Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Beardsley Tribute

The story behind this: As part of the graduation hoopla over at the Savannah College of Art and Design, someone got the bright idea to hand out hundreds of paper parasols, and have a contest to decorate them among the walking graduates. Well, this was a poorly thought out plan, since the umbrellas are not only made of the flimsiest paper, but are also glued and shellacked, making any media very hard to apply. And of course the umbrella can't be folded up after painting, or collaging, or whatever.
By happenstance, earlier that day, I was browsing a used bookstore, and came upon an Aubrey Beardsley illustrated copy of Oscar Wilde's Salome. Awesome, art Deco stuff. Well, not until earlier today did I connect "parasol" to "surreal art deco turn-of-the-century masquerade ball" which, when you think of it, is obvious. Not only would it fit well on an umbrella, I'm sure my acrylic ink will do the job of sticking to it. This is the final design, and I think I've got the competition well licked.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Groucho Munx



I painted this Munny for a show and ended up selling it to the owner of the Savannah Mall. Hot Dog! That's a real cigarette he's holding. On the bottom is the cake that they made for the event, based on, I'm guessing Gary Baseman. Only the head was edible, but it was really good.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

So a guy walks into a bar...


So, a rabbi, a blonde, a duck, and a lawyer all walk into a bar, and the bartender says, "What is this, some kind of joke?"

Love Shark Baby, Yeah





The main players in my shark animation. We have a black-tip reef shark, a white tip reef shark, a nurse shark, a parrotfish, and a red grouper.

What happens is the parrotfish eat the algae, the groupers eat the parrotfish, and the sharks eat the groupers. If sharks are over-fished, the groupers will devour all of the parrotfish and algae will choke the reef. And as anyone who has a swimming pool knows, algae blooms are disgusting.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Reef Madness





These are for an animation I'm doing for a client, on the effects of sharks on coral reef systems. That's a healthy reef on top, and a toxic reef on the bottom, along with some of the critters that live there. I'll post more on this project as it comes along.