Color Poem #70

the actual color of christmas trees is similar to
but really not at all the same as the emerald in
your standard red-and-green christmas decor

it’s got more blue more gray even somehow
more white   a shifting nature color rather
than a monolithic manufactured one

Representation Matters Mentorship Program

I'm just now wrapping up my first session as a Representations Matters mentor and cannot say enough good things about this program. Dedicated specifically to creating opportunities for people of color to enter the publishing industry -- through direct one-on-one mentor/mentee relationships -- the program is well-thought-out, smart, targeted, clear, and directly helpful. The experience of being a part of it was wonderful, and, I'm happy to report, my mentee did indeed get a publishing job by the end of our six month session. Rather than me trying to paraphrase what the program is, how it does what it does, and why, here's some info about it in its own words: 

LA 2018

The thing about LA is that it's a place of hidden treasures. Almost nothing -- with the notable exception of the pink building above -- presents itself to you as a gift freely given. Rather you must ferret out secrets to find the cool stuff. And there is loads and loads of cool stuff, if you can just find it. Amazing stores are tucked into blocks full of nothing but auto body shops. Galleries wait behind unmarked doors. Greenhouse restaurants and enormous demonic fireplaces lurk on the roofs of hotels. You ask around, you read up online, you keep your ear to the ground for a couple of years and every time you hear about something that sounds neat you make a note of it for your next trip. It's a fun game to play, if you have the time and energy.

Pegasus Books

Here's Pegasus Books on Solano Avenue in Berkeley -- part of the same, slightly older, series of drawings of Berkeley buildings that were significant to me in my youth, as that drawing of the Oaks Theater I posted the other day.

The Broad Museum

When I was in LA last month I visited the Broad Museum. The collection was just as next-level as everyone had said it would be. Literally just about every single piece of art in the whole place is by a top-drawer, blue-chip, household-name type artist. Like, I’ll put captions on my photos to be a virtuous attributor, but with a few exceptions I almost wouldn’t have to. The stuff is that iconic. This museum houses the massive private collection of husband and wife art collecting duo Eli and Edythe Broad. As with the Fischer collection at SFMOMA, their personal taste is very much in evidence. While not all of that taste overlapped with my personal taste, enough of it did to make the visit very enjoyable. Here are some of my favorites.

Above: Barbara Kruger

Ellsworth Kelly

Glann Ligon

Jean-Michele Basquiat

Cindy Sherman

Jean-Michele Basquiat

Jeff Koons

Roy Lichtenstein

Jean-Michele Basquiat

Sam Francis

Andy Warhol

Ed Ruscha

Jean-Michele Basquiat

Keith Haring

Barbara Kruger

Sam Francis

Jean-Michele Basquiat

Ellsworth Kelly

Barbara Kruger

 Cy Twombly

Ellsworth Kelly

Barbara Kruger

Ellsworth Kelly

Color Poem #69

who knew the
pink paper and
the pink chair
would play so
well together

Speaking at ArtCenter

I was in LA the other week to do any number of things, but first and foremost to speak at ArtCenter College of Design. I was a guest speaker in a class on "Illustration for Publishing" and it was a delight to get to talk about the publishing process to a roomful of students so engaged with the topic, and then afterwards to get to see the work they'd been doing in their class (that's what's going on above), which was truly fantastic.