My favorite time of year is here and w/ it a crop of new political pieces!  This is one I just completed for Burlington Vt’s Seven Days alt weekly.  I just loved this piece.  The best part is that McCain & Obama have grown to caricature stature all on their own.  I hardly had to change anything!

So safe hauntings this Halloween & please go out and vote on Tuesday!

Here’s a political cover that was done last month for the Milwaukee Shephard Express.  These types of illustrations are my favorite!

My Fall Mailer went out to my “A” list last week and I’m already seeing results - yay!  My other two lists will be receiving it in the next few weeks.  I’m hoping for some good results.  Christmas (as well as my home heating bill) is right around the corner!

Here is the cover I did in July for Jacksonville FL’s weekly, Folio.  It’s of Congressman Ander Crenshaw.

As much as I had hoped to get this out in July, back to back jobs and vacation played havoc w/ my time.  I just love this piece and wanted everyone to see it.  It’s what I love most about summer - fans… Strange I know, but I just do.  Hopefully, I can get this out soon or perhaps add “fall” into the mailer too.  We’ll see.

Well, I finally got a local piece. I loved it! No sketch changes and they loved the final - what more can I ask? I’m hoping the final printed paper matches my original colors a bit better though. The digital (which I’m not posting at the moment) made everything a tad too bright. But, all in all a really fun piece to work on.

I was lucky to grab one more job before heading to the beach for some much needed R&R. Here’s a fun cover that I did for the Pittsburgh City Paper. I might end up doing my summer mailer from the original sketch which had the guy looking the other way smug & arrogantly.

It’s been a fun & busy week.  I just completed my final cartoon for the League of Women Voters Gerrymandering campaign.  It’s on it’s way to Harrisburg where it will hopefully be put to good use.

I also finished a piece for Burlington Vermont’s alternative paper Seven Days.  It was a black and white portrait of the Seattle Stranger’s Editor Dan Savage.  The link to Ken Picard’s article is: www.7dvt.com/2008man-s-man.  I’m hoping Dan will love it so much, I’ll be asked to do a piece for his paper too!

I am just starting a conceptual piece for Library Journal’s newsletter Netconnect which is due in a couple of weeks.  I’m excited as I’m not given the opportunity to work conceptually very often.  I really enjoy opportunities like these to flex my artistic prowess -  and expand my portfolio subject matter to boot.  I’ll post back once I’ve finished.

Well - better put in a few hours on it before Lost’s season finale (which I’m really psyched about) starts.

Well I didn’t have to wait long!  After mailing out my latest mailer on Tuesday, I landed a job on Friday.  The cool thing about it was that this publication - The West Side Spirit - wasn’t even one that I mailed to!  Their sister publication, the NY Press was on my list, and they were nice enough to share.

So, after a hectic couple of days I handed in the final on Monday.  Mitch & Charlotte were a joy to work with, and I hope to get hired by them again in the future.

Here’s the piece.  I think it went to press today and comes out tomorrow.  So if you see it out - pick one up.

Yay! My first mailer of 08 is finally out! After a crazy busy end to 2007, 2008 has been surprisingly quiet thus far. In retrospect, I did take advantage of my time to thoroughly update and research my target market database, which in and of itself could be a full time job. I hope it pays off!

Just why is it that art directors move around so frequently? Out of my now extensive database, only a handful are still with the publications I originally had them at five years ago. It’s frustrating to find that the art director you have finally made some headway with has left, unable to find.  In some respect, I imagine it is a good thing - with fresh new faces to wow.  I am grateful however for the art directors that I have worked with who are kind enough to notify me of their new ventures and welcome further submissions. I am also grateful for the new internet phenomenon of actually publishing a masthead online and for sites like mastheads.org and newpages.com for making my life a bit easier.

So now I wait - the quiet before the storm. Or so I hope!