The A-Sides

"It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you, 

Without a strong rhyme to step to..."

So ends the summer of my discontent. 

It's been a rough while indeed, life had its ugly way with me & without goin' into unnecessary (& unpleasant) detail, let's leave it at that & get to the good stuff. 

I have felt not like myself for a hot minute & now I feel finally reinvigorated, rejuvenated & indeed re-inspired (sic?). In light of that, I have decided to kickstart my ass back into the proverbial artistic saddle by postin' my "top five" (with thanks & apologies to Mr. Nick Hornby) favorite pieces I've done thru the years; to clean out the virtual closet as it were to hopefully make room for some new stuff which I will hit y'all up with as soon as the inspiration flows from my inky fingers.

So without further ado & just a bit o' context, 

here are some works past & present to inspire the future...

We begin our archival journey in November 2008, Obama won his first term & my lovely bride danced in Brooklyn to celebrate. "Baby Got Hope" was featured in the wonderful book, "Design For Obama", & is pretty much the impetus for this here website~

Piece 2 (Woo-hoo!), really goin' far in the WayBack Machine, but Satchmo needs no introduction...

A bridge too far:

Kevin needs some context methinks: Part of a much larger installation called "Positivity", a collection of quotes I culled from folks who were HIV positive to allow for hope in a time of seeming hopelessness-

& we end the greatest hits (& misses) with the mackdaddy his own self, "Obama Said Knock You Out": quite a viral sensation, Tweeted out by none other than LL Cool J on election nite & becoming one of the biggest retweets of the evening (what the kids would call "viral"?) as well as in physical poster form traversing its way from New York to Cali & from Mexico to Japan & many points in between... 

Probably my real fave of all, not just 'cause of the hype (don't believe it, man!), but I feel it is truly the most successful piece I've done, artistically, technically, philosophically, politically, & spiritually~

Next episode: 

Deep Cuts: the B-Sides, Rarites & Outtakes, 

then on to the new grooves!

Valentine's Day throwback for y'all...

Okay, kids, although I am now oh-so-happily married to an incredibly beautiful woman (hey, babygirl!), I was once a miserable lonely bastard who hated Valentine's Day with a passion. I still refuse to celebrate it as it is indeed a corporate maunfactured buncha' malarkey (still love u, crazygirl!), but now at least I'm not a grumpy assh*le all day. But for those of you who still are (& I support you wholeheartedly!), here's your very righteous justification, straight from my 20-some-odd-years-ago collegiate misanthropic self...

Enjoy~

click to embiggen...

Baby Got Hope (for four more years)...

time to dance once again...

Congratulations, Mr. President!

So proud of you & so proud of our country...

the one where Nonny dies so I can go to the "Design For Obama" book signing

This website's very raison d'être has finally become reality~

"Design For Obama", collecting the best of the DesignForObama website & featuring two of my pieces, has finally been published & I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the book release party last week. I celebrated the momentous occasion with my lovely bride & about 300 other folks at the Taschen store in NYC. The tastemakers at the shindig included, but were not limited to, DFO founder Aaron Perry-Zucker, New York Times & School of Visual Arts design guru Steven Heller & always-Mookie-to-me Spike Lee. It was a blast & a half, no doubt, no diggity.
But I wouldn't have been able to go if not for my wonderful Nonny.

Listen:

I had plans to fly into Chicago for the long weekend to see my dear old friend Neil & his family when I got the invite to the book signing & although I so wanted to go, I just couldn't justify the $600 fee for the ticket change, so it looked like I just wasn't going to get the chance to have my book signed by Mars Blackmon.
But Nonny would have none of that.
My Nonny, my mom's mom, was a very wonderful woman- kind & funny & biting as well- & as my mom would say, she simply made everything better. She was simple & yet in that simplicity she contained wonders & wisdom beyond compare & without peer. (I'm also breaking one of her cardinal rules by referring to Nonny as "she" (Who's "she"?!, Nonny would rebuke us); the other was never saying "shut up"... Both very good maxims by the way.)
Nonny had made it clear that she wanted to make it to 90 & then that was enough. Well, on Friday 16 October, she turned 90, & then she fell on the following Wednesday. She was always a women who knew what she wanted, & I find it to be no coincidence the timing of her death. She allowed us a little time in the hospital to pay our respects, & then she quietly passed on 2 November, further allowing me the opportunity to change my flight with no consequence. Airlines are known for their sympathy for the bereaved. In her passing, she also saved my uncle from an abysmal trip to see his partner's family & my brother to come home from California for a much-needed respite, & she did so in a fashion that allowed us all to say goodbye in a timely & loving way, especially my mother, who got to spend some very special time with her in the last few weeks. It is so essentially Nonny that she orchestrated all of this at the end of her life to, as always, make things better for all of us who were being left behind.
The book signing fell between her funeral, which was a simple graveside remembrance (wherein my 9 year old son informed us all very casually for the first time that he is Buddhist), & my mom's open house (or as we dubbed it, the "non-shiva"), so it was with a mixture of sadness & excitement that mi esposa hermosa & I ventured into the city.
Listen:
Far from the event I expected (a gathering of the artists whose work is in the book & their mothers), the book release party was a fantastic party & celebration of both the book's publication & the one year anniversary of Obama's momentous election. 300 people turned out, only about 25 or so of them being artists published in the book itself, although they came from very disparate locales: Canada, Mexico, Indonesia, Dominican Republic & even Connecticut. "Design For Obama" is literally & figuratively a work of art in & of itself; Taschen really did an exquisite job on the printing, the coloring, the paper-stock, the layout, et al. The heft of the book is only surpassed by its beauty. The book quickly sold out as folks got their copies signed by Spike, Aaron & Mr. Heller, & also a bunch of them requesting my signature as well! I have to say, it's unlike my generation to be un-ironic but that felt very good indeed. My wife, being the model for the better of the two pieces, also reluctantly signed her "work" as well.
The night was extraordinary & simply would not have happened without Nonny. As "she" told me once in her succinct manner after some girl had broken my heart & I showed up at her doorstep craving sympathy, "Sometimes these things happen." This perfect little dose of reality was followed by a strong but short hug & that was enough.
Well, Nonny, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to make the scene @ Taschen last week.

Sometimes those things happen too...

& so it begins...

I have resisted (with a vengeance!) disseminating my thoughts, words, images & assorted other ephemera out into this here blogosphere for many a moon, but an opportunity has arisen that I cannot deny.

It seems, for some foolhardy reason I cannot discern, some of my artwork is going to published in a real-live book, & in this book, I will have the chance to promote a website that good folks can visit to see even more of my ramblings & shenanigans should they so wish.

So I figgered I'd better start one up...
(& herein lies the resulting madness)

Last year in support of President Obama (still love writing that!) I created two artworks that were part of the DesignForObama website. I am very proud & indeed honored to report that both of those pieces are going to be featured in a book about the site that is going to be published in the fall to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our wonderful victory.

It gets better: The book is going to be edited by the site's creator, Aaron Perry-Zucker, & Mr. Spike Lee (yes, that Spike Lee~ Fight The Power, baby!) & published by Taschen Books (ooh, fancy!).

So, for my first-ever post, here are the two pieces that will soon make me world famous, or at least seen by the moms & dads of the other folks who are in the book with me:

"Man of Hope"

"Baby Got Hope"

More inanity to come...