Recent Work: Auditor Portraits

Every other month I do a spot portrait of a featured expert profiled in Internal Auditor Magazine. I am given a few photographs to choose from and a manuscript of the interview. I understand little of the technical information, but I try to pick out a couple of elements to include in the illustration, whether it is a part of the globe, an acronym, or a type of currency. Here are a few samples from the past year or so.

Client: Yacinski Design
Art Director: Carol Hardy

Recent Work: Military Timeline

This was a recent piece for creative director, Lynne Woychik, at Military Officer Magazine. The article discussed the media’s attitude towards the military throughout the history of the U.S. Lynne wanted a creative approach to the standard historical timeline. It’s always a bit more of a challenge for me when the client supplies all of the photographs, so I tried to have fun with the background, mimicking a sort of “Rauschenbergian” approach. Everything was pretty much built and painted traditionally, except for the photos and a few minor elements, which were added digitally.

Recent Work: Dead Flower Print

This is a recent print I have been working on.

My wife and I love flowers. We are not gardeners, but we like them enough to buy fresh ones every week. I am always inspired by them, and I’ll say to myself, “boy, I’ve really got to draw those flowers,” or “I have to photograph those flowers.” But for some reason, I never get around to it until they are dying or dead. At first I thought this was just procrastination, but now I think I just like them in a state of decay. I felt better about this somewhat morbid preference after recently hearing this quote by the British novelist, Jim Crace, being interviewed on The Diane Rehm Show:

“[Many people today think of nature as consisting of] rainbows and nightingales and daffodils, things that look good and smell good. Actually, a greater truth about the natural world is that it is made up of compost, and until we start to recognize that the earth is made up of creatures and death and putrefaction and glorify that as well, we are going to lose touch with the world.”