Deep cuts- rarities, outtakes & b-sides

Few weeks back, I shared the A-Sides, a collection of my "top five" works past & present (to inspire the future). Now, as promised (&/or threatened), here I throw down the flipsides to those trax: the lesser-known but sometimes funkier b-sides. 

Most of these cuts are vinyl only...

First up is a really deep cut, way back from my college daze when I did a different weekly strip in all three of the newspapers @ Rutgers. In the alternative paper, "The Medium", I drew my fave, "Fallin' Asleep", a collection of self-important navel-gazin' that one can only get away with in college. Some of 'em actually hold up tho', like this piece right here:

Next track is a funky one indeed. Done fer a comic book website contest I didn't win, I still dig it the most- a mash-up of Marvel & DC; a team-up in an alternate universe's Harlem, wherein two of the comix biggest contributions to the Blaxploitation era do their thang outside the Apollo with electrifyin' results indeed:

Here is a detail from a piece titled "Great Minds Think Alike", another work of charity to support a cause with which my lovely bride was involved: It was an animal rights group that was trying to stop the inhumane & even more sadly unnecessary deer culling in Princeton. The sexiest lawyer ever represented them pro-bono as legal counsel & I contributed this to raise money for their efforts. You can peep the full piece here, but here's that detail I promised lo so many words ago:

Here's la familia Seda-Schreiber hangin' on "Sesame Street" back in the day:

& then my quick sketch in tribute to Mr. Jim Henson upon his passing from felt to dirt:

My lovely bride asked me to include two mas:

First up, this seasonal missive from the year we found out she was with child (hopefully mine, but the blonde hair & blue eyes did indeed make it somewhat suspicious- callin' Maury Povich!). I've laid down holiday ink for the past 30 some odd years & this is not particularly a fave of mine honestly altho' I appreciate the sentiment & I think the drawing expresses it nicely. I do like the stork's Rudolph nose & oh-so-feathery-feathers but I don't think our as-of-then-yet-to-be-born son looks so safe being upside-down & all (& even moreso he looks kinda' larva-esque rather than simply bundled up...)

& my best girl really digs this piece, Moose & Goose (a romance), & the story goes a lil' somethin' like this:

So I am quite often asked, both virtually & corporeally, to draw something for someone. Usually I politely demur, citing my current penchant for donating my art to charity or supporting political causes, but the chef in my school's cafeteria came to me in such a sweet & earnest manner, I could not resist slinging some ink his way. He told me a tale of his first anniversary with his lovely bride & how they call each other "moose & goose" & this just tumbled outta' me...

& of course, no post is complete without a lil' Vonnegut...

nuff said.

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!

Konnichiwa!

Can't believe I never posted this, but it's been ten years since I had the extraordinary honor of being named a Fulbright Scholar & traveling to Japan as a guest of the Japanese government. To share my experiences I created a series of paintings collectively titled "Windows on Japan". 

You can クリック to see the whole series, but here is a small sampling~ 

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...

Thanks, Obama!

Words (&/or images) cannot express the

respect & gratitude for

what you have done...

Vonnegut Kindness for the Holidaze...

Please feel free to save, send, print, & otherwise share in any way you'd like in the spirit of the season as it were...

You can peep even more holiday frivolity of season's past by clickin' here 

Prince is dead. Long live the Funk.

I just want your extra time...

I once was blind, but now...

Colorblindness is really a misnomer; it is more akin to color-confused. Whereas your spectrum is quite vast & includes a veritable plethora of color, those of us who are genetically-deficient have a much smaller range & therefore colors get smashed up together, confused with others, & many unseen at all. 

I am colorblind, one of the most severe degrees of such. It is bothersome at times, disappointing at others, but as with any handicap (& I even hesitate to use that word as comparatively it is a non-issue), one learns to adjust & compensate for such. I also like the fact that I “inherited” from my Poppy, my mom’s dad, who left much too early in my life & sharing this genetic trait is at least something by which I can feel closer to him.

But being colorblind does affect me every day- the loss of a beautiful sunset, inability to decipher a traffic lite, seeing lots of green skin on folks I know are not Martians… unsure if I’m wearin’ a pink shirt. Being an artist (albeit one who predominantly works in black & white), an art teacher & just a lover of looking & seeing & really absorbing this wonderfully vibrant world around us makes it even more distressing at times.

This wonderful company EnChroma has changed all that with their incredible &, I dare say, inspiring sunglasses that promise “color for the colorblind”, & y’know what, they actually deliver on said promise in a big way.

Just back from Méjico where I sported these EnChroma Commander CX-14 sunglasses that profess (& do indeed deliver on that promise!) to allow the colorblind to see color. 

These are amazing, wonderful, & truly awe-inspiring & you can see my reaction to wearing them in the video...

(Lo siento for wind noise- tried to fix to no avail. 

Keep watching, it does improve later in video.)

& as an extry bonus, here is some comix I doodled way-back in college about bein’ colorblind… 

Enjoy:

Vonnegut redux...

For the last two years, the wonderful charity Eden Autism Services has asked me to contribute a piece of art for their Gala Auction. The theme this year is "Some Kind of Wonderful: A Celebration of Extraordinary Lives."
I  thought to meself who was more extraordinary than Mr. Kurt Vonnegut...

Hope it garners them some big bucks indeed!

If so inclined, you can read more of my thoughts on Mr. Vonnegut here.

& next year, Eden folks, I want two tix to your glam event so I can bring my best girl!

The State of the Union is...

KICK ASS!

"Obama Said Knock You Out" 2: electric boogaloo

My piece from Obama's 2012 campaign, 

"Obama Said Knock You Out", 

gets a shout-out in this wonderful 

article

by Harvard associate, Adrienne Childs.

Read & enjoy...

GoodWill Toward ALL...

For the past twenty-five some odd years (& some have been very odd indeed!), I have created holiday cards for friends & family to celebrate the season. Although I waiver between atheism & agnosticism, my belief in this most wonderful time of the year & the spirit of giving & sharing therein has never been stronger.

My holiday scribblings started with a skankin' Santa, rockin' to the holiday groove (replete with "Fishbone" tattoo), & have continued unabated up until this year's offering, a plaintive plea during this wondrous time of the year for equality for all the boys & girls...

Please feel free to save, send, print, & otherwise share in any way you'd like in the spirit of the season as it were...

Last year was the way more lighthearted "Santazilla"

 which you can peep by clickin' here 

(& witness even more holiday frivolity therein!)

"There’s only one rule that I know of, babies -- God damn it, you’ve got to be kind."

Kurt Vonnegut has always held a special place in my heart as well as in my head.

His writings, his beliefs, simply his way of being, influenced my younger self profoundly & still hold a great deal of sway in this somewhat older body in which I now find myself. Of course, Vonnegut would claim, & I think rightfully so, that these two identities are interchangeable, occupying the same time-line albeit at different points, but both exist together, now & forever intertwined.
More important than his works & his philosophies though was his place in the literary triumvirate that is one of the foundations of my relationship with my dad. Devouring those books off my dad's bookshelf in my pre-pubescence became a catapult to help us traverse that leap from being father & son to being friends.
As high school reared it ugly head, the oh-so-long (but equally wonderful) times we spent editing my school papers dwindled. Our Scrabble games also slowed a bit (although they picked up with a vengeance whilst I was in college~ when I finally beat him for the first time!).
But Vonnegut has always remained a cornerstone.

For better or worse, he & my father are responsible for the writer I am today, & a good deal of the man I am today as well.

So it was with quite a good deal of joy that I found this portrait I had drawn of Mr. Vonnegut in one of my old sketchbooks. It's unfinished, smudgy pencil & all. It's certainly not an antique per se, but it is somewhat vintage.
I had the pleasure of sharing it with Mr. Vonnegut at a book signing that I went to with my dad. He looked at it quite intently, then looked up at me with that same bemused smile that he wears in the drawing.
That was a good day indeed.

so it goes...

Happy birthday, my friend.

Lou Lies in the Underground (Velvet)

Happy birthday, Jim Henson...

Moose & goose (a romance)

So I am quite often asked, both virtually & corporeally, to draw something for someone. Usually I politely demur, citing my current penchant for donating my art to charity or supporting political causes, but the chef in my school's cafeteria came to me in such a sweet & earnest manner, I could not resist slinging some ink his way. He told me a tale of his first anniversary with his lovely bride & how they call each other "moose & goose" & this just tumbled outta' me...

Trenton Makes...

"...the prettiest girls."

For my lovely bride,
born & raised in our hardscrabble state capital.

A peek into process- pencils, inks & paints.

Enjoy!~

 

Cougar said knock you out

The mascot of the school wherein I teach is a cougar. They asked me to create a design for a new tee-shirt to replace the clip-art they've been using for too many years. Voilà...

Now my oh-so-supportive son told me this was "cheap". I replied it was only cheap if I used the design again after this. He then made me promise not to do so.

Kids. I hate it when they keep you honest...

The Walking Dead Emaciation Proclamation

Zombies, undead & somewhat stinky tho' they may be, deserve the same rights as the rest of us...

If yer on Twitter, please reweet, favorite & do whatever Tweeting magic you want to this tweet by my lovely bride.

Do that for this lonely lil' blogger & I will love you lots.

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

time to dance once again...

Congratulations, Mr. President!

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