They Might Be Giants: Here Come the 1,2,3's

While this cd/dvd set was released in February of 2008, I am just now getting around to celebrating it here on this blog (where it's basically still February). They Might Be Giants
"Here Come the 1,2,3's" is an inspired series of songs with such bopping beats that you can't not dance around the room when you listen to them. And just when you thought the music couldn't be better, you'll discover a dvd with animations for each of the songs.
I am honored to be amongst the animators who were asked to work on this project:
in the Spring of 2007 I got a call from TMBG to please animate their song about Number 9, called "Pirate Girls Nine". This was a very exciting prospect for me, as I love music, love their music, and am happy when working on kids' educational projects.
Something very special about this project in particular was having John Flansburgh of TMBG, as the art director. He was extremely smart, funny and encouraging during the process, and I felt it was a collaboration in that he was guiding the vision of this piece while understanding and speaking my visual language. This band is so overflowing with creativity and is so super-productive that I am pretty sure they must have read this book. I would love to be able to crank out a tenth of what they do, but am just very happy to have had the chance to work with them and hopefully some of it rubbed off.

Here are some stills from the animation "Pirate Girls Nine":


and the animation can be found on the above-mentioned cd/dvd package, and can also be see via podcasts. Eventually, I will have it on my site as well.

The secret brain behind this animation, and the person to whom I owe a million thanks for his help, is Peter Hamlin. He not only inspired the palette, but he put forth a great effort helping me get this project done in the relatively short time we had. We animated my drawings using Flash, and Peter has since continued on to do his own music animations using After Effects, for Enstereo.

Thanks also to Tim Wilder, who helped get this output to its final form.
And last but not least, to animator Lucy Blackwell, who brought the 'Giants to me. I will be blogging about Lucy in more detail down the road, and my hat is off to her for her visionary animation work on this album for the song about Number 4, called "Apartment Four".

My Beating Heart

Speaking of vision, here I applaud the inventiveness of one of my studio mates, Yury Gitman (Banana Design Lab), who has been inspiring me by proximity with his experimental process, his problem-solving, and his diligence. Yury is a Toy Designer/Inventor, who teaches Interactive Toy Design at Parsons here in NYC. What is an interactive toy, you ask? Well, in the case of his newly released collection called My Beating Heart , it's a soft pillow that has the pulse of a 'heartbeat' inside of it. The pillow remains just a quiet, soft presence until you activate the heartbeat by pressing the subtly-placed switch sewn into the label on the hem. Then, when you hug the pillow to your chest, you feel its heartbeat next to yours. After several test-squeezes when passing by Yury's work area, I have determined that this is a very cozy and soothing item. Inside these soft and squeezable pillows are some electronics... here is a glimpse of some of the electronic hardware that made its way into this pillow... and a glimpse of Yury, working hard in his workspace.


It's a pretty magical fact about our hearts, that we have cells in there that produce electrical currents, which made them beat. There's more info on that here, and don't forget to enjoy the illustrations and animations on this site (especially the man with the yellow swisscheese speedo, getting the ECG)...

I appreciate that Yury uses the metaphor of electrical currents in the heart in this elegant form = content way. And I love that these beating heart pillows are the result of one person's vision and creative energy going towards making something to help more people feel more connected to the life force.

Super Tuesday

While this is a visual arts blog, I have to state here that Barack Obama is my candidate... and it's for his Vision.
He uses his unique life experience,his intelligence,his heart and his voice to inspire, create, bring ideas and issues up for discussion, and to hopefully make things better.

I think these are all essential elements to art and art-making too.

As an addition, there's a feature on the NYTimes which has portraits of voters across America being interviewed about their choice of candidate: it's a great core sample of people who live in the USA and what is going on in our minds about hopes, priorities and values.

If you like faces (as I do) and hearing how individuals express themselves-- given a short window in which to do so-- about issues that face all of us, you will enjoy this media piece.

2008

Before January comes to a close... Hooray and Welcome 2008!!! May we all work intelligently to help each other as much as we can this year.

Sara Varon, part 2

Last week I had the pleasure of an evening of Crafts and Snacks with Sara Varon. She's very organized and has already conceived of and silkscreened her 2008 New Year's pack for sending to clients and friends. I admire Sara's orderly approach to her work, and it was satisfying for me to watch her assembly-production line. She's very careful and focused with what she is doing, and I could see that she approaches all parts of her process-- even repetitive tasks like folding and sticking adhesive goo in her cards-- with the same care that she puts into her illustration work.

(click on photos to see expanded and in detail)

Having a cozy craft night with Sara made me feel like we were a pair of friendly creatures doing a project, which is often a theme in her work. She and I are from a similar gene pool (see photo), and so in this case we have an intra-species friendship.

The World of Sara Varon

Sara Varon is a comics artist, illustrator, printmaker, teacher, boxer, creator of delicious baked goods, and friend, to name a few of her talents. I have been a fan of her work for about 6 years, and my admiration continues to grow with her work. Her most recent graphic novel, Robot Dreams, published by First Second Books, is my current favorite, with her previous book, Chicken and Cat, a close second.

According to me, Sara's specialty is exploring interspecies friendships-- a relevant theme for all of us on this planet.
Her work often conveys a sweet and peaceful space that can exist between two (or more) creatures when they are having a regular daily experience, or an adventure, or are making something together. Often there is a project to be accomplished, and I love how Sara visually takes the reader through each step: having a sense of Sara's methodical and organized approach to her art-making, I appreciate how she conveys step-by-step processes in her work. I also appreciate (re: love) the expressions of her characters and how she shows their reactions to new, interesting, or upsetting things that present themselves on their paths in life. Here are some examples of this, from a series Sara did for the Walker Art Museum:


But in her world, interspecies relations are not always harmonious, and Sara is not afraid to explore conflict:


In her book Robot Dreams, Sara shows a range of what can exist between two creatures. it is the story of a friendship between a dog and a robot and how their relationship goes through an estrangement-- it is completely pictorial and one the most emotional stories I have ever 'read'. Not having explored too far in the genre of comics and graphic novels, I can't say this with authority, but I feel that with Robot Dreams, Sara has plowed new ground in how she shows the complexity and depth of feelings that can occur on both sides, when a relationship goes through big changes.

Móra

Continuing with the theme of the Children's Museum of Art, there is a wonderful children's book publisher in Hungary- Móra- which has been putting out books with gorgeous and inspiring illustrations for many many years. When I was visiting the beautiful town of Pécs, Hungary, in 2002, a sweet antiqvarium (aka: antique bookstore) owner gifted me this likewise sweet book,
published by Móra: while can't read Hungarian, I do know that this book is about the Weather and its many forms. The illustrations are fresh and modern, and from 1971. I love their simplicity and directness, and the cheerful feeling conveyed that any kind of weather is okay to experience. Looking through this book is a refreshing break from worries about climate change and imminent environmental meltdown. But moreso, it's time spent enjoying simple, thoughtful, stylized yet direct visual communication.
Here are some more samples from the back and inside, to enjoy:




Stay tuned for more on Móra... there are many beautiful books from them to celebrate.