I've been developing a personal project that's been on the back burner for quite a while (too long, actually). I don't know, maybe it's age related, but I've been in a reflective mood lately. So, I finally decided to stop procrastinating and put these drawings out there for whatever it's worth.
It's sort of a graphic journal referencing the pop (and pulp) culture I grew up with... American and Italian, historical and myth, high and lowbrow, good, bad and ugly.
I've started a separate blog for this project at http://joeciardiello.tumblr.com
Some of the drawings are below.
I was very happy to learn that 3 pieces of mine were accepted to the Society of Illustrators 55th Annual and that the piece above won a silver medal in the Institutional category. Big thank you to all the jurors. The art (which is a hand colored etching) was published in SIC magazine. The theme of the issue was "Red". SIC is a promotional publication for the Outsider Art Gallery in Frenchtown, NJ. The publisher/AD is gallery owner Dion Hitchings.
Earlier this year, I was one of 4 New Jersey artists selected to participate in a collaborative editions project with the Printmaking Center of NJ. We were each teamed up with a master printer to work with. I have a background in traditional etching and was interested in exploring new non-toxic methods. Solar Plate fit the bill. It's a photo etching process that uses light sensitive polymer plates and a UV exposure unit. The plate is rinsed with tap water and printed like a traditional etching. The Hockney piece was the first try. I used an existing pen drawing which was digitally transferred to acetate. The acetate was then placed on the plate and exposed to light in the UV unit. Several versions were tried, both cropped and full image. The plates were inked and printed by a wonderful printer, Sheila Goloborotko, who is their artistic director. I then hand colored the edition.
The PCNJ is a great printmaking and educational organization. You can learn more about it at www.printnj.org
Another color variation
Full image version
The next print was this one of Chuck Close. In this case, I drew and painted directly on the acetate. The rest of the process was the same as with the Hockney piece.
This is the hand colored version which was accepted to the uncommissioned category in the SI show.
The final piece accepted, also in Uncommissioned, is this personal drawing (not a print) called "Spaghetti Western".
I recently did some drawings for a brand new kind of digital format for ESPN. It's online only and is a sort of combination of app and online magazine. It has images, text and video. I think it's pretty cool and could be the future for editorial content.
The article is about Pittsburg Pirates pitcher Doc Ellis, who pitched a no-hitter while on LSD in 1970.
Thanks to CD John Korpics and his teriffic team.
Here's the link to see the whole story and the other drawings. One thing I found is that you need to adjust your screen to full view and change the display in order to view the images without them being cropped.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Dock-Ellis
Best selling author Michael Chabon is the subject of a Q&A in the latest issue of Mother Jones. He won a Pulitzer for "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. His latest novel, "Telegraph Avenue" set in Oakland, deals with two owners of a vintage-vinyl record shop (one black, one white) threatened by a megastore. Thanks to Tim Luddy for the assignment.
A new biography of Ben Bradlee, legendary editor of the Washington Post, was recently written by Jeff Himmelman and published by Random House. I was commissioned by AD Paolo Pepe to do the cover. They wanted to depict Bradlee at his desk and there was some back and forth on whether the piece should have color. Because of his association with the newspaper, a b/w image on a newsprint color seemed appropriate. Ultimately however, it was decided that I should do a color piece. When I finally saw the book, to my surprise the color had been removed (along with a bit of hatching under the nose). Such is the magic (and mystery to me) of photoshop. Below are both the color and printed versions.
I was lucky enough to get a number of pieces accepted into this year's CA Illustration annual. Many thanks to all the judges.
This portrait of Don DeLillo and the following 4 portraits were done for the NYT Book Review, Nicholas Blechman, AD.
Les Murray
Michael Ondaatje
Carlos Fuentes
Ward Just
Al Gore, Client: PromaxBDA
These Blues musician portraits were done for my limited edition book, BLACK WHITE & BLUES. Designers/publishers: Dan Smith and Virginia Cahill of Strike Three Press.
