Cooking Skulls & Bacon on Top Chef

This week while catching up on the culinary competition that is Bravo's Top Chef, I was surprised to see one of my illustrations catching some screen time. Contestent Andrea Curto-Randazzo was sporting a t-shirt emblazoned with the skull and cross-bacon logo that I designed for Skulls & Bacon.

Television is a fine way to shut off the brain and escape from the real world for a while. Yet here was a collision between my real world and the television world. A briefly surreal moment in which I felt a bit proud. I had birthed this skull and cross-bacon design, sent it off alone into the world to pleasantly find that not only was he doing well, but the little guy had landed himself a spot on prime time television. I can only hope that his star keeps rising and that if he should reach the top that he doesn't forget where he came from. I'm rooting for you buddy.

Unfortunately, Andrea was voted off of Top Chef in the episode. Thankfully, contestants are not judged on their fashion sense. I was able to get in touch with Andrea, and thanked her for sporting the shirt and for an entertaining run on Top Chef. Not to worry, Andrea is undoubtedly a culinary talent and will do fine back in the real world. She and her husband Frank own the succesful Talula Restaurant & Bar in Miami beach, Florida

Giving Me the Business

Busy busy busy. I've been falling over myself trying to find some leisure time these days. I dream of a day where I get to update this blog on a regular basis. Here's some of what's been keeping me busy.

My friend Eric spent the last year shooting and editing Burial Boys, an independent comedy. It's about a group of guys who inherit a failing funeral home. In an effort to stay out of the financial red, these fellas start killing folks to swoop in later and get the business associated with dealing with the recently deceased. Sounds pretty good to me. Eric asked me to put together a poster for the film and I was happy to oblige. The result,  a photo manipulation featuring characters from the film, which is very different from my normal illustrative work.  I started out in graphic design working mostly in photo manipulation, reserving my drawing and painting for canvas and paper. It was certainly  fun to revisit.

The original cast photos were were shot by Jamie Arabalos, of Master of None, who was also nice enough to commission me to design a sign for her arthouse.

A big thanks to Eric and Jamie for giving me the business.

Bark at the Moon

Last July, I was commissioned for the fun task of illustrating a zombie T-shirt design for The Terrors, a punk band from Scotland. Tina, guitarist for the Terrors had found herself in an additional project, called The Cemetery Girls, and once again I was commissioned to come up with something spooky for their T-shirts. I aimed to put together an image reminiscent of classic punk rock as, in my opinion, the band has an honest retro sound. Here's what I came up with.

So give The Cemetery Girls a listen and buy a T-Shirt why don't you?

Out of Hibernation

Crazy. I've been missing in action since January. I blame the New England winter.

With spring starting to come around my winter malaise beginning to wear off,  I'm to getting a the tickle in my brain and fingertips that means I should get back to updating this one way conversation of mine.

I'll begin by sharing all twelve illustrations from my show, Teaessare Can Read. Revisiting these moments was truly a pleasure in that I have a sense of homesickness when I finish a book that I truly love. This project enabled to revisit these settings for a bit longer. A couple may be a bit suggestive and one even contains nudie bits, so don't say I didn't warn you. Enjoy.

From Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones	From John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men	From Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
From David Sedaris’s Us and Them	From Cormac McCarthy’s The Road	From Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
From Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone	From Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince	From Ray Bradbury’s Kaleidoscope
From Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade	From John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America	From Stephen King’s Carrie

IF you haven't yet, I recommend the stories above as ones well worth reading.

There Went 2009

Happy new year folks. Here we are twelve days into the new year and I'm just now getting around to a new year related post. To me, it seemed that 2009 hung around longer than most years. I'm not saying it overstayed it's welcome, it's just that from my angle it seemed longer than usual. Perhaps it seems so as the year was a pleasantly busy one for me. All in all, I give 2009 a thumbs up.

Here's a pile of sketches from 2009.

A wonderful 2010 to you all.

Johnny Zacchara Can Read

Brandon Barash, the actor behind General Hospital's Johnny Zacchara, stopped by Channel 1 and was nice enough to share his feelings about Teaessare Can Read in the video below.

I'm sincerely honored that Brandon took the time out of his schedule to shoot a promo for Teaessare Can Read. For me, General Hospital conjures a lot of feelings of nostalgia. I grew up in a big family with a surplus of aunts who would sometimes interrupt my cartoon watching marathons for General Hospital. I also spent many afternoons with my grandmother who'd stop everything to watch her "stories". Instead of watching Tom and Jerry maim each other in new and exciting ways, If found myself watching Robert Scorpio acquaint himself with a daughter he didn't know he had or marveling at the fact that Felicia Cummings was actually an Aztec princess. In no time I was invested in the goings-on of the residents of Port Charles.

Brandon Barash plays Johnny Zacchara who, as the son of NY mob boss Anthony Zacchara, continually tries to break free from his ties from the mob. Now that sounds like a story I can get caught up in. I'm sincerely honored that Brandon took the time out of his schedule to shoot a promo for Teaessare Can Read.

My Year With Boris Karloff

With all of the recent art show hubbub, I completely overlooked the one year anniversary of this blog which was October 7th. It feels good to have been at this for over a year. I find that  my artistic ideas and process is really helpful for creative evolution. What better way to celebrate with one of my favorite pieces of artwork from the past year, Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, which  is now available as a  reasonably-priced print in my Etsy shop.

While we're feeling celebratory, I should mention that this post is part of the Boris Karloff Blogathon, a week long celebration of all things Karloff, hosted by Frankensteinia and featuring over 100 contributing blogs.


The Boris Karloff Blogathon, a celebration of Karloff's 122nd birthday, is running from November 23rd to November 29th.

Teaessare Can Read, Opening November 20th

Things should be back to normal for me next week, but at the moments it's busy busy busy as I get all my ducks lined up in preparation for my show. For the sake of further shameless promotion, the show, called Teaessare Can Read, opens on November 20th at Channel 1 in New Haven, CT and features illustrated scenes from a number of my favorite literary works. I began this project in the summer when I was offered a solo show, and wanted to present all new illustrations. Here we are months later and I'm just about done. It was a huge undertaking that I'm proud to have accomplished. I'm pretty excited about the opening. In addition to the visual stimuli, there will be coffee provided by Fuel Coffee Shop and music spun by DJ Lokash. It's rare that I do art openings, so I figured it should be a bit of a celebration.

For those outside of Connecticut the illustrations will be posted online sometime after the opening.

Here's the press release for the show.

Contest: Guess the Book, Win a Book

It's been too long since my last post. I've been busy working on Teaessare Can Read, my solo show which opens on the 20th of this month. The show will feature illustrated scenes from a number of my favorite books. My initial anxieties toward the opening are beginning to turn to excitement, which I understand is much healthier.

In an effort to share in my excitement, I present the following contest.

The illustration below is an in process preview of one of the illustrations for Teaessare Can Read. The first person to guess the book including the author's name, and post their answer in a comment  below will win a $20.00 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

I do realize that what each person imagines when reading a story is very subjective, but I think that anyone familiar with the story in question should be able to recognize it. Good luck.

Here are some hints. The book was written within the past  fifty years. The author is American and is still living.

Again, the Barnes and Noble Gift Card will be awarded to the first person to submit the correct book title and author. Contest ends on November 20th, 2009.

Illustrating Under The Influence

Regardless of innocence, getting pulled over by the police is always a bit intimidating. I'll bet that even the Pope gets a little nervous seeing il polizia in the rear view of the Popemobile. That being said, any Popes out there driving around stewed on communion wine certainly deserve some quality time with the fuzz.

Seven Days, Vermont's alternative weekly newspaper, asked me to create an illustration to run with a cover story about the state's DUI laws. Their proposed idea, a car side mirror view of an approaching officer.

Not having access to the story, my initial sketch was a bit  more cartoonish. I was urged by Seven Days to aim for something a little more serious in tone. Now, having read the article, I can see that the "darker" illustration suits it better.

This issue of Seven Days marks the first of a new format size which is announced in a somewhat kitschy video, that's equal parts The Sound of Music and How It's Made. It's not every day that an artist gets to see their work dance across a hillside in the hands of a Julie Andrews proxy.

Cats Hate Work

It's a true story. Cats don't much like when their furless roommates attempt to get work done. My wife and I adopted this guy a little under a year ago. We named him Quint. He enjoys playing and sleeping. He especially enjoys doing so on my keyboard and drawing tablet. Here's video evidence.

El Chupacabra

As a young weirdo, I'd scare myself silly, reading books about Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), Mothmen and similar spooky creature sightings. Strangely, it was rare that I'd draw creatures from the cryptozoo opting instead to make up my own, or draw monsters from movies or comic books. I did once draw Harry, the Bigfoot from Harry and the Hendersons, but that barely counts. Alas, life has granted me a second chance. This week, I was contacted by a client who required a drawing of a Chupacabra for t-shirt production. Chupacabra is a mythical creature that apparently has a a penchant for sucking on goats.

When El Chupacabra first exploded on the cryptid scene in the 90's, witness accounts varied. Some described a lizard-like creature with quills, while others reported something more like your standard big-headed-big-eyed alien. Current descriptions and actual photo evidence depicts something more like a hairless hyena/greyhound hybrid. This latter incarnation is what my client requested.

It certainly was a fun project to research, and I'm happy with the final illustration. Perhaps a career as a cryptozoological sketch artist lies in my future.

Little Red Wagon

I have a thing for Radio Flyer wagons. I'm not sure what it is about them. Maybe it's that I never had one of my own as a child. A few years ago, my very kind wife gave me one for Christmas. I don't use it for any practical reasons. It's just displayed in our home like one might display a sculpture. Also, it serves as a very fancy cat bed.

Not long before the Radio Flyer Christmas, a band called The Wagon Riders asked me to illustrate a write-in poster for them, the idea they presented was one I could not resist, a Radio Flyer serving as a covered wagon. An idea so simple and cohesive, I wish I'd thought it up myself.

Looking back, I'm still very pleased with the way the poster turned out. Though it's less likely a thing of pride than it is my fondness of the subject matter. It's like a kid's first hot rod. Those too young for a Big Wheel license can surely be trusted to drag around a Radio Flyer, or to potentially traverse the Great Plains in one.

"It Happened" Happened

Back in June, I illustrated a poster for It Happened But Nobody Noticed, a documentary about the Connecticut punk/new wave scene from 1978 to 1988. Opening night was this past Sunday, and I had a front row seat for the second sold-out screening.

photo by Jamie Arabolos

The vibe in the room was warm and friendly, like a less awkward high school reunion. Packed mostly with folks who were actually doing their punk rocking between '78 and '88, the nostalgia was contagious. One of the moments that made my night was seeing the It Happened poster signed by attendees of both screenings.

photo by Jamie Arabolos

In my opinion, the film is fantastic. However, there's a strong possibility that I'm biased, as it is the story of the beginnings of a music scene that I would later become a part of. Nonetheless, it is a look at a sliver of punk rock history, and I get the idea that even those outside of Connecticut would find it entertaining. Featuring new interviews and grainy archive footage, It Happened tells a complete story and succeeds in transporting the viewer back in time. Congratulations to the filmmakers, JL Sonic and EM Schrader, for putting together a sincere documentary.