Not long ago I discovered a way to magically turn an assignment for one illustration into eight. No miracles involved, no smoke and mirrors, no Photoshop clone tool. All it took was failing to see what, in hindsight, should have been obvious: proposing an illustration that incorporates lots of “found” travel stickers before finding out that the “found” travel stickers I already own wouldn’t do the trick.

The story:
I was hired by a wind energy company to do a series of illustrations to be used, among other things, for advertising and trade show displays. The first image in the series was to illustrate the theme, “Travel is for people, not parts.”

Because many of the parts in question (precision gears, wind towers, etc.) are large and require specialized processes in their manufacturing, they are shipped by sea, going from country to country before the fabrication is completed and the final product delivered. This, the client noted, is costly, time consuming, and not necessarily in the best interest of the American workforce.

For the art, I suggested the idea of “parts” going on an ocean voyage. My thought was to recall the look and feel of a travel poster. The key to the concept would be travel stickers on the suitcase, suggesting that the parts had traveled to many countries. (Sketch is at left.)

One of the techniques I often employ in my art is to mix painted imagery with found objects. For this illustration, I would use actual machine parts like gears and hardware. And vintage travel stickers. Luckily, I had a collection of them.

Well, the client — with whom, by the way, I have a very friendly relationship — loved the concept, but had some “minor” changes. The gear needed to be more in keeping with an actual wind tower gear, the ship needed be a freighter and not a cruise ship, and lastly, seven specific countries need to be depicted on the travel stickers.

While I thought the first two changes weakened the aesthetics (the gear and hardware) and the overall concept (ocean voyage) somewhat, I understood the client’s point. They were not arbitrary changes, and the client’s point was well taken, even though my feeling is that artistic license can, and should trump technical accuracy, up to a point.

The third change was the most valid and understandable, but also the stickiest. I didn’t have travel stickers for the seven countries in question (surprise!), and short of getting incredibly lucky on eBay or making a quick sprint around the globe, there was only one way around it: create them. And they couldn’t be mere suggestions of travel stickers; they needed to be detailed since the artwork for the trade show would run so large. No fudging. That meant not only creating seven pieces of art (they were created as roughly full-page illustrations), it meant doing research on the countries, travel sticker design, and typography.

That was fine. In fact, it would be fun. But there was a catch: because various deadlines for the various uses had been discussed at various times by various parties — the client, the PR firm, the design firm, the trade booth fabricator, the trade magazines — the actual deadline for artwork had gotten buried in a blizzard of emails. The trade show was months away. But the ad was due to the printer in three days.

For some reason, this didn’t seem to faze my client, who, to my amazement, was not in a panic.

I, on the other hand, was fazed. But one thing I’ve learned over the years is that when there’s no possible way you can meet a deadline, you always somehow meet it anyway (panic has a way of focusing the mind). And like most illustrators I know, I love working under this kind of pressure.

Here are the seven travel sticker illustrations, followed by the final art.

And here is the final art:

See more of my illustration portfolio at www.michaelgibbs.com or www.mglenwood.com

 THIS POSTER, American Worker, was selected for the ManifestHope:DC exhibition, a high-profile gallery event which was part of the festivities commemorating the inauguration of Barack Obama. Depicting a worker on a steel beam against a blue field, and accompanied by a quote by Abraham Lincoln, the artwork addresses the role workers play in building the American dream and the need to continue valuing those workers.

American Worker, was one of 15 works of art selected from more than 1000 submissions in a juried competition whose aim was to illustrate one of three themes: Health Care Reform, Workers’ Rights, and The Green Economy. The winning pieces, selected by a panel of eight high-profile jurors*, were chosen not only for artistic merit, impact, and originality, but for achieving the goal of using positive messaging to convey the urgency and importance of those three key issues. These 15 works of art joined more than 100 others to form the exhibition, ManifestHope:DC.

ManifestHope celebrates the role that art and artists have played in the national grass-roots movement that carried Barack Obama to the presidency. It gathers together a diverse array of the nation’s most talented visual artists under one roof to mark this monumental achievement in our nation’s history and encourages artists and activists to maintain the momentum to bring about true change in the United States.

ManifestHope:DC, working with Shepard Fairey’s Obey Giant group, MoveOn.org and EMG (Evolutionary Media Group), represents a visual call-to-action, encouraging a focusing of public energy on true reform in three key areas: Health Care, Workers’ Rights and The Green Economy.

Manifest Hope: DC was on display for the three days preceding the Inauguration. The ManifestHope:DC gallery, managed by DC’s Irvine Contemporary, was in the heart of historic Georgetown, one block from Key Bridge. An estimated 15,000 people visited the gallery, including many celebrities, from musicians Michael Stipe and Moby to actor Tim Robbins and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Manifest Hope:DC was a historic inaugural event to match this extraordinary moment in our nation’s history.

ManifestHope features the work of more than 100 artists, including Aaron Foster, Aaron Axelrod, Aaron Allen, Amy Martin, Andrew Bannecker, Andy Howell, Andy Powell, APAK, Bask, Billi Kid, Billy Colbert, Blue Lucy, BLACKBOOKS, Brian McCarty, Casey Ryder, Chad Mize, Charlie Becker, Chris Stain, Chris Pastras, Christopher Tucker, Damon Locks, Dan Monick, Dan Funderburgh, David Choe, Decoy, Deroy Peraza, Derek Gores, Eddie, El MAC, Erneston Yerena, Esperanza Macias, Estevan Oriol, Felix Jackson Jr., Frederic Terral, George Vlosich, Ginger Che, Guillermo Bert, HAZE, Herb Williams, House Industries, HVW8, Ian Simmons, James Widener, Jason Hardy, Jason Dietrick, Jermaine Rogers, JK5, Johnathan Stein, Jon Wippich, Jorge Arrieta, Jovi Schnell, Jude Buffum, Judy North, Julie Adler, Julianne Walther, Justin Hampton, Justin Kemerling, Justin ÒDemoÓ Fines, Karen Wippich, Karla Mickens, Kate Crosgrove, Katherine Kendall, KDU, Keetra Dean Dixon, Kelly Towles, Kenji Hirata, Kofie, Kwaku Alston, Larissa Marantz, Lichiban, Lisa Marie Thalhammer, Luba Lukova, Lukas Ketner, Marc Petrovic, Margaret Coble, Margaret Cusack, Mark Jenkins, Mason Fetzer, Maya Hayuk, Mel Kadel, Michael Cuffe, Michael Glenwood Gibbs, Mike Murphy, Mike Jacob, Mike Pare, Mike Perry, Mingering Mike, Munk One, Nick Dewar, One9, Patrick Martinez, Paul Roden & Valerie Lueth, Rafael Lopez, Ray Noland, Regan Rosburg, Robert Indiana, Robbie Conal, Ron English, Rostarr, Sage Vaughn, Sam Flores, Sarah Hoskins, Scot LeFavor, Scotlund Haisley, Scott Hansen, Scott Siedman, Sebastian Martorana, Shannon Moore, Sharee Taylor, Shel Starkman, Shepard Fairey, Sol Sender, Stenzskull, Tanya Mikaela, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Tes One, The Protist, Tim Conlon, Tim Tate, Tina Rodas, Tom Slaughter, Travis Lampe, Travis Millard, Trish Moreno, Tristan Eaton, Van Taylor Monroe, Yvonne Boogaerts and Zoltron.

*The jurors included Anne Ellegood, Curator of Contemporary Art at Hirshhorn Museum, Shepard Fairey, Spike Lee, Laura Dawn (an artist as well as MoveOn.org’s Creative & Cultural Director), Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation, author/activist Van Jones, artist Robbie Conal, and David Rolf of ManifestHope:DC co-sponsor SEIU.

For some pictures I took at the gallery, click here.

More artwork by Michael Glenwood can be seen on his website, www.mglenwood.com.

More artwork by Michael Gibbs can be seen on his website, www.michaelgibbs.com.

[an abandoned gas station in Merrifield, VA]

photo ©copyright Michael Gibbs. all rights reserved.

The annual Members’ Exhibition of the Illustrators Club of Washington, Maryland and Virginia opens this Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 in Rosslyn. It’s always a great show, so stop by and check out the artwork, have some wine and cheese and meet the illustrators.

It’s an honor to have my artwork chosen for the invitation postcard and exhibition poster. The illustration was part of a series of five illos done for Germany’s Stern Magazine, on the subject of the heart as it relates to emotions. This piece refers to the German phrase “Herzkaspar” which has no English equivalent but translates literally to “Heart Jester.”

ILLUSTRATORS CLUB OF WASHINGTON, MD AND VA
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEMBERS SHOW
ART INSTITUTE OF WASHINGTON - First Floor Gallery
1820 N. Fort Myer Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22209
SHOW DATES December 8, 2008 - January 9, 2009
OPENING RECEPTION & HOLIDAY PARTY Thursday, December 11, 2008, 6:00-8:00pm

The Illustrators Club website can be found here.

“Turning The Page,” a gallery show featuring Illustrated Books, Handmade Artists Books and original artwork opens this Thursday, Dec. 8, 2008 at the Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts gallery in Rockville MD. Among the books and original artwork on display are my handmade book “Occam’s Razor” and the accompanying artwork. The book is a flag book, which opens up and expands into three long illustrations, and also features a sculptural box containing a sliced up explanation of Occam’s Razor as well as an antique shaving razor. Exhibition and gallery information follow the artist’s statement.

Artist Statement

As an illustrator, I’ve created thousands of images, mostly for magazines, and while creating art for others’ manu-scripts may allow for a little personal expression, it’s not enough. So I began exploring handmade books as an outlet to fill the void, enrolling in a Book Arts class at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. My interest in taking the class was not only to find a means of personal expression; it was also an exploration of book construction, both unique and ordinary, as well an exploration of the relationship between image, text, structure and expression.

Midway through the semester the instructor introduced flag books to the class, and showed us examples. A unique feature of flag books is the unfolding of interlocking “pages”— the flags — as the book is opened. My initial reaction was that the construction was fascinating and entertaining, but… ultimately a little gimmicky and maybe even a little pointless. I felt there needed to be a reason for making a book a particular way, a balance of form and function, and I couldn’t find much of a rationale for most flag books beyond being flag books for flag-book’s sake. To me, it was overly complicated as a means of conveying a thought or telling a story.

But, that was the assignment, and I’m always up for a challenge. After giving it some thought, I decided that if the content was going to reflect the structure, then the book should relate to the theme of complexity. So I opted to make a book about “Occam’s Razor,” a philosophical maxim credited to the 14th century philosopher William of Occam that argues for simplicity over complexity. These days the maxim is often reduced to the bite-size “keep it simple,” but it’s more nuanced than that. The “razor” refers to the act of shaving away unnecessary parts of an argument, reducing it to its simplest, and therefore most logical form: Don’t favor a complicated explanation when a simple one will do. In design, it is taken to mean simple design is preferable to complex design.

Being a big fan of irony, I thought a complex book on the virtues of keeping it simple was a worthwhile conceptual approach. Yet the real irony may be that the book, while complex to make, is, in the end, exceedingly simple.

The text, which is limited to the two inside covers, gives an overview William of Occam and his maxim, and describes three different examples. Those three examples are illustrated, with each illustration sliced into seven pieces, or “flags,” which fan out to form the completed image when the book is fully opened. It also features a second, very lengthy (2,884 words) explanation of Occam’s Razor, which I hand-sliced into hundreds of pieces and glued piece by piece, along with an antique straight razor, into a handmade box that is set inside the book.

Three of those 2,884 words are reserved for the cover, where they are inlaid into the front label to form the book’s subtitle (and central message), “Keep It Simple.”

The illustrations depict three examples of Occam’s Razor:

Crop Circles: Crop circles began appearing in England in the late 1970s. Many people claimed they were created by aliens. But, following the principles of Occam’s Razor, it would be more reasonable to conclude that humans rather than aliens made crop circles, because the alien theory is too complicated and makes too many unproven assumptions. Occam was proven right when two men subsequently came forward and admitted to creating them after evenings spent at a local pub.

If You Hear Hoofbeats, Think Horses, Not Zebras: This phrase, often used in medical schools to explain to doctors how to diagnose multiple symptoms in a single patient, means, simply, go with the obvious. If a patient has five symptoms, it’s probably one malady, not five.

The Solar System: Copernicus used Occam’s thinking to explain that the Sun — not the Earth — was the center of the solar system, which made heavenly observations easier to explain and eliminated many convoluted 17th century theories. Copernicus was, of course, correct.

One of the unexpected pleasures of creating the illustrations for this book was the opportunity to break out of my usual 8.5″ x 11″ magazine-illustrator format. Because the images fan out the way they do, they needed to be decidedly horizontal, and it seemed the longer they were, the more effective they — and the book — became. And so the book grew from five flags to seven. These illustrations have, for me, always been book illustrations, and I’m used to seeing them book-size — and sliced. As such, this exhibition holds a bit of a surprise for me since until now I had never seen the artwork printed larger than what the book called for.

The book: The overall size of the book is 9-1/2″ x 12″, 1/2″ thick. The covers are bookboard covered in black book cloth. The illustrations are printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper using an Epson 2200 printer with archival inks. The box inside is handmade, wrapped in handmade paper, and the antique straight razor is glued in with epoxy. The sliced text inside the box is a very lengthy explanation (2,884 words) of Occam’s Razor, printed on handmade paper which was then sliced and glued in piece by piece, giving it the appearance of being randomly tossed into the box. The subtitle on the cover, [keep it simple] is from this same text, inlaid into the label, which is handmade paper.

The prints: The giclée prints are 5-1/2″ x 36″ images printed on 6-1/2″ x 40″ Museo Max 100% cotton heavy watercolor paper using archival inks. The artwork was drawn by hand in Photoshop, working dark to light in a manner similar to mezzotint.

“Turning the Page” opens December 4, 2008 and runs through February 21, 2009. The Metropolitan Center For the Visual Arts is located at 155 Gibbs Street in Rockville MD, 20850. Some of the featured illustrators and bookmakers are Kinuko Craft, Leo & Diane Dillon, Sally Wern Comport, Alex Bostic, Lynn Sures, Helen Frederick and Kerry McAleer Keeler. For more information on VisArts, click here.

More info and details on the book, including more pictures, can be found on the handmade books section of my website. Click here.

::: October 2008 :::

Novum: world of graphic design is a German magazine covering the work of designers, illustrators and photographers. Each year it publishes a special Illustration issue. The current issue (October 2008) features “a selection of illustrators worth seeing:” nine illustrators from around the world (USA, Italy, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Japan and three from Germany).

I am proud to be one of those nine illustrators. The article, which is essentially an interview prefaced by some truly flattering comments from the editor, can be found on my website.

novum can be found on the web here.

“novum covers the work of designers, illustrators, photographers, studios and schools. It reports on industry trends, news, technology, book reviews, and more. Well illustrated with good reproductions, novum magazine covers the European scene in all its styles - from the traditional to the trendy. It is published in German and English, with articles printed in both languages side by side.”

.
This past weekend, a fellow from Ashburn, VA wrote to The Washington Post complaining about editorial cartoonist Tom Toles‘ partisan Democratic slant.

The letter writer said:

“Ideally, a newspaper’s cartoonist would show some degree of non-partisanship and address topics with an even hand. Not so in the case of Tom Toles. He wears his Democratic Party hat almost every time he picks up his pen.
  Once in a while it would be nice to see him sling a little mud in the other direction, let’s say, maybe one out of five cartoons, or would that result in his being drummed out of the party?”
  — Jack McIntyre, Ashburn

Tom Toles is an editorial cartoonist whose work appears on the op-ed page of The Post. Editorializing is his job and reflects his view of the world. It is the entire point of his work. Tempering that for the sake of some imaginary token “balance” would be disingenuous, and as unreasonable as expecting George Will or Robert Novak or Fox News’ Billo the Clown to suddenly take a pro-Democratic stance. Or Maureen Dowd or Eugene Robinson to suddenly “sling mud” in the Democrats’ direction. Why does Mr. McIntyre believe that op-ed artwork should follow different rules than op-ed writing?

I suspect there’s a little partisanship at work here. I doubt Mr. McIntyre would have felt the same disdain for the father of American cartoonists, Thomas Nast, a staunch Republican, who unrelentingly went after Democrat Boss Tweed. Nast consistently expressed his own views when putting pen to paper, and it’s unlikely a reader complaining to Harper’s Weekly would have persuaded him to do otherwise. Further, Mr. McIntyre seems to see only what he wants to see, for Toles does lampoon Democrats; in fact he did so the very next day, skewering the DC government — hardly a bastion of the GOP.

Striking a nerve is not blasphemy
I couldn’t help but notice that Mr. McIntyre is from Ashburn, VA. That calls to mind the complaint of another Ashburnite, Cary Cusumano, in The Post’s Letters To The Editor on Dec. 9, 2006, regarding an illustration I had done for The Washington Post Magazine a week earlier. Ashburn, VA, it would seem, is home to the headquarters of the GOP Ministry of Artwork Inspection.

Mr. Cusamano said:

“The selection of Michael Gibbs’s illustration depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus with a symbol of the Democratic Party is not only insensitive to Christians, especially Catholics, but is also blasphemous ["The Gospel According to Jim Wallis," Magazine, Nov. 26]. Christians should be afforded the same respect for their beliefs as other religions or groups. Sadly, such respect cannot be found in The Post or other news media.”
  — Cary Cusumano, Ashburn

Mr. Cusumano doesn’t seem to understand three things:
1. Skewering a well-known image is a time-honored form of visual communicaton, closely affiliated with parody and satire, which is “the use of irony… in exposing, denouncing, or deriding …folly”. It only works if the underlying image is well known. A couple of well-known examples are Duchamp’s parody of the Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa,” and the numerous parodies of Grant Woods’ “American Gothic.”

2. Blasphemy is “the impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things” or, in Judaism, “the act of cursing or reviling God.” What was parodied here was not God or Jesus, but a painting (any number of paintings actually). The paintings of the Sacred Heart first appeared as the result of visions experienced by a 17th century French nun. These paintings are not sacred things. They are a 17th century representation of an abstract concept— “the Love of Jesus.”

3. I was expressing my view — a right that even artists and Democrats (the last time I checked) have under the US Constitution. At the same time, I was reflecting the content of the article I was illustrating, which is my job. That view, distilled down to its essence, is that Jesus was, in his heart, a Democrat. (Get it?)

                            

As a Democrat and a Christian (I was raised Catholic) I have long been rankled by the GOP’s hijacking and exploitation of Christian values. Those sentiments were echoed by Jim Wallis, the subject of The Post article and author of “God’s Politics.” What Wallis sees as the true mission of Christianity — righting social ills, working for peace — is in tune with the values of liberals who so often run screaming from the idea of religion. Meanwhile… religious vocabulary is co-opted by conservatives who use it to polarize” [Amazon.com].

A political party that promotes corporate greed over the rights of those with the least among us (including immigrants and the poor), opposes controls on Saturday Night specials, opposes basic rights for gays and lesbians, opposes stem-cell research that could save lives, practices racism (remember Willie Horton?), wages an unnecessary and illegal war that kills thousands of innocents — does not represent the heart and love of Jesus. It is the Democratic Party that does. That sentiment led to the imagery I chose.

What I find fascinating is that in both cases, it is the artwork, rather than the text, that seems to get people in a tizzy. Art is meant to disturb, said the French painter Georges Braque. And it seems to disturb conservatives disproportionately.

I have to admit I took a great deal of satisfaction in reading these Letters to the Editor. They’re a reminder that artwork still has the power not only to inspire and reflect the beauty of this world, but to piss people off and illustrate the ugliness of this world. And noting the political direction from which these Letters to the Editor invariably seem to be fired, they’re also a reminder of the truth of Social Realist Ben Shahn’s observation, “The artist is likely to be looked upon with some uneasiness by the more conservative members of society.”

 Family Owned & Operated Since 1928…

You’d think after 80 years in the business, they’d have the spelling of “AIR CONDITIONING” down cold.

During a campaign season, I’m always looking for some sign of how a candidate might impact me directly as a freelance illustrator.

This year’s sign came when Republican nominee John McCain displayed complete contempt for copyright law — at a time when copyright is very much in the forefront of illustrators’ and other creatives’ minds because of orphan works legislation pending before Congress.

McCain, apparently thinking that intellectual property is his for the taking, used Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” in a campaign ad mocking Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Browne, a musician well known for his progressive views, has sued for copyright infringement.

While the ad is believed to have run on television in Ohio and Pennsylvania, it also appeared on the internet until it was removed as a result of a cease-and-desist order.

But few, if any illustrators have the resources to fight copyright infringement in the way that Jackson Browne has. (And the orphan works legislation, as it’s currently written, provides less incentive and makes it more difficult for artists to pursue infringement claims, while making it easier for infringers to infringe.)

And the fact that the ad made it to the internet underlines one of the realities that illustrators, musicians and other artists face in the internet age: the ongoing abuse of intellectual property, particularly on the internet, where people seem to assume they can grab an image or a song and use it for their own purposes, without permission and without compensation. A presidential candidate should understand that intellectual property is just that — the artist’s property — and that artists make a living by selling rights to use that property. The orphan works legislation, which does have some merit, weakens artist’s legitimate rights as it is now written. I prefer a candidate who understands intellectual property, not one who steals it.

As Browne’s attorney Lawrence Iser says of McCain’s use of music without permission, “it’s ridiculous and it’s setting a terrible example.” [1]

This is not the first time the McCain campaign has done this. In fact, it’s almost a habit. McCain’s been sued by Abba (for using “Take a Chance on Me”)[2], Frankie Valli (”Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”)[3], John Mellencamp (”Pink Houses” and “My Country”)[4], John Hall (”Still the One”)[5] and most recently, Mike Myers of Wayne’s World (a “We’re Not Worthy” sketch used in a YouTube ad)[6].

While both candidates have issued position papers that uphold copyright law and acknowledge the need to deal with new copyright issues in the digital age, McCain’s repeated contempt for copyright and lack of respect for copyright holders suggests he has no understanding or appreciation of the issue. Barack Obama, a generation younger and considerably more computer-savvy, notes that “intellectual property is to the digital age what physical goods were to the industrial age”[7] demonstrates the understanding that McCain either doesn’t have, or does have but chooses to ignore.

And further, Obama actually addresses other issues of importance to artists, such as supporting increased funding for the NEA, providing affordable health care to artists, and supporting the Artist-Museum Partnership Act which would allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work, rather than just the costs of the materials, when they make charitable contributions.

It’s tough to make a living as an illustrator. But I chose to be — in the words of Jackson Browne — a happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender. I believe Barack Obama will make that struggle just a little easier.

references: [1], [2], [3], [4a], [4b], [5], [6], [7] • photo credit

This picture was taken this past weekend at Glen Echo, which was once an amusement park just outside of DC.

The park opened in 1890 and closed 40 years ago. I love the classic type above the doors. The pool (and the sandy beaches it had in its heyday) is long gone, along with the wooden roller coaster and most everything else. The carousel was restored and still operates, and some of the arcade buildings were renovated and are now used for art and dance classes.

But for me the highlight of the park is the Crystal Pool, segregated beyond a chain link fence, unrestored, being swallowed by vegetation, crumbling and steeped in history.