Friday Fun
Christopher had the day off work today, so we decided to head out to Scottsdale and Tempe for some outdoor fun. Our first stop was Desert Botanical Gardens. This place is a a total snowbird tourist magnet, but it’s also a Phoenix area institution that reminds us of the beautiful flora and fauna that can still be found around here. C. had free passes, which included a special butterfly exhibit. The butterflies were great, and several of them were oddly attracted to my green shirt. After the gardens, we went thrift shopping and I found a set of small brown melamine bowls for my secret project. Then it was lunch at our favorite Mexican eatery in the area, La Fonda (a place that has stood in the same Scottsdale strip mall since I was a wee one!). We then drove to nearby Tempe to view the lake pouring water into the Salt River, and an exhibit on Chuck Jones at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The Jones exhibit was fantastic. It was mostly paintings and cericels from Jones’ personal collection, along with pencil drawings and other wonderful artifacts from the Warner Bros. cartoon vaults. A nice day — now I’m exhausted!
Inspiration: The Night Zoo
I’ll put the cover of The Night Zoo by illustrator Bob Staake here as a little pick-me-up to get me going through the week. Staake drew these animals on paper, cut them out with an x-acto, then arranged and spruced them up digitally. It falls into the kind of whimsical and charming stuff that I dig.
My own creative venture is coming along well. Despite a few mishaps, I hope to have it live this Spring. It seems like I’ve been working on this thing forever (just over a year, in fact), but the light at the end of the tunnel is appearing. Better make sure it isn’t a train.
They’re Fantastic, Made ‘o Plastic
Just finished scanning and uploading a bunch of random imagery for my Ephemera, Ads Ads Ads and Cool Vintage Illustration flickr sets. A few came from a Modern Plastics magazine annual from 1966 that C. recently acquired — including this lovely ad for Plexiglas (one ’s’ thank you). These also went into the Vintage Industry flickr group. Ephemeral fun for all!
Foxy and Brassy
Now that Christmas is over, I can reveal the main gift I gave to Christopher. Design Within Reach sells these Bosse brass animal figurines, reproduced from Viennese designs originally sold in the ’40s. Knowing how he loves animals and midcentury mod design, this was perfect for him. I got the fox pictured above — so cute (and tiny)!
Fine Feathered Friends
I’m pleased as punch with the illustration for our holiday card for this year. Best wishes for the season, everyone.
Witches’ Night Out
It’s Halloween! What spookiness will be planned? We’re having our yearly ritual of turning off the porch light, avoiding the neighborhood kiddies, shutting ourselves into a back room, and watching a scary movie. Because needy little sugar-addicted brats are the scariest things on earth! Here’s the only Halloween decor we have at the homestead:
Despite the avoidance of trick or treaters, I want to state that I am far from the Halloween version of a Scrooge. Earlier this week, I uploaded some scans of these terrific vintage “You’ll Die Laughing” cards that my friend Julie sent me a few years back. These wonderfully dark cards were illustrated by Mad man Jack Davis. Check out the four that I have in my Kiddie Korner flickr set.
Finally, I’ve also posted a Halloween-themed edition of my online comic, Two Bunnies and a Duck. I’ve been plugging away at the biweekly Two Bunnies for almost two years. While the project serves as a good way to keep my drawing and Photoshop skills honed, the thing barely gets any visitors or comments and it’s very discouraging. Please visit and, if you want to cheer me up, leave a comment. Thanks. Boo!
John Strejan Update
Remember that groovy Lady Godiva painting I posted about a couple of months ago? Shortly after acquiring it, I was having some difficulty finding any info on the painting or its creator, John Strejan. After posting a photo of the art on flickr, I heard from Strejan’s nephew. He confirmed that the painting was indeed by his uncle, painted in the ’60s before he became well-known as a pop-up book artist. Furthermore, he shared photos of four other paintings from the same period!
Love these. Mr. Strejan must have had a thing for full-figured gals.
Book Review: On Tender Hooks
Artist Isabel Samaras is one sick puppy. At least that’s the impression I got while looking through the paintings collected in On Tender Hooks: The Art of Isabel Samaras. Back in the ’90s, Samaras first made a name for herself by adorning cast-off metal trays with provocative images of classic TV characters in the style of old master painters. Picture Mary Ann and Ginger from Gilligan’s Island sharing a tender moment of Sapphic love, the cast of I Dream of Jeannie at Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass, or Batman’s Robin posed like a flirty Caravaggio boy. These pieces would seem silly if they weren’t rendered with such obvious affection for the characters.
Interesting as her earlier stuff is, Samaras’ work has gotten even better in recent years. Her painting technique has improved exponentially, giving the work that much more depth. Although she still handles pop culture subjects (a disturbing Marsha Brady with Maori tattoos, for example), more timeless themes such as fairy tales give the newer works a lot more resonance. They’re lush, dark and unsettling, reminding me a bit of Mark Ryden’s art. Supplemented with essays and interviews, this book is a beautifully designed showcase for Samaras’ abundant talents. If I could only get that image of Spock’s family jewels out of my head.
On Tender Hooks is published by Chronicle. Buy at Amazon here. Although I have a few spreads pictured below, you really have to visit Samaras’ official site to fully appreciate this stuff (she does a swell weblog, too).
Looney Placemats
This is a find — Looney Tunes placemats from the ’30s, one for each day of the week. The characters have a bit of an odd “off model” look, which makes the artwork even more charming in my opinion.
Book Review: The Handy Book of Artistic Printing
Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas’ book The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: A Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy is a long-titled exploration of a relatively short-lived trend in graphic design history. This beautifully designed volume covers a roughly two decade-long design fad from the late 19th-century that has previously been given scant attention by historians. With the emergence of letterpress and other new methods in the 1870s and ’80s, printers of the era showed off their wares and attracted clients in the form of promotional specimens. These particular specimens came emblazoned with the typically Victorian visual traits of excess ornamentation, strange color combinations, eclectic typefaces, and randomly jumbled layouts. Artistic Printing delves into every possible aspect of this phenomenon — how it came to be, a representative look at sixty different printers’ samples, and the movement’s ignoble fall in the juggernaut of 20th century modernist dogma.
This was such a cool book to page through, and oddly comforting in a way. Its centerpiece is the sixty printer’s specimens, each generally getting its own page with a nifty paragraph or two of background info on the opposite page. The specimens cover a gamut from the best of their kind to the run-of-the-mill and tacky. Many have a masturbatory “look at what I can do” bravado (in graphic design, some things never change), but the finest examples leave me breathless as to the care and craftsmanship good letter press printing requires. Sure, they may be as subtle as a lady’s hat festooned with a dead bird, but even the worst samples have a giddy exuberance. This book is the kind of effort that has inspiration on every page, right down to the weird and wonderful 1800s fonts reprinted in the back. One small complaint: in contrast to the lively and informative specimen descriptions, the text in the opening and closing chapters is very dryly written and academic (interesting and comprehensive, but still dry).
The odd thing about this particular trend is that it never fully disappeared. Printers’ ornaments of the era fell into the public domain, eventually getting re-published by the likes of Dover for new generations of designers to explore. As noted in Artistic Printing’s concluding chapter, this style is no more immune from other graphic styles for revival, preferably with a postmodern twist. For a good example, check out the cover story layout in the paper edition of the August 2009 Wired magazine — retro ornamentation everywhere!
The Handy Book of Artistic Printing comes from Princeton Architectural Press. Buy at Amazon.com here.
Budding Art Collector
I found the very ’60s, very pink painting below hanging in the bathroom of a Cottonwood, Arizona antique mall. It had a price tag of ninety-five dollars. I hemmed and hawed, but the artwork was so charming — and so obviously professional — that I decided to snatch it up (at a discount, no less).
This zaftig Lady Godiva immediately looked to be some kind of illustration art, perhaps for a greeting card company or Playboy type magazine. The name signed on the painting, Strejan, wasn’t a familiar sounding one to me, however. A little research uncovered an artist named John Strejan, who died in 2003. Strejan made his name as a preeminent pop-up book craftsman in the ’80s and ’90s. This painting looks to date from much earlier, but all I can find on him relates to his pop-up book career (perhaps the painting was by a different Strejan?). According to his New York Times obit, he had earlier worked as an art director for Teen magazine and Bullocks department store. I’m going to attempt contacting Mr. Strejan’s loved ones to see if they can shed some light on this enigmatic gal.
The Life and Career of Abner Graboff
Among modern children’s book illustrators from the ’50s and ’60s, Abner Graboff ranks as one of my personal favorites. Strangely enough, he’s not as well-known as some of his contemporaries, however. Wanting to shed some light on the now deceased man, the indefatigable Ward Jenkins contacted the artist’s son, Jon, and published an insightful interview on his weblog. Here’s part one and part two. Read and be inspired by all the artwork (like the spread from 1961’s I Know An Old Lady, below).
Incidentally, Ward’s first illustrated children’s book has just been published — How to Train with a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals by Michael Phelps and Alan Abrahamson. Congrats to him!
Book Review: Seymour
Surely you must know the name of Seymour Chwast, right? As the co-founder of legendary graphic design studio Push Pin, he was a prime mover in deflating the pomposity of modernism and ushering in the freer, more whimsical visual styles that defined the ’60s and ’70s. On a personal note, he was also one of the first artists whose work I noticed in books such as American Illustration 1982-83. One look at Chwast’s charming yet sophisticated imagery made me say “I want to do that” (side note: I’m still attempting to do that). Several decades of Chwast’s art, both commercial and personal, have been assembled in a handsome new book titled Seymour: The Obsessive Images Of Seymour Chwast.
This is one cool book. Most of its 262 pages are just what the title says: images, one to a page or spread, with annotations confined to the back few pages. Everything is grouped thematically in topics such as war, food, fashion and sex. There’s also the occasional oddball subject, such as a series of Mexican Wrestler pieces Chwast did in 2002. Although the art dates from as early as the 1960s and encompasses a wide variety of media (dig the cut sheet metal plates of food), certain things have remained constant in his work. A sense of whimsy is first and foremost. The re-purposing of various early 20th century design styles is also ever-present. Chwast also seems to have a constant fascination with exploring humankind’s frailties in a lighthearted way. The uselessness of war and the attraction of consumption are themes that come up over and over again in his work. The biggest impression I get here is that the man is a non-stop art machine. The introductory essay by famed Push Pin designer (and Mrs. Chwast) Paula Scher confirms it. I wonder if he ever has times when he turns the creativity switch “off.”
Seymour: The Obsessive Images Of Seymour Chwast is published by Chronicle. Buy at Amazon.com here.
Meat That Can’t Be Beat
Let’s talk ground meat. Especially the myriad ways ground meat could be prepared for that idea-strapped ’50s housewife. Exciting, eh?
Then again, maybe not. Let’s instead focus our energies on the chapter heading artwork from The Ground Meat Cookbook, forgotten bits of ephemeral cuteness which count among the latest additions to my Cool Vintage Illustration flickr set (note: this isn’t the first time I’ve been enamored of a Culinary Institute cookbook, nor will it likely be the last). Drawn by a lady by the name of Selma Quateman, these illustrations have a clunky charm that brings to mind some of Warhol’s pre-Pop Art stuff. It’s always funny to me how these old meat-based cookbooks never fail to sport drawings of adorable cows, horses, lambs, etc. The one of farm animals sniffing out a succulent meal is particularly sick. Have a looksee:
Mini Me Movie Maven
I always enjoy it when people share the childhood art projects, and never thought that I would also have that opportunity until my mother came by recently with a folder stuffed with old school photos and such. Also tucked away in the folder were assignments I did in the fourth and sixth grades. Coincidentally, both have an “old movie” theme. This doesn’t surprise me, since old cartoons and movies like The Wizard of Oz fueled my fascination with just about anything and everything produced before my birth date. Plus, I was always an artistic kid who wanted nothing more than to sit around and draw all day (the fact that I was constantly, constantly picked last for all sports team activities attested to that). So, what better way to convey my fascination with old crap than through old art?
Our first project is a homemade mask made in fourth grade art class, lovingly rendered in tempera and glitter. For some reason, I had a vague recollection of this one being of Charlie Chaplin. Actually, it was Groucho Marx. I probably never saw a Marx Brothers movie at this point, but even in the ’70s Groucho was so ingrained in pop culture that I knew enough of his distinctive look to want to make a mask of him. It’s cute:
Our second project is a written report I did on the history of the movies, dated January 1981. This had both a research and oral component (for which I got a B+ and an A, respectively). Of course, the most important part for me was drawing up a snazzy and complex cover design. It had to have an Art Deco font, right? Too bad I didn’t know enough about letter spacing not to mess up the “y” in “History”:
The bottom half of the report is various caricatures of Hollywood movie stars. Although I can’t identify most of them for the life of me, I do recognize a few. See if you can find Bob Hope, Greta Garbo, the Lone Ranger, Donald Duck, Barbra Steisand, Fay Wray in King Kong’s hand, Elvis Presley, Alfred Hitchcock, Shirley Temple, Charlie Chaplin, R2-D2, Mickey Mouse, W.C. Fields, Louis Armstrong, Lassie, Jimmy Durante, Godzilla, Snow White and Grumpy, and the Beatles amongst the crowd (I think a snotty “friend” of mine drew the extra long tongue coming out of Shirley Temple’s mouth!).
