Works in RVA Mag Vol 5 Issue 8

A few of my illustrations - as well as a lot of other artists' incredible pieces - are exhibited in Volume 5 Issue 8 of RVA Magazine. You can have a peek on page 8 at RVAMag.com

Sleight of Hand 2 call for entries!

Sleight of Hand II: National Juried Contemporary
Craft Competition.

The Sleight of Hand II exhibition at Gallery5 seeks craft-makers who push the boundaries and definitions of craft. Craft-making is too often pigeon-holed into traditional definitions of basic utilitarian objects in clay, glass, wood, or metal. In reality, most craft-makers are not unlike fine artists in many respects. They push new concepts, introduce new materials and techniques, expand old techniques and use traditional materials in new ways. Gallery5 invites craft-makers fitting this criteria to submit their works to Sleight of Hand II.

Artists must be a resident of the United States

Up to $1000 in prizes
Jurors: TBA

Submission Fee: $20 for up to three works, $5 each additional work.
Submission Deadline: Wednesday, January 6th.
Notification of Selected Artists: Saturday, January 9th

Accepted artwork must be delivered to Gallery5 no later than Friday, January 29th.
Artwork must be packed in reusable packaging with return shipping label included.

Opening Reception and Award Ceremony: Friday, February 5th.
Exhibition Ends: Friday, February 26th.

Application can be downloaded here.

Repressed V call for entries!

REPRESSED V: FREE TO SPEAK May 2010

José María Heredia - poet: inspired the Cuban people to stand up and fight against Spain.

Seymor Chwast-designer - illustrator: his anti-war poster "End Bad Breath" indirectly encouraged the anti-war movement
of the 70's.

John Lenin and Yoko Ono - famous musicians/artists: created the powerful anti-war campaign stating "THE WAR IS OVER...if you want it to be."

What makes statement driven art so emotionally powerful? It being witness to a piece of work that creates a bond between you, the viewer and the creator of the piece. A bond that can change the direction of thought and purpose.
A successfully executed statement driven piece can be the catalyst that inspires the average person into an active agent for change. Art exists in societies to create shared dialogues and experiences. No matter the medium, art and artists can be the spark to establishing a commonality, to allow us to empathize with each other and encourage altruistic pursuits for the greater good.

Dedicated to social awareness, Gallery5 invites visual and performing artists to submit their statement focused work to Repressed V: Free to Speak.

More info and an application can be downloaded here.

New Work: ARGS Dance logo design

I was commissioned to redesign the ARGS Dance logo. The criteria was to utilize an androgynous figure that doesn't imply a specific type of dance and exhibits movement. I began with various reference photos of the dance students that focused on movement via long exposures. Above is the first - somewhat working - manifestation of the logo. Garamond seemed like the best typeface to compliment the figures. It has serifs that are reminiscent of a human being's arched foot.

Since the logo's quality at smaller scales would probably be mediocre - due to a loss of detail - I chose to isolate one of the figures.


After speaking with some of the dance students; I began to redraw the chosen figure multiple times. Their main concern was that the figure was just "a little too abstract." Above exhibits a progression from abstraction to a more satisfactory version (I spared you the multiple versions and narrowed them down to three).


This is the close to final version of the logo. I am currently working with the legs by implementing alternate poses and directional strokes. The type is also being reconsidered in placement and image to type ratio. The above version might stay the same or change slightly. Any changes will appear on this blog.

New Work: defacing the local tattoo shop

Here are some work in progress photos of a mural I was recently asked to help paint. It is currently unfinished. The other artists will continue working once it stops raining and they procure some scaffolding. I intend to post images of the finished mural on this blog.

If you would like to take a look at the mural in person; you may at 127 W Brookland Park Blvd. While you are there, you should get a tattoo or piercing. Brookland Park Tattoo hours are 12:00-8:00PM; 7 days a week. More info about the tattoo and piercing artists can be found here.

As always click on images to enlarge.



My contribution to the mural.

Inspiration, cool stuff, etc #20

Nuru put together three in house videos dealing with social advertising.

The End (Jake's Story) from Nuru International on Vimeo.
Nuru founder and CEO Jake Harriman attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served over 7 years in the Marine Corps as an Infantry Platoon Commander and a Special Operations Platoon Commander for an elite unit called Force Recon. During his career, Jake assisted in numerous humanitarian and disaster relief operations in the developing world resulting in what he feels is the best way to combat terrorism; to combat poverty.

Diario De Oaxaca by Peter Kuper
"Painting a vivid, personal portrait of social and political upheaval in Oaxaca, Mexico, this unique memoir employs comics, bilingual essays, photos, and sketches to chronicle the events that unfolded around a teachers' strike and led to a seven-month siege."

Liu BolinChinese artist whom camouflages himself into the urban landscape and documents it

The Great American Hackathon- an event hosted by Sunlight LABS (teamed up with Mozilla, Google, Redhat and Fedora) encouraging government transparency by developing open source government tools

Data visualization of a "choose your own adventure book"
by Christian Swinehart

Inspiration, Art, Etc #19

So I havent been posting for a little while because I have been inking "The Little Black Fish" comic and slowly loosing my ability to use my hands. Enjoy.


Iranian rapper P.Cantell feat. Ian Hooper performs, A Million Shadows (Tehran, Iran), in response to the Iranian election protests.

Start Asking-Ryan Fitzgibbon's solution to the final challenge of Command X: Season 2, a statement about civil rights.

Sustainability Six designers around the world comment on sustainability.

Dieter Rams-10 Design principles.

The Reitveld Academie Blog has been exhibiting an interesing series of reviews on book design via casual walks through the library almost like the Situationist's Derive.

Ways to improve the design of your blog. Kind of remedial, but good suggestions all the same.

Hand cut maps by Karen O'Leary-wow. Just wow.

Anti-smoking campaign with art direction by Shaun Velka, executive creative direction/photography by Sharad Haksar and creative cirection by Anantha Narayan

Gabriel Prosser strikes back! (revisited)

One of the activists, whom helped establish the Gabriel Prosser marker in Richmond, mentioned that the illustration might be a more powerful image if I replaced the soldiers with slave owners and militia men. Since these changes would not be difficult, I made them, but kept the gray and blue to function as a foreshadowing of events. Even though the slave owner/militia zombies and Gabriel's ghost could hypothetically exist anytime from their respective deaths to the present.

Reflection on the new version:
I enjoy the way the added whip breaks up the space, however, I am a little upset about the lack of iconic hats to effectively present the time period. I also decided to keep the bayonets because research revealed to me that they were commonly used to torture slaves.

Anyways, I would like to pose the questions: Stay with the original (left)? Or the new version (right)?

Inspiration, cool stuff, etc #18

Video of D*Face, Artist :: Off The Wall from friendswelove.com on Vimeo.

10 tactic for Information Activism from Tactical Technology Collective on Vimeo.

Photo essay on Iraqi war victims by Mehdi Monem

Video documenting stencil street artist, Nunca

88bikes - an article about an organization that distributes bikes around the developing world.

Hey Jude infographic

Cell Size and Scale- An inforgraphic about the relative sizes of cells, coffee beans and type point sizes. (make sure you pull the slider)