
Do Tell, Rethinking Schools Magazine
I forget the exact topic of this piece for Rethinking Schools, but it had to do with openness about discussing gender/sexual identity in school. Uncle Sam is transformed into the Blue Angel, and at least one student gets it.
Do Tell actual piece
Phoenix Rising, National Post 2003
This piece was for a story about leaving an abusive marriage, if I recall. A phoenix rises from the burning bed (who remembers that Farrah Fawcett TV movie?). But the illustration can stand alone as symbolic of waking from complacency or transformation in general.
Last year I was contacted by Aaron Louis, New York recording artist and head of audiovisual at the MoMA, to see if I’d be interested in illustrating the cover for his upcoming album. Aaron had first seen my work via the Flannery O’Connor book cover series, after Everything That Rises Must Converge was featured on the TV series LOST, and we’d become Facebook friends.
Flannery O’Connor book in ‘Lost’
I’ve retired from commercial illustration, but since Aaron was a fan of Flann and has plenty of artistic ‘street cred’ himself, I had a good feeling about it and agreed to have a listen. Immediately, both the first and second songs had me bopping out of my chair. Aaron not only has an ear for all kinds of musical genres (though he says his base is punk rock) but is a talented lyric poet as well. His songs are original, tight and fresh. I was excited for him and agreed to take on this gig, an honour.
As this was my first album cover (better late than never!), I came up with about 10 initial ideas. A video of an owl flying around with a stick horse had appeared on my news feed, which I took as a sign we’d be going with the stick horse idea, but he chose a different one to take to final. It wasn’t quite right, though, and in the end, augury proved correct. This time, I preserved the initial sketch, developing it more, rather than risk loosing the spontaneity by doing the whole thing over as a final. Piama Habibullah, the designer then tweaked the colour to make it more neon, for a vintage 1970s punk/new wave look.
The Clamor LP package (photo courtesy Aaron Louis/The Clamor)
The inspiration for the piece comes from an illustrated poetic manuscript from the beginning of the 14th century, would you believe. I do a lot of image researching for my Tarot studies, and had discovered this book by Francesco da Barberino called ‘I Documenti d’Amore’ in the Vatican digital hoards.
You’ve probably heard of the ‘big three’ – Danté, Petrarch and Boccaccio – but da Barberino for some reason didn’t achieve the same level of fame. (Probably because he didn’t seek it). But his highly original ‘personifications’ certainly influenced the work of his contemporaries. Perhaps his ideas were just too wacky. This claw-footed ‘Amor’ (note the word is in ‘Clamor’) spearing and collecting trophy hearts is a bit more ‘punk rock’ than the typical cupid.
Personification of ‘Amor’, from Francesco da Barberino, early 14th c (artist unknown)Amor (detail)
A lot of The Clamor’s songs are relationship-inspired. It’s said that all songs fall under two themes; love and war – sometimes both – and indeed, da Barberino’s ‘Amor’ almost seems to be a conglomerate. Another of my ideas was this simple image of an angel and demon as heart and spade, which ended up being used for singles and the center sticker on the LP. It has more that simple, symbolic Flannery O’Connor cover look Aaron initially liked. (The black background version more so).
The Clamor Heart and Spade logo
I also drew bunch of little, ink line pieces for the inner sleeve, to go with the printed lyrics. It’s an homage to bands/albums of our youth, such as The Ramones or The Clash – notice Piama even made the words diagonal, reminiscent of ‘London Calling’.
You can hear some of the singles on The Clamor band’s official website, find out where to stream, plus buy the album and some cool, RB tees!
