Bartalos Illustration

My illustrated box set of Animal Alphabet Note Cards published by Card Sharks is now available online.

The 26 blank notecards feature animals from A to Z — ideal for birthdays, thank yous, and everyday greetings and invitations. (They make great kids’ room decor and ABC flash cards too!)

The colorful card set and 26 envelopes come nestled in a sliding cardboard tray housed in a slipcase cover, pictured above at left. At right is the back of the cover.

Card Sharks is a fresh new greeting card company founded by friend and designer Brent Croxton. I’m excited to be part of his whimsical, high-end, earth-friendly product line whose contributors include all-star illustrators Steven Guarnaccia, John Hersey, Don Kilpatrick, Felix Sockwell and Teresa Villegas.

Congratulations to Brent on the launch of this endeavor, and a big thanks for the shout out on the CS blog!

Latin Jazz stamp photographed by Douglas Sandberg

My recent stamp designer interview is posted to Design It!, the National Postal Museum’s online Stamp Design Curriculum. I’m one of four stamp artists currently featured on the site, providing educators and students with insights into the process of designing stamps.

I recently created a cut-paper piece to benefit America SCORES Bay Area, a non-profit which helps urban kids in a unique after-school program that combines soccer and poetry. The Inspired Art Project fundraiser asks participating artists to create a piece based on poems produced by SCORES youth, and I chose Who Am I by Alan C. whose words I found imaginative and visually charged. Alan wrote this in the autumn of 2007 at age 10 at Paul Revere Elementary School in San Francisco.

Who Am I

I am a drawer
I am a turtle
I am a Mexican
I would be rich
I would be a hamburger
I would be bomb noise
I would be the smell of markers
I would be a wrestler
If I could be a word I would be hipihiperhipy
…

Awesome, Alan! My piece titled Who Am I For Alan C. will be auctioned at the SCORES annual auction in San Francisco on Saturday evening March 28.

I’m pleased to be one of three creatives that Communication Arts magazine queried for their January/February issue’s Design Trends column on newstands now. The question was: Where do you get your color inspiration? My answer:

“I get my color inspirations from collecting paper. New and surprising color combinations appear amid random piles of dyed paper, scrap paper, aged paper, printing paper, and packaging paper when my studio’s messy enough. For added excitement, I turn to Kurt Schwitters’ collages, Robert Rauschenberg’s cardboard assemblages, and Romare Bearden’s Illusionist at 4 P.M., from 1967. Pink, blue and brown never looked so good together.”

Here are the images I was referring to, which didn’t run in CommArts due to space limitations:

Two of Kurt Schwitters’ many brilliant collages and assemblages that I never tire of are Mz 601 from 1923 (left) and Merz Picture 32 A. The Cherry Picture from 1921.

Robert Rauschenberg’s 1971 cardboard pieces derive power from their monochromatic palettes. I find this baby blue assemblage titled Volon particularly irresistible.

This is Romare Bearden’s Illusionist at 4 P.M., a composition of various papers with appropriated magazine photos. I’d loved to have seen Bearden’s process of creating this adventurous palette and arranging the flat color to create the illusion of space.

I’m back in San Francisco after a few weeks away. Thanks to all those who followed my travels on the Long View blog, with a special shout out to Edel Rodriguez for featuring it on his Drawger page. The Long View Project and blog continue with the arrival of my collected material from Antarctica in a week or so.

In the meanwhile I’m opening heaps of cool holiday mail. In it were samples of the Picture Mechanics wrapping paper promo that 20 members of our consortium contributed to. My image appears in the upper right-hand corner.

The vibrant 20″ x 29″ sheets were masterminded, compiled by, and designed by the artistically irrepressible John Hersey. There are two sheets per pack, one of which you’ll want to keep to display on the wall. See all the contributors’ work at picturemechanics.com.

Happy 2009! My New Year’s card illustrates some constellations unique to the southern hemisphere: Centaurus, Cetus, Hydra, Scorpio, and Piscis Austrinus. The concept was inspired by Uranometria, a beautifully engraved star atlas of 1603 (the first to cover the entire celestial sphere), and by my recent travels south of the equator. 

I’m now at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, with no constellations to see. The only visible star is the sun which won’t set till autumn.

Daily updates continue at The Long View Project blog.

HMS Endurance photographed by Frank Hurley, February 1915.

My journey to Antarctica is under way! I’m currently in Christchurch, New Zealand, taking in the sights and waiting to get suited up for the Ice.

I’m pleased to announce that the California Academy of Sciences is hosting my dedicated Long View Project blog. That’s where most of the action throughout the next four weeks will be, though I’ll continue to post here too occasionally.

Thanks for following along.

Congratulations, Barack Obama.

Katzen Art Center at American University.
Image © Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering P.C.

Back again in DC, I gave stamp talks at AU’s Katzen Art Center on October 2nd and at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum on the 4th. Appreciative audiences and good Q&As at both.

The most often asked question is “How do you get to do a stamp in the first place?” There must be as many answers as there are stamp illustrators, but mine is: Do a Barneys window. That’s where Postal Service art director Richard Sheaff first saw my posters which he procured (through considerable effort) from the New York store staff to display in his DC office, which led to his commissioning me for the Marathon stamp, and in turn the Latin Jazz stamp. So I have Barneys creative director Simon Doonan to thank for initiating that fortuitous chain of events. Thank you Simon!

Oddly, no one’s yet followed up with asking “How do you get to do Barneys windows?” Answer: I don’t remember exactly. Perhaps Simon assumed that it would stop the barrage of letterpress promos I overwhelmed art directors with in those days. It didn’t.

One thing for sure, the window displays and stamps are still among the most exciting projects I’ve worked on. Both Simon and Richard were a joy to collaborate with, and I’ll miss working with Richard now that he’s officially retired.

The Smithsonian National Postal Museum, home to budding stamp artists like Emma.

The Postal Museum’s October 4 Latin Jazz Celebration included a “Design Your Own Stamp” workshop which went over well with youngsters and families. There were more than a few drawings by 9-year olds that would make terrific stamps. Professional illustrators be warned.

Big thanks to Erin Blasco and volunteers Amy Cesal, Shana Weinberg and others for helping make these events a success, and especially to my mom who traveled down from New York to attend them all. Other guests of honor included illustrator Rafael Lopez and family in from San Diego (thanks for the beautiful Obama print, Rafael!), the Smithsonian’s Allison Wickens, and writer Louise Fenner. This trip was all the more memorable for quality time spent with generous friends David Fair, Mark Jickling, and Edith Jickling, and for catching the Corcoran’s awesome Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power show up through January 25. Highly recommended.

The doors are open.

Few things excite me more than the notion of designing for buildings by my favorite architects. So I’m pretty euphoric about having landed a retail display and merchandise graphics gig for Renzo Piano’s new California Academy of Sciences building right here in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

Rainforest and Aquarium display panels, t-shirts, notebooks in the main store.

Creative director Rhonda Rubinstein and I collaborated closely since April to create twelve theme illustrations representing the museum’s featured attractions and areas of research. Elements of the images were used to create graphic wall panels throughout the Academy’s three retail stores, as well as motifs that appear on a multitude of products from t-shirts to caps to notebooks to chocolate bars (an essential pick-me-up after a day of exploring a museum this size). Integrated into many of these motifs is the Academy’s new logo designed by Pentagram San Francisco.

A pair of display panels in the main store's Sustainability and Gardening retail area.

The new Academy is not to be missed. The structure features an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and 4-story rainforest under one roof. A living roof that is, carpeted with 2.5 acres of plant species native to the Bay Area. The LEED-certified complex is reportedly the greenest museum in the world, and the design — in typical Piano fashion — is undeniably smart and gorgeous throughout. Contributed attractions include main floor exhibits created by locals Adam Brodsley and Eric Heiman at Volume in collaboration with L.A.-based Cinnabar, Maya Lin’s expansive wire sculpture hanging from the west facade, and the swamp’s crowd-pleasing albino alligator courtesy of Mother Nature herself.

Nicolai Ouroussoff’s Times review sums up the extraordinary visitor experience here and photographer Tim Griffith’s images showcase the building in all its architectural glory here. I’ve never been prouder to be part of a team-effort endeavor.

Elvis Costello rocks out on the Academy's west lawn.

A string of previews and parties throughout September culminated with the Academy’s posh Big Bang Opening Gala on the 25th with live music provided by no less a legend than Elvis Costello. Major flashbacks to my art school days provided evidence that Elvis is still kickin’ it.

Check back for more photos of display graphics and products as they arrive. Better yet, pick them up in person at the museum. Don’t forget the chocolate bars!