Rube Goldberg at the CJM

Went with Mabel and Bill to see the Rube Goldberg show at the Contemporary Jewish Museum the other day. It involved more reading and less laughing than I'd anticipated, but was still pretty darn entertaining.

Color Poem #46

the napkins I bought
a good year or more
before I moved out
and kept in a box
are plaid

dandelion yellow
soft lime green
bright fuchsia
turquoise
orange

Two Places In Which My Drawings Have Been Published

Though I've talked before about the book launch party / art show for the book I'd Rather Be Reading in which one of my drawings appeared, I just realized I've never shown you here the actual drawing inside the actual book. Here is is!

Also, down below, you'll catch a glimpse of some shiny blue balloons spelling out the word "YOU" - those are from the launch party for the brand new YOU Magazine, in which, just in case anyone needs a reminder, I illustrated an article by (omg omg omg) Roxane Gay. The magazine is now available, FOR FREE!, right here.

How Book #2!

I have started work on my follow-up book to How Art Can Make You Happy! I'm doing research, conducting interviews, and writing away. It's great fun. My new entrant to the series will be published in the Fall of 2019. Before that, next Spring, will come a couple of other volumes in the series, not written by me - but rather by experts on their respective topics. Much more to come, here, about this lovely little series as time goes on!

Zelma Rose Necklace #1

I've been wanting for some time to draw each of my two necklaces from the amazing Zelma Rose. Finally, here is the first one, pictured in cozy juxtaposition with the actual necklace itself.

Ruth Asawa's Tools

While I was at SFMOMA the other day to see the Akomfrah / Turner show I happened to also stumble upon a display of the artist Ruth Asawa's tools - the very ones, presumably, that she used to make sculptures such as the one below (which hangs in a different part of the museum). My enjoyment in looking at them was somewhat marred by a middle-aged white couple - no, wait, scratch that, I keep forgetting, I'm middle-aged, so that makes them: an elderly white couple loudly griping about such humble items being so reverently displayed in a glass vitrine. But I thought it was pretty cool. If you've ever seen the Imogen Cunningham photo of Asawa making art while sitting on the floor surrounded by her kids (second image down, below), then you have a pretty good idea why, from a feminist perspective, the fact of her ruler and her pencil and her butter knife being on show in a major museum is actually a pretty big deal.

Color Poem #45

audacious stone white dragon
magical electric blue frog
tenacious tender tan armadillo
powerful sandstone pink totem

как искусство может сделать вас счастливым

You guys! How Art Can Make You Happy has been translated into Russian! Holy smokes. Such a trip to see these familiar words in a completely different alphabet. Check it out:

A New Freelance Gig

I'm excited and honored that the same art director who hired me for that AMAZING Roxane Gay illustration job - the super rad Brian McMullen - has brought me back on board for a new job for a different magazine. I woke up super early Sunday to work on it and got to bust out a different, more mother-nature-y color palette than my usual. More news on this to come!

Intra-Office Mail Envelope

An oldie but a goodie, in both senses of the word: I drew this envelope a relatively long time ago, and the sample I drew it from was from quite a long time ago.

Sublime Seas: John Akomfrah and J. M. W. Turner

It is extremely difficult to do justice in words to the current SFMOMA show Sublime Seas: John Akomfrah and J. M. W. Turner. It is simply awesome. Not "awesome" in the everyday sense of cool, rad, groovy. No. Rather in the sense of that which evokes awe. Akomfrah's work is a large scale three-screen video installation called Vertigo Sea - three interwoven films that bring together sublime nature imagery, raw images from ocean-born refugee crises and the whaling industry, and enigmatic images of a Black man in historical garb standing in vast landscapes. There's a lot going on all at once - much of extremely beautiful and much of it deeply disturbing. Your eyes don't know where to look, your brain's not sure what to think, and your heart feels conflicting emotions simultaneously. At the artist's request this work is paired with Turner's painting The Deluge (just below), creating yet another mysterious and moving juxtaposition. 

Color Poem #44

if you let it the
color of the sky

will mesmerize you with happiness
and what the hell color is it anyway?

not a pastel not one little bit but
rather a color made of pure light

way darker and deeper than the pale color
that apparel manufacturers name sky blue

way less green and turquoise than
the ceiling of grand central station

nearly impossible to mix with paint
since it’s got virtually no white in it

nothing matches it except once in a while the
ocean and some people’s eyes including mine

S18

It's here! It's here! The day I get to show you ALL the books and paper products I edited for Chronicle Books for our illustrious Spring 2018 season. This is all stuff that is already available now, or will be very soon, from anyplace you like to buy books. And, can I just say? I got to work with so many amazing talents this time around. Check it out:

Lorna Simpson Collages by Lorna Simpson, introduction by Elizabeth Alexander

The Wing Reader: An Illustrated Poem by Brooke Smith, illustrated by Brian Rea

Deeply Grateful and Entirely Unsatisfied: A Book for Anyone Wondering if Life is Giving You Magical Gifts or Just Messing With You by Amanda Happé

With Love, Adventure, and Wildflowers Notes by Katie Daisy

Wanderlust and Wildflowers Colored Pencils by Katie Daisy

The Wildflower's Workbook: A Journal for Self-Discovery in Nature by Katie Daisy

How to Make Hand-Drawn Maps: A Creative Guide with Tips, Tricks, and Projects by Helen Cann

William Wegman Address Book, by William Wegman

Good Dogs on Nice Furniture Notes by William Wegman

Think Small: The Tiniest Art in the World by Eva Katz

Say Yes: A Journal for Dreaming Big by Leah Reena Goren

On Doing Nothing: Finding Inspiration in Idleness by Roman Muradov

Creative Alchemy: Meditations, Rituals, and Experiments to Free Your Inner Magic by Marlo Johnson

The Color Collector's Handbook: A Journal for Discovering the Colors in Your Everyday by Leah Rosenberg

Make Change: Art to Inspire Action (Chronicle Books is a proud supporter of the ACLU)

If you want to see previous seasons of things I've worked on, going all the way back the the Fall of 2011 (holy crap!), simply type the relevant season abbreviation (F17, S17, F16, etc.) into the search box right over there up on the right. Watch my photography skills devolve as you go back in time. Fun for the whole family!