Presents!

POPROCKS!

Mix em with yogurt and you have a taste sensation.

Sam Shapiro's Art Gallery

Back in 2003-2004 I had the pleasure of teaching an Illustration Pre-College class at The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. One of my students was a very talented young man named Sam Shapiro. His energy truly amazed me. He helped by showing other students his skill and how it just seemed to flow from his fingers without effort. His humor along with his eye for color, composition and character were years ahead of his age. His talent and helpfulness was truly an inspiration to not only myself but to other students in the class. Years after that moment, I repeatdly often wondered what he was up to. What he had become with all that he had, and how he had used his talents. Was he working at Pixar? Was he showing in a select New York gallery? Was he himself now a teacher? The possibilities he had in front of him were endless.

This past September I received a letter from his mother telling me that Sam had passed away this past June. I found out he had been battling with depression and anxiety for the past 6 years, and had been self-medicating himself with drugs and alcohol.It is sad to see such a talented and gifted person get lost to the shadows when they bring so much light to the world around them. His family has put together a gallery showing of his work entitled The Addiction of Art and the Art of Addiction. It is located in The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Designs student union and showcases Sam’s life as an artist, the struggles he had with drug and alcohol addiction, and the effects that these struggles had on his creative output.

I would encourage anyone who is in the Milwaukee area over the next month to go and take a look at his work and meet Sam for the first time.

The Addiction of Art and the Art of Addiction
Type: Music/Arts - Exhibit
Start Time: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 6:00pm
End Time: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 10:00pm
Location: Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Student Union
266 E. Erie St. Milwaukee, WI


http://samshapiro.org

Sparkle!

Who doesn't love a pig eating ice cream?

CHILDREN'S FLU FIGHTERS!

Well there is nothing like a global flu outbreak coinciding with going back to school to get the old creative juices flowing. I recently did some character work for the Children's Hospital for a flu fighting campaign it was doing to raise awareness and help kiddos stay virus free. At first I thought the kid characters were going to be developed into full out super heros who would be flying rings around the likes of Captain America and Spiderman. But soon after I was told they would in fact be just normal kids wearing capes fighting germs and telling kids how to remember to wash their grubby hands. Eh' still a good time.

You can check out the actual website promoting the Children's Flu Fighters campaign and order up a FLU KIT for your school or place of business or possibly even yourself.

http://www.childrensflufighters.com

The kit contains an assortment of colorful stickers, posters, mirror clings, coloring pages and 98 bottles of Purell with a belt clip attached to them. Enjoy the post and now wash those grubby hands.

CATCH THAT MONKEY!

This is a project that was done fairly recently for Blue Cross Blue Shield. After multiple sketches, slight tweaking and a dynamic monkey sex change a couple of pieces got developed that I'm pretty pleased with. Kudos to great art direction and partner efforts! The main message is for kids to do a multitude of things. Get out run around and be active and limit your screen time. There are two other active animals in the series but I'll post those at a later date. Overall great project to work on.

Dunkin Bear!

These are a continuation of some previous Dunkin Bears I did awhile back.
Why is everything always a continual work in progress?

Hey Some Polar Opposite Characters!

Random Character Work.

Hello my name is Heinz.

LUNCH BOX!

Hello Blog. It has been awhile.

This was a fantastic lunchbox project I recently worked on for my small friend Ella. It was her first day of kindergarten and her mom wanted to surprise her with her very own personalized, super duper, extra pink & girly, almost makes you sick it's so cute lunchbox. I think I nailed the "it almost makes you sick" part,..but I still have some work to do on the rest.

After much deliberation and discussion on what to draw,.. the bottom scratchy sketch was chosen as the direction to go in. (Other options included, a teacher owl, a sea creature from the deep eating small children, and monsters heads.) I was hoping the mother would choose a monster theme since Ella is a big fan of Friday the 13th and horror movies.But due to the Child Protective Services and sensitive teachers we went with the flying pony version.

SCRIBBLE-A-ROO

WOW. I'm embarressed to look at how long it's been since I've posted anything. I am humbled and ashamed. So to start out the new stretch of posts here's a couple of pages of random scribbles in my notepad. Some would call them sketches,.I call them scribbles.