Street Trade

Hello folks! Now that the Ephemera! show is on display, I wanted to share one of my pieces. This one, entitled Street Trade, is inspired by a Philadelphia Business Directory from 1851. These directories were a pictorial representation of businesses on a particular street. The prints show the storefronts and business details on the back. I wish we (as a culture) still made stuff like this!! The 18th and particularly the 19th centuries are saturated with visual culture. Every day I find something new and amazing be inspired by – if you are in Philly, you should come by and check out the show. Also, the work is for sale! (The piece above is sold, but there is a lot more amazing art by amazing artists from the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society in the show.)

Plate 5 in Julio Rae, Rae’s Philadelphia Pictorial Directory & Panoramic Advertiser. Philadelphia, Julio Rae, 1851.

Ephemera!
The Library Company of Philadelphia
1314 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Open M-F; 9AM-445PM

benefit of jet lag

Jet lag is not usually a good thing, but while in Japan, I was waking up around or before 6 each morning. Ridiculous I know, but it gave me time to draw. Our hotel in Takayama had hot springs baths on their top floor as well as a beautiful view of the town. I spent a few hours drawing the view from the window. Above is what I was able to draw in a few hours with some of the trees added later. BTW that hotel was the BEST.

Billy Buttons

Recently, I was given the opportunity to create a piece commissioned as a first anniversary gift for my friend, Lauren. The piece is centered on Billy Buttons, her favorite flower, which were abundant at her wedding. Being my first commission ever, I was quite nervous. My ideas for this piece underwent many iterations beginning with something cartoony and resulting in something a little more realistic. The piece is a mixture of gouache and micron pen. I had a lot of fun with the little details in the foreground, and big ups to Ray for giving me this opportunity, happy anniversary you two!