It has long been my dream to create imagery and products for Children’s Fairyland in Oakland. I figure if I can make something nice for a place as special as that, then I’m doing my job. Fairyland is unique in lots of ways - so unique, in fact, that when Walt Disney saw it in the 1950’s, he modeled Disneyland after it. I got to make that groovy Fairyland Library Card a few years back, but this! This! IS SOMETHING ELSE: For Pride events this year in Oakland, I have been working with Fairyland to create a whole line of pins and clothing. Cute, right?
Huzzah! Huzzah! The images below (in the Uncommissioned and Surface Design categories) were accepted into the Society of Illustrators 31 exhibit and book! Thanks ever so to the Judges!
five of my pieces were selected for inclusion and will be published in the 3x3 Illustration Annual Number 15. Thank you to 3x3 and the Judges! The winning entries are below.
I'm excited to announce that an image I created for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker's winter tour was chosen to appear online at the American Illustration 37 archive here. Thanks to the judges! This was part of the "We're A Band Trip" collection. See them all here, and getcherself a copy of the poster here.
Happy New Year. I am very glad to share this new site with you, and some very good news. Three pieces of mine were accepted into this year's Society of Illustrators 30 contest in the Poster, Kids Book, and Surface Design categories. See the accepted pieces below, and a big THANK YOU to the judges!
This piece was created for Oakland Animal Services.
This poster was created for Camper and Cracker's Winter 2016 shows.
This image was created for my kids book ABC Oakland.
The release party for my new kids' book ABC Oakland is on April 29 at Oaklandish, 1444 Broadway (between 14th and 15th) from 5-7 pm.
ABC Oakland is a collaborative venture between myself, Heyday, and Oaklandish. The Book is itself a celebration of Oakland, its iconic monuments, and its storied history, that is fun for younger audiences and adults alike. ABC Oakland highlights everything from famous streets and boulevard such as Broadway Avenue, to Children's Fairyland and other icons, to the Ohlone people, who have lived in what is modern-day Oakland since before Spanish colonization. Michael, Heyday and Oaklandish all wanted to make this book a fully educational body that simultaneously celebrates the Town's history and people.
In order to make this book accessible to all of the Town's children, Oaklandish and Heyday are teaming up with the Oakland Unified School District to provide a copy of 'ABC Oakland' to every kindergarten classroom in the city!
In addition to the book's release, I am teaming up with Oaklandish on a t-shirt collaboration that will be in-store the day of the event.
So please join us from 5-7pm on the 29th to celebrate ABC Oakland, listen to live music by Special Ghosts, and pick up your own copy of ABC Oakland! Here's the book trailer (thank you to Andy for his patience and iphone skillz):
Also: Meet me at Children's Fairyland on Saturday May 6 for Turn the Page, a children's book festival featuring 25 local artists and illustrators! I will be on hand to sign books all day, from 10-4.
More ABC Oakland: A is for Aviary, a home for the birds; B is for Broadway, from College to Third. C is for Cranes standing tall in the sky; D is for Dogs, wagging tails, saying “hi!” On May 26 at 7 pm, I will be hosting a fun-filled PJ Party at Diesel Book’s Oakland location! Kids are encouraged to come ready to party in their PJs and excited for cookies and milk. Look for: Milk. Cookies. Drawing. Singing!
Even more ABC Oakland: Laurel Books has generously offered to host another ABC Oakland event at their lovely shop right on Broadway and 14th Street on May 27 at 2:00 pm (which is the day after the Diesel event)! I have a feeling we'll be attempting to draw their beautiful building. Maybe I'll bring a bunch of sketchpads and we can walk around the building. There will probably be: Lots more Drawing. Even more Singing!
See you at one (or more) of these events, and thanks!
Friendlies:
are you sitting comfortably? Good. Let me tell you a story.
Back in 2011 (my, how time flies), Jim Winters and I set out to make a follow-up book to his artists' book Queen for a Day. Jim Worked up a set of coats-of-arms, and I did portraits of my favorite queens. We hand printed the whole shebang at Inky Oxnard Studios on Rives BFK and trimmed and glued the prints into accordion-folded books. Behold.
On the left, my queens (interspersed with Jim's coats-of-arms) :
The B-52's. Siouxsie Sioux. Elizabeth Taylor from the movie Boom. Lynda Barry. Helen Lawson from the movie Valley of the Dolls. Pepper LaBeija. Rosalind Russell from Auntie Mame.
If you don't know who they are, then you haven't lived.
These are the colorful, talented, quirky, smart-as-a-whip ladies who inspire me to keep on making stuff every day.
This year's Posters design for the CVB/Cracker shows are done, ladies and gentlepeople, and I'm very excited about them. Here it is. It's a portrait of our favorite unwilling participant, Patty Hearst, aka Tania.
Friendlies, here it is: the annual end-of-year 2-color freakout/12 x 18" poster for the Crampers. Lassie as vehicle for the spirit of music. Available at the shows and at the shop (soon). xm
Friendlies:
I'm attempting a little experiment over here. We (the royal we) have created a monthly inbox zine called Wertzeen. If you sign up, it will arrive, like a magic mist, in your email inbox. Once a month, and no more than once a month. It is a zine without the paper: a zeen. We’ll keep you informed not just of our illustrative scribblings and meanderings but also of the happenings of the Bay Area creative community. It will be good fun, and it means you no harm. It is free and easy. If this interests you, click on over to this page.
I'm posting issue #001 tomorrow, and I can't wait.
.. and when I say LOVE you best believe I'm in LOVE L-U-V.
A one-color poster design for the Oakland Museum and Oakland Pride. I'll be with the OMCA's "mobile unit", teaching folks how to screenprint their own take-away posters at the Pride festivities. We'll be close to the intersection of Broadway and 14th. Come say hi!
friendlies,
our little uke band special ghosts (it's andy, isabel, and yours truly) is playing the burlington hotel on july 18th. if you haven't been to port costa yet, it's time to treat yourself. be sure to have dinner at the bull valley roadhouse before the show.
here's a flyer, and some images of isabel and i screenprinting little stuffed ghost pillows for sale at the show. thanks to bloom press for hosting.
Friendlies,
I unearthed these 2008 CVB posters a few weeks back and put them back up in the shop so I thought I'd unearth the video of me making them in the basement. In the most hoopty sweater-and-haircut combination possible. See also the final poster and the sketch for the Cracker record that inspired the poster. Enjoy.
The release party for my new kids' book ABC Oakland is on April 29 at Oaklandish, 1444 Broadway (between 14th and 15th) from 5-7 pm.
ABC Oakland is a collaborative venture between myself, 
Here's to