SS Halo Logo: Study for Singled Sided Hearing

This illustration was a done as a favor for a friend in the medical field. The project was for a grad school course involving a mock research grant proposal for a study on single-sided hearing – the proposed research would invoke youth with single sided hearing loss and quality of life outcomes.

The Seattle-based team wanted a ship to represent their study, called SS Halo, and from a few digital sketches chose this one to use as their icon. The only requirements were that it should have some orange and blue to feel connected to the Seattle Children’s Hospital and the name be prominent in the clean and simple illustration.

One of the options not chosen was a more whimsical style that led to the series “Famous Ships in Bottles”. I often find that cast offs from paid creative work is what I am most drawn to and helps inspire side projects and personal illustrations.

The SS Halo
The SS Halo

Tandem Activity Book: Radio Show, News, and Hot Air Balloon

Here are the last spreads from the illustrated book I worked on for Leafcutter Designs through Chronicle Books that was published last fall. It’s a Tandem Activity Book – a journal you complete with other people – with drawing, writing, storytelling, and games that you can complete as friends, strangers or somewhere in between. News is that sales are strong, so join in the fun by ordering the Tandem Activity Book…

Make a song list for a radio show that includes three songs that remind you of your friend and three songs that are about you. Rotate the book, try to hum your friend’s songs, and explain your choices.
Make a song list for a radio show that includes three songs that remind you of your friend and three songs that are about you. Rotate the book, try to hum your friend’s songs, and explain your choices.
The morning paper just arrived. What do you wish was on the front page? Fill the newspaper with the best news you can imagine, then rotate the book and share.
The morning paper just arrived. What do you wish was on the front page? Fill the newspaper with the best news you can imagine, then rotate the book and share.
If you were in this balloon together, where would you like to be floating? Draw yourselves in the balloon and the landscape below.
If you were in this balloon together, where would you like to be floating? Draw yourselves in the balloon and the landscape below.

Tandem Activity Book: Factory and Lost Button Game

tandem-activity-book-promo

Here are some more spreads from the illustrated book I worked on for Leafcutter Designs through Chronicle Books that was published last fall. It’s a Tandem Activity Book – a journal you complete with other people – with drawing, writing, storytelling, and games that you can complete as friends, strangers or somewhere in between.

If you co-owned a factory, what would it produce?
If you co-owned a factory, what would it produce?
Lost Button Game. Who will be the first to find the one button with four holes instead of two? Ready, set, go!
Lost Button Game. Who will be the first to find the one button with four holes instead of two? Ready, set, go!
Photo from Leafcutter Designs
Creating your own constellation spread – photo from Leafcutter Designs.

The book is available for sale on Amazon, as well as in many bookstores.

Scandinavian Museum Tour

While spending time in Denmark for the holidays I tried to hit up as many art museums as possible while having a 20-month-old in tow and Christmas traditions to uphold. Here is a run down of some of the inspiration and impressions I managed to pack in.

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Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen DK

An exhibit on Yayoi Kusama was trippy in many respects – her art, her process, and her personal life. Moving by herself to America in 1957, she obsessively pursued her minimalist and conceptual style focusing on infinity and self-obliteration. Or, in layperson’s terms: DOTS! DOTS EVERYWHERE! In her later years she moved home to live in an asylum so she could focus on her art. So, yeah, dedication…to dots.

Yayoi Kasuma infinity net painting.
Yayoi Kasuma infinity net painting.
Yayoi Kasuma obliteration performance.
Yayoi Kasuma obliteration performance.
Yayoi Kasuma obliteration performance.
Yayoi Kasuma obliteration performance.
Yayoi Kasuma red dot room.
Yayoi Kasuma red dot room.

A visually oriented and comprehensive source of information on Yayoi Kusama, current exhibits, reviews & articles and much more can be found on Artsy.com. David Zwirner also has curated info on Yayoi and her shows/dates/info here.

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Konsthall, Malmo SE

A very abstract collection of video work from Joan Jonas titled Light Time Tales required in-depth reading of the exhibit pamphlet (read for yourself), but also had a few gems that required minimal head scratching. My favorite was a projector shining through hung crystals on a video of crystals being moved around.

Joan Jonas and her magic crystals.
Joan Jonas and her magic crystals.
A picture that best conveys what the exhibit felt like.
A picture that best conveys what the exhibit felt like.

Even an interview with artist commentary doesn’t provide that much explanation, but maybe that’s what it’s all about.

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Castle Museum + Technical and Seafaring Museum, Malmo SE

A combination of a castle with historical content, a modern art museum, and a kid-friendly hands-on museum of industry and transportation, this was a trifecta of learning. Most of the castles in Denmark are more fulfilling in the fairytale way, but there was a lot to see and do here – including an exhibit on religion and faith (read pamphlet for Rainbow in the Dark: On the Joy and Torment of Faith), immigration to Sweden then and now, and going inside a submarine. And this BMW Isetta.

A BMW built for two.
A BMW built for two.

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Form Design Center, Malmo SE

Architects Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto & Ola Rune (with an easy to remember url of claessonkoivistorune.se) had a cross section of work spanning from small scale custom architecture, space design, furniture and product design. Definitively new Scandinavian.

Claesson Koivisto Rune - five chair.
Claesson Koivisto Rune – five chair.
Claesson Koivisto Rune - raman house.
Claesson Koivisto Rune – raman house.
Claesson Koivisto Rune - folded roof house.
Claesson Koivisto Rune – folded roof house.

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Another small excerpt I enjoyed from the Louisiana trip was a part of a series by Dutch artist Marcel van Eden comprised of charcoal drawings based on historical fact but telling its own narrative, all occurring before his birth in 1965. In an interview he claims his work is “just like life, it makes no sense”. So there you have it!

Charcoal drawing by Marcel van Eeden.
Charcoal drawing by Marcel van Eeden.

Well Vegan Promo

At the start of the year resolutions are in full effect, and if your goal is to go vegan then here is the plan for you! Long-time client Well Vegan and I teamed up again to create a simple promo postcard to be included in the first box of goodies in 2016 from Vegan Cuts.

While the service might seems simple – meal planning and shopping lists – you can find much more on wellvegan.com including a ton of free recipes, a basic guide to tofu, and how to make kid-friendly vegan lunchables.

Front of postcard illustration for Vegan Cuts promotion.
Front of postcard illustration for Vegan Cuts promotion.

Tandem Activity Book: Thumb Wrestling, World Map, and a Treehouse

Here are some more spreads from the Tandem Activity Book I worked on for Lea Redmond through Chronicle Books. You can order it online or read more about the project.

The strategies for thumb wrestling can be complex – sharp nails, stealthy pouncing, the fast dance fake-out, genetically long thumbs, overpowering with pure strength, and good old fashioned luck – so be sure to choose carefully, as it’s usually over in less than 30 seconds.

Thumb wrestle in the ring. Keep score by coloring in the flag for each bout you win.
Thumb wrestle in the ring. Keep score by coloring in the flag for each bout you win.

I feel like this spread should have been a giant fold out.

Mark all the places you've ever been with an X and the places you want to go with an O.
Mark all the places you’ve ever been with an X and the places you want to go with an O.

For all of us who fantasized about treehouses as a child but instead built forts out of stacks of firewood…

Design your own treehouses then add creative ways to communicate or travel between them.
Design your own treehouses then add creative ways to communicate or travel between them.