posted: April 8, 2013

posted: February 15, 2013

I've been developing a personal project that's been on the back burner for quite a while (too long, actually). I don't know, maybe it's age related, but I've been in a reflective mood lately. So, I finally decided to stop procrastinating and put these drawings out there for whatever it's worth.
It's sort of a graphic journal referencing the pop (and pulp) culture I grew up with...  American and Italian, historical and myth, high and lowbrow, good, bad and ugly.
I've started a separate blog for this project at http://joeciardiello.tumblr.com
Some of the drawings are below.

posted: November 19, 2012

I was very happy to learn that 3 pieces of mine were accepted to the Society of Illustrators 55th Annual and that the piece above won a silver medal in the Institutional category. Big thank you to all the jurors. The art (which is a hand colored etching) was published in SIC magazine. The theme of the issue was "Red". SIC is a promotional publication for the Outsider Art Gallery in Frenchtown, NJ. The publisher/AD is gallery owner Dion Hitchings.
 
Earlier this year, I was one of 4 New Jersey artists selected to participate in a collaborative editions project with the Printmaking Center of NJ. We were each teamed up with a master printer to work with. I have a background in traditional etching and was interested in exploring new non-toxic methods. Solar Plate fit the bill. It's a photo etching process that uses light sensitive polymer plates and a UV exposure unit. The plate is rinsed with tap water and printed like a traditional etching. The Hockney piece was the first try. I used an existing pen drawing which was digitally transferred to acetate. The acetate was then placed on the plate and exposed to light in the UV unit. Several versions were tried, both cropped and full image. The plates were inked and printed by a wonderful printer, Sheila Goloborotko, who is their artistic director. I then hand colored the edition.
The PCNJ is a great printmaking and educational organization. You can learn more about it at www.printnj.org

The next print was this one of Chuck Close. In this case, I drew and painted directly on the acetate. The rest of the process was the same as with the Hockney piece.

posted: August 24, 2012

I recently did some drawings for a brand new kind of digital format for ESPN. It's online only and is a sort of combination of app and online magazine. It has images, text and video. I think it's pretty cool and could be the future for editorial content.
The article is about Pittsburg Pirates pitcher Doc Ellis, who pitched a no-hitter while on LSD in 1970.
Thanks to CD John Korpics and his teriffic team.
Here's the link to see the whole story and the other drawings. One thing I found is that you need to adjust your screen to full view and change the display in order to view the images without them being cropped.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Dock-Ellis