Blow Up, a show of works by Tomer Hanuka, Sam Weber and Yuko Shimizu, opened today at the Society of Illustrators (NYC). Opening reception will be held on September 10th, next Friday.

Three illustrators from vastly different backgrounds; Canada, Japan and Israel; meeting at the crossroads of a distinct American aesthetic to examine their new found artistic voices through personal mythologies, broken narratives and remixed identities. An open window into the visual melting pot of contemporary image making.

Weber’s monumental and moody figures draw on the western idea of the portrait, re-imagined for the modern age, where anxiety and wonder mix into a seamless dramatic whole imbued with a sense of unsolved mystery.

Shimizu’s playful imagery ties the surface of Japanese wood cut prints with contemporary issues, creating sophisticated and symbolic psychological scenes of internal worlds, broken by geometric contraption that seem to pull away and reconnect the disparate elements.

Hanuka’s visuals were developed as research for an upcoming graphic novel titled The Divine to be published by First Second (written by Boaz Lavie and pencilled by Asaf Hanuka). the images explore ideas of eternal childhood, drawing from sources like 8bit video games, Rambo and hard news.

Looks like a super cool show. Check out more here and here.

This summer, I was interviewed by Dick Gordon for his radio program, The Story. Our conversation will broadcast tonight but you can also listen to it online. Although we mostly talked about the year I spent working on a farm in Virginia, those events are what inspired me to pursue my careers as a teacher and an illustrator. So, it still might be interesting to this crowd.

This illustration of the farm (above) describes something that happened while I was there. It was originally published by the Cricket Magazine Group for a story that I wrote about the experience.

Just a few weeks ago, I mentioned the possibility of teaching a video game design workshop for my art students. A parent who overheard asked “What do video games have to do with art?” Fortunately, there was another parent there to remind her, “Even video games come from somewhere.”

Thankfully, Giant Robot doesn’t need a reminder:

In conjunction with the Attract Mode videogame culture shop, Giant Robot is proud to host Game Night, a new event that will take place at GR2 every two months. Each evening will feature a different developer and its games in a relaxed, community-building setting

For Game Night 2, Giant Robot is pleased to present artist Bryan Lee O’Malley, who will be celebrating the sixth and final installment of his Scott Pilgrim comic-book saga and playing the brand new Scott Pilgrim video game (published by Ubisoft with art direction by Paul Robertson and music by Anamanaguchi).

For a future game night, I recommend James Kochalka and Pixeljam’s Glorkian Warrior!

Go see James Sturm in conversation with Sandee Brawarsky August 18th in New York! The event is FREE and will be followed by a book signing + reception.

Tuesday, August 18, 7 pm
Congregation Rodeph Sholom
7 West 83rd Street
New York, NY

Reposted from Drawn & Quarterly

My grandma is a fashion writer and, in her day, she was recognized on the streets of Paris, Milan, and New York City by other savvy fashionistas. She knew everybody and still has connections in restaurants, shops, and museums around the world. One of the things that I learned from her experience is that, “If you stick with it, you and your friends can eventually conquer the world.”

Today at Target, Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung are proving my grandmother right. Just a few years ago, they were my friends who made super-cool wallets among other things. This morning, they are the featured designers at Target. Right up there with Isaac Mizrahi and Jonathon Adler.

Whether you like Target or you love it, Poketo’s accomplishment is an inspiration. So, which of you will I be bragging about next?

Letters of Note is a blog that gathers and sorts “fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos.” The archive already includes correspondence for and from Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Van Gogh, not to mention the page from Bill Watterson above. The site is not devoted to artists alone but you can easily sort the findings if that’s what interests you. I am especially fond of this extremely helpful letter from John Kricfalusi (below) to one of his fans.

As long as we are sharing letters, you might also enjoy this set of mail art exchanged between by my students and some of their favorite artists (including Calef Brown, Susie Ghahremani, Aaron Renier, Stuart Immonen, Richard Thompson, Steven Weissman, and more)! The example below was drawn and written by the IF queen herself, Penelope Dullaghan.

I was inspired by many of the speakers at ICON, but one of my absolute favourites was Bil Donovan.

Not just because his work is unbelievably fresh, expressive and contemporary (just a few words I’d use to describe the work!). You can tell his passion for art is genuine and has no boundaries. He is a truly spirited fellow and continues to push himself into new areas even after being in the biz for decades!

What do you envision for our future? Specifically, 989 years from now? That’s a question we asked our producers with this project, to soundtrack the end of the 30th century. Show us what might be, or what they’d wish for humanity.

To help bring these visions to life we have a small army of illustrators choosing tracks to interpret. They take the music and the idea and work their magic, and whether it’s what the musician had originally imagined, or not, the results are fascinating.