posted: May 28, 2013

Most days of the week, I try to get in an hour or so of drawing the landscapes near my home. Often, I end up at a dam site on the Charles River. It's a good place to listen to the white noise, have a cup of coffee and observe the march of the seasons. The images here were done between April 10th - May 25th. I do them in a letter-sized black book with charcoal or colored pencil. I mix it up to keep myself interested in making art.
I like that I'm done in 30-60 minutes. I've thought about starting some paintings but I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment. But, I'll have to shake things up at some point to see what this impulse is really made of.
I have a separate blog devoted to these drawings if you want to go a little deeper: ROBSERVATIONS.

posted: May 13, 2013

These drawings were commissioned by… no one!
In that hour between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. something has to gel. I create an environment out of some abstract drips and scrawls. Then I add a figure or two and you get some sort of drama going. Sometimes, even stasis is all the drama I can handle at 5:00 a.m. Sometimes the whole thing gets out of hand, searching for a solution and I paint it all out and start over.
But, I swear, I'll go to bed tonight happily anticipating the morning hours in a sleeping house when I work on myself and, myself and that mysterious thing called Art.

posted: April 18, 2013

It's been entertaining and edifying to read others' lists of influences. I hope that my indulgent speculation kindles positive reflections in you and the knowledge that we stand on the shoulders of so many others. And, that they are not so different than us.
I grew up reading my older brothers' comic books and Mad Magazines. I watched afternoon monster and war movies. And I was always drawing and these things were my early influences. Art has been a talent. I always stood out in grammar school and high school. I was  a good student and tried all Art materials and styles. I hung out with smart kids and art kids. I was one of the art stars. It may have been my 18th birthday; my stepsister gave me this book (I don't know what possessed her but it has always been a a touchstone):

But I went to art school. I didn't study illustration at all and never considered it a future job. I think my education, in retrospect, was scattershot which might reflect the time: the late 70's and early 80's. I studied fine art: painting, printmaking, sculpture. Presumably, options and a lifestyle would flow from this preoccupation. I worked college jobs designing posters, ads and editorial cartoons for the student newspapers (I'd also done this in high school). I was inspired by Mort Drucker, Bill Mauldin, Thomas Oliphant, Ranan Lurie, Thomas Nast, Rembrandt etchings. One-color offset reproduction maybe with color overlays done in rubylith… this was my graphic universe.
I wondered if Milton Glaser rubbed down his own Letraset type. I was clueless about graphic design, illustration and fine art. What's sort of funny to me is that in addition to Artforum magazine and fine art coffee table books and monographs, I would prowl the university library and check out old Graphis Annuals too.
So, I feel like I've had several "careers" with their attendant influences; …any more than 15! And since it's been a week or so since Yuko issued the challenge, my list has blossomed out of control to where I feel like a cloud and I wonder where the influences end and the self becomes defined. And I wonder also, who's wagging whom? Which is the tail and which is the dog? Should I add things to my list that make me look sophisticated or add idols that confirm something that I've sought in myself? …See, I'm a mess …!
But I want to leave you a list. It seems very slippery however. Some are role models for me, Some are etched in my visual memory. Some influence in a negative sort of way--I go in the opposite direction. Some I simply love and are part of my ever-growing artistic bouquet. They illuminate values that go to the core of what it means to make Art: to be fearless, to be curious, to provoke and to soothe. Some influences are laborers in the same vineyard, just a little further ahead of where I am and where I hope to arrive someday:

So many more great images…

posted: April 10, 2013

I read an interview with Ryan O'Rourke yesterday. He's a children's book illustrator — among other things. He mentioned that working on children's books is akin to running a marathon and that doing editorial illustration is more like a sprint. I would agree. I'm currently working on two picture books and I only have a lot of sketches, tests, and jabs 'n stabs on the cutting room floor. Some days it's like having a sword fight or a game of tag with an invisible friend at the bottom of a swimming pool of molasses. I head over to a coffee shop to sneak up on myself and hammer out a new outline and thumbnails but soon enough, I have to confront the molasses of doubt again as I hopefully catch a glimpses of the faraway finish line. This is my life right now.
Regardless, my inclination and extensive training in fine arts (BA painting & printmaking, MFA sculpture) compel me to make Art as constantly as I can (currently in a series of sketchbooks). I really believe that the resulting accretion of images will someday amount to an artistic life lived without too many apologies. So, while Illustration right now seems to require wandering into the lairs of personal demons and even procrastinating with well-intentioned diversions, the payoff (of sorts) is that my anxiety and doubt breed the egotistic introspection to make Art that I can live with (and others may find interesting or inspiring some day). And it occurs to me, in looking at a few items from the past month, that this personal work (examples below) looks like children's book Illustration – with a dash of editorial illustration thrown on top. I guess it stands to reason. Onward then!
PS: in this time of year with so many transitions for those dear to us, consider for whom the bell tolls and be grateful for the freedom you have to make Art (and even blog about it) --I think this is just about the ultimate form of liberty one can manage in the fog of our relative comfort.