Archive for May, 2012

Illustrate 2012: May

Illustrate 2012: May
By On May 31, 2012 In Illustrate 2012, Illustration With No Comments Permanent Link to Illustrate 2012: MayPermalink

Sometimes I get these very short and slightly ridiculous e-mails from my sister.  It’s okay because I send them to her, too.  The one I received yesterday was titled Logo idea for funnovate and simply read, “Goose on a swing.  That is all.”  Cryptic?  Maybe.  Inspirational?  Definitely.

As the end of the month was quickly approaching and I’ve been very busy working on a new service offering (to be revealed soon!) for my sustainability consulting firm, iSpring, I was feeling the pressure of what to draw for this month’s illustration.  Since last month’s illustration was a little more elaborate, I had decided that this month’s would be simple–also convenient because time was scarce.  However, I wasn’t feeling very inspired.  Then four little words meandered through my inbox–Goose. On. A. Swing.  You never know where inspiration will come from!

So with that, I give you this month’s illustration.

Illustrate 2012: May

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Vermin

Stray cat on porch of 4101 Spring Garden Street
By On May 25, 2012 In Life With No Comments Permanent Link to VerminPermalink

This morning, I let the dog out in the backyard to do his business and discovered that one of the neighborhood felines had dug a hole and taken a crap in the middle of my vegetable garden.  FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK.  When the first incident occurred earlier this week, I took to Facebook to complain about what happened and suggest that perhaps I was planning on poisoning the neighborhood cats.  Of course, I knew I was inviting the ire of that special breed of human who believes that cats are God’s gift to the earth and we should try to save every last one of them, even if that means we turn the planet into one big litter box.  (Fair warning: If you happen to be one of these people and are easily offended, you may want to stop reading at this point.)

And I did get a number of feline-friendly, but completely useless, suggestions about what I should do.  In fact, when I’ve lamented the cat situation in my neighborhood before, I’ve usually gotten the same battery of useless responses.  Let’s take a look at them.

  1. Cat Hotel - 4101 Spring Garden StreetYou should talk to the owners.  Um, that might work if there actuallywere owners.  These cats are strays–some feral–and there are no owners.  As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, to make matters worse, my neighbor has set up a cat hotel on his front porch.  (See picture on right–oddly devoid of cats at the moment I took the picture, but you get the idea.)  He feeds the cats, gives them shelter, watches them mate (I wish I were kidding.), and does nothing to control their population.
  2. Try citrus peels.  Tried that.  It doesn’t work.  I’ve also tried hot pepper.  It also doesn’t work.  I even went to the trouble to spend $40 on an ultrasonic cat repeller device.  It worked for a little while, and then it was stolen from my front yard.  That’s how it works in West Philly.
  3. Call animal control.  BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  In Philly?  Are you kidding me?  Have you heard about Philly’s animal control?  Besides which, I’ve called them on my neighbor in the past, and when I tried to follow up (because of course they don’t bother to let you know if they’ve been out to investigate), I couldn’t get a real person.
  4. Get a trap and take them to a shelter.  Why should I have to waste my time doing this when I haven’t caused the problem?  Plus, I don’t even like the damn animals.

As far as I’m concerned, no one would suggest any of these solutions if we just called these stray cats what they actually are–vermin.

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I loved your artwork so much that I ate it.

Envelope drawn by Maurice Sendak
By On May 8, 2012 In Illustration, Life With No Comments Permanent Link to I loved your artwork so much that I ate it.Permalink

Is there really a higher compliment one can receive than having someone eat your artwork?  I don’t think so.

I like to eat.  A lot.  I have a circle of four friends from high school in which I’m known for that particular character trait.  One of the four tried to match me once on our annual trip to small-town Pennsylvania (affectionately named “Podunkapalooza”–more on that sometime in June, when the trip actually happens) and regretted it for the rest of the night.  In fact, here’s a picture of me eating breakfast on one of those trips.

Sam eats breakfast surrounded by a wall of condiments.

Notice the wall of condiments and beverages I’ve built to keep people from eating my food.

Okay, great, you get it.  I like to eat.  What does this have to do with anything?

Today I was saddened at the news that Maurice Sendak had passed away.  Sendak’s work was a big part of my childhood, and although I know Edward Gorey gets most of the love here on my blog, Sendak was probably equally as influential in developing my love of somewhat dark illustration.  As I read his obituary in today’s New York Times, I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarities between Gorey and Sendak, from their love of solitude to their depictions of childhood as a time fraught with perils to their prickly reactions to being described as “that guy who does children’s books.”  I can’t count the number of times my mom read Chicken Soup with Rice or Pierre to me as a child.  Nor can I recall the number of times I rushed to the children’s section of the Bethlehem Public Library to see if any of the Little Bear books (illustrated by Sendak) were there so I could pore over the illustrations from the comfort of my bedroom’s purple shag carpet.

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