Assessing Bloomberg
Client: City Hall Magazine Art Director: Mitchell Hoffman
City Hall Magazine contacted me to illustrate the cover of New York City Mayor Micheal Bloomberg. The article is titled, “An Assessment of Bloomberg’s Third Term So Far, Measuring Up.” It is always an honor to be asked to paint a cover for a client—City Hall is no exception. (This assignment was the beginning of a flurry of work a few days before I took a week off for summer vacation! Murphy’s Law or Karma?)
City Hall Cover
Left Leaning?
Client: City Hall Magazine, Art Director: Mitchell Hoffman
Mitchell Hoffman of City Hall Magazine recently asked me to illustrate an article about a progressive caucus and their efforts to pull City Hall in New York more to the left. I moved out of New York state way back in 1992 but these spots for Manhattan Media keep me fairly well-informed about New York politics. Ironic, isn’t it?
Comedy Isn’t Pretty
Who is this guy and why is his foot in a jar of mayonnaise?
This is a portrait I painted of Comedian Matt Champagne for Vegas Seven Magazine. Matt writes about his recent gig doing stand-up for a week at the Riviera Hotel and Casino. Mr. Champagne doesn’t mince words when it comes to his complete loathing for the Riviera (and Sin City for that matter.) As for the mayonnaise, just read his article about the experience—after all, he’s a comedian and you could probably use a laugh.
Vito Lopez—The Lion in Winter
Client: City Hall Magazine Art Director: Mitchell Hoffman
I was contacted by Mitch Hoffman at Manhattan Media to illustrate the cover of City Hall Magazine recently. The story was a personality profile of Vito Lopez, a politician from New York.
Byron Brown’s Pigeon Coup
The capitol requested I illustrate a fairly straightforward spot of Buffalo New York’s Mayor Byron Brown releasing a pigeon. The metaphor being that of Steve Pigeon—an aide to billionaire Tom Golisano, who helped engineer a June 8 coup in Albany, being a liability to Byron Brown’s political ambitions.
Art Direction: Mitchell Hoffman for Manhattan Media
Four years after removing Steve Pigeon from his Senate staff, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has again moved to put distance between himself and Pigeon. (For those interested, this is what Steve Pigeon actually looks like. My favorite part of the picture is “that guy” in the background!)
Chatting with Artie Lange
Art Direction: Ryan Olbrysh at the Las Vegas Weekly
A spot illustration I did of Artie Lange who is performing in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock on June 27th.
The article contains gems such as this one, “I had a bad cocaine problem in the ’90s. The last five years have been heroin. Opiates and booze.”
Obama’s trip to Nevada
Art Director: Ryan Olbrysh for Las Vegas Weekly
Apparently, President Obama declined a meeting with the Governor of Nevada (Jim Gibbons) during his trip to Las Vegas on May 26th. In response, the Las Vegas Weekly contacted me to illustrate this “snub” by contrasting his cozy relationship with Senator Harry Reid to his indifference to the seemingly powerless Governor.
Andrew Cuomo
This illustration is for an article in the April 2009 issue of The Capitol titled, “Those who would succeed Andrew Cuomo begin to emerge.” Besides learning about the New York Attorney General and some New York State politics, I also learned that the “shoe thingy” is called a Brannock shoe measuring device.
When Cuomo ran for the office it was to succeed Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer was very effective and there was an ad floating around at the time of Cuomo’s run that showed him holding the shoe measuring device with a tag saying something like, “These are some big shoes to fill.”
Natalie Portman (Goauche Wash)
Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn
This is from an in-class demonstration I did on March 14th for my Illustration students at the Art Institute of Las Vegas.
It is Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn. It took about two and a half hours to get to this point. The media consists of nu-pastels on Arches watercolor paper with a gouache underpainting.
Here is what the sepia underpainting looked like before the pastels went on top.
The goauche underpainting
Las Vegas personalities
- Art Director: Beth Schwarz for Luxury Las Vegas Magazine
Luxury Las Vegas profiled four Las Vegas personalities and had me illustrate each one’s portrait.
Pictured are Governor Kenny Guinn, President of UNLV Carol Harter, Sheriff Bill Young, and Richard “Dick” Morgan dean of UNLV’s Boyd School of Law.
Norman Mailer
Art Director: Benjamen Purvis at the Las Vegas Weekly
This is a full page portrait of Norman Mailer. It was for an article detailing Norman Mailer’s enduring influence:
Samuel L. Jackson
Art Director: Benjamen Purvis for the Las Vegas Weekly
Snakes on a Plane—or as I see it, a chance to draw Sam Jackson!
Las Vegas Weekly (August 17–23 2006)