Art

Coming full circle: Returning to illustration

bowtie girl illustration I'm working on

I think I can safely say that I was born into illustration. My mom was an illustrator doing work for Cosmo, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Bloomingdales etc. I was always posing for her polaroid reference shots (ah… the good old 80’s). A make-up how to, a fashion spread, a children’s book, you name it. She worked in colored pencil, pastel, and watercolor mostly.

My ideal day as a kid was to wake up go to my hand-me-down drawing table and just draw all day. I drew fashion girls that looked like Katy Keene, princesses, narratives, etc. So When I majored in illustration, no one was surprised. I loved working the way I did in college, I learned so much but the work was not intrinsically me. So I moved away from it toward painting thinking that that would be better for me. But somehow I never felt totally comfortable working like that either.

So now, years later I’m returning to my childhood roots and working the way I love. I’m currently putting together a portfolio and website and just finished a slew of illustrations for fashion designer/ blogger Mary Jo Matsumoto that she’ll be posting on her site soon. I’m working on the illustration above, playing with background, color, and cropping. More later.

Australian artist Lily Piri: Magical illustrations

Lilly Piri

There’s something so quiet, soft, and yet arresting about Lily Piri’s work. I can feel the sadness in the eyes of her subjects and also their sweet effervescence.

Her drawings skills are amazing. I’d love to buy a piece from her when we finally move to a new apartment. I’m mesmerized by her lines and colors. I could stare at one of her pictures for hours making up narratives in my mind.

If I ever go to Australia I’d love to visit her studio. I picture her working in a sunny room with a little bouquet of delicate flowers on her drawing table and a soft kitty curled at her feel. If I were ever to commission someone to illustrate the Little Prince, It’d be Lily.

Hope Gangloff…proof that my little brother is cooler than me.

Hope Gangloff

My artist brother/Pratt frosh/post-rock star (if you don’t know what post- rock is than you are also not as cool as him) discovered artist Hope Gangloff at Third Ward in Brooklyn. Her work really interests me in that she totally limits herself to the immediacy of ballpoint pen in red, blue, and black. There’s quick directness and freshness of the moment in a scene. At the same time there’s a painstaking attention to detail. Evidently she works from photographs, mostly candid shots of young people hanging out and socializing. Photography flattens out these moments and encapsulates the subjects in their position. Hope crops in, framing these scenes carefully and meaningfully. Her compositions remind me of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Further, her subject matter is evocative of a painter I saw a few months ago at Mixed Greens Leah Tinari.

By the way my friend Jolie finished the marathon in lightning speed 3:44:58. I ran upper Manhattan through the Bronx and back into Central Park with her. She’s so great. I’m inspired to run the marathon again next year! Yeah Jolie!

Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge using multiple cameras to capture motion

muybridge photo

I’ve always been fascinated by Eadweard Muybridge‘s photography and his ability to set up multiple cameras that captured the motion of athletes and animals prior to celluloid film. He was definitely a visionary.

I ran the NYC marathon a few years ago and have been running with my running buddy/ best friend of 17 years (who will be running it this coming weekend) to warm her up for the big race.

We ran all the half marathons in the 5 boroughs this year. Well, almost. I ran 4 and she gave me a pass on my birthday so I didn’t run the Staten Island race. Next year perhaps. Sunday should be a great day.

I’m going to run mile 18-21 with her (if I can keep up). That’s a rough spot if I recall. But she’s a total champion. Go Jolie!

1/2 marathons 4 boroughs

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