poster my friend, justin and I did for a talk we had last week

great weekend. now its monday…back to work, but first some pictures.

I said it before - the James Jean show at the Jonathan Levine gallery, NYC is awesome.

Dave took me to the Annual Paper Americana Show in Elkton, MD on Saturday. I thought it was going to be sort of like a flea market - dirty building with dingy lighting and crazies all over the place. It was actually super organized with all sorts of ephemera, a lot of it expensive. I picked up a few old photos and postcards and a couple of books to convert into sketchbooks.

People-watching at the show was pretty interesting. It seemed as though everyone but me knew exactly what they were looking for, and were willing to shell out for things. There was a guy who was selling a lot signed Edward Gorey books, but they were all wayyy out of my price range.

The Brandywine River Museum is going to be having a show on Gorey’s work starting in March.

We went to Baltimore on Sunday to the American Visionary Art Museum, which was probably the most inspiring thing I’ve seen in a while. The whole notion of outsider art is fantastic. These people, artists, who often don’t consider themselves anything of the sort, are doing amazing things. Most of the work in the museum is by people who have had no formal training and are creating things without any worry about doing something wrong. It made me wonder what kinf of work I would be doing had I not focused on learning about art.

If you haven’t been, you have to go. Its only 8 bucks for students and I guarantee you will be inspired.

The elephant is so awesome. It was part of a kinetic sculpture race, as were a couple of others in the building. No pictures inside, please. Oops.

My two favorite artists of the day:
J.J. Cromer
Chris Roberts-Antieau

Also went to the aquarium in bmore. I was totally psyched to see a hammerhead shark, and alas, they were not out to play. But I did see a three-finned sea turtle. and a sloth.

We also hit up the Baltimore Museum of Art which has an impressive collection of everything from African to contemporary. The Cone Collection had a ton of work by Matisse, as well as van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin. Very worth going to if you’re in bmore (and the best part - its free!)

One of the things Dave has me working on is an oped piece for an article from the NY Times. The article is called The Essential Difference and its about the similarities and differences in men and women’s brains and how that may relate to autism in children.  

…males on average have a stronger drive to systemize, and females, to empathize. Systemizing involves identifying the laws that govern how a system works, whether that is a geometric system, a navigational system, a numerical system, or a mechanical system. Once you know the laws, you can control the system or predict its behavior. Empathizing, on the other hand, involves recognizing what another person may be feeling or thinking, and responding to those feelings with an appropriate emotion of one’s own. 

According to what I have called the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism, autistic people simply match an extreme of the male profile, with a particularly intense drive to systemize and unusually weak drive to empathize…

Nonetheless, I believe that autism is the genetic result of “assortative mating” between parents who are both strong systemizers. Assortative mating is the term we use when like is attracted to like, and there are four significant reasons to believe it is happening here. 
First, both mothers and fathers of children with autism complete the Embedded Figures Test faster than a control group. Second, both mothers and fathers of children with autism have fathers who are talented systemizers (engineers, for example). Third, when we look at brain activity with magnetic resonance imaging, males and females on average show different patterns while performing empathetic or systematic tasks. But both mothers and fathers of children with autism show strong male patterns of brain activity. Fourth, both mothers and fathers of children with autism score above average on a questionnaire that measures how many autistic traits an individual has. These results suggest a genetic cause of autism, with both parents contributing genes that ultimately relate to a similar kind of mind: one with an affinity for thinking systematically. 

I thought the article was pretty interesting and seems to make sense. Here’s a little of what I’ve done so far..

And here is the painting as it stands so far. Dave has been really helpful with this piece, pretty much teaching me how to paint all over again. I thought I knew what I was doing for a while, but it turns out that I still have a lot to learn. Practice, practice, practice.

I’ve been feverishly working on a few illustrations for Delaware Beach Life Magazine. Like I said earlier, I’ve learned a lot from the experience, as frustrating as it was at times. I think I’m finished with all the work from that - now I’m just waiting to see some printing proofs. Here’s a little bit of the process…

Some thumbs from for a poem called Night Beach

The final drawing

Another piece was for a story called The Luck. I had a lot of fun rendering the girl.

Final drawing…

And the last piece was for a story called The World is My Oyster.

Final Drawing..

So I scanned the drawings along with some watercolor swatches for a bit of texture and then colored them digitally. I’m pretty happy with the finals, so I’ll post them soon.

I’ve been in Newark this January working on some projects with my illustration teacher, Dave Brinley. I’m enjoying the quiet of the studio and the apartment, but I think I’m ready for classes to start up again.

Dave took me to the Brandywine Museum a couple of weeks ago. If you’re in the area, its a really great museum to see. The Brandywine Valley is considered the birthplace of American illustration, so the museum has a great collection of work by Howard Pyle and all the Wyeths. We also went to the Delaware Museum of Art in Wilmington, which was pretty cool (and its free on Sundays!)

We went to NYC, as well,  a couple weeks ago and saw a few good shows. The James Jean show at the Jonathan Levine gallery was excellent…if you’re in nyc, you have to go. The Society of Illustrators has a sequential show up right now, which was really interesting, too.

So, I’ve been working on a few fun projects this month. I’m trying to expand upon my painting skills, which at this point are pretty minimal. I also got to do what I would consider my first, real illustration job for Delaware Beach Life Magazine. The job was 3 illustrations to accompany some stories for the March/April issue. The process was a little frustrating, but I learned a lot about working with a client and contracts and such.

Just a picture from the art show at Starbucks in Newark, DE. The show is up until mid-February, I think, so check it out.

Work by me, Julez and Jackie