Also, I am extremely excited that this year I have been awarded a silver medal for the “Greenland” poster I worked on with The Bridge Theatre Company. Winning the medal means a lot to me; it’s incredibly humbling and something I will always be grateful for. The two images below will appear in the Advertising/institutional show.

Thank you to SI and all of the judges!

Editorial and book opening: February 3
Institutional and advertising: March 2

See everyone there!

I tend to see my personal work as dark and mysterious and despite their simpleness, these two are no different. The idea of drawing a scorpion and a dragonfly had been on my mind for awhile, but the right idea wasn’t clicking. Somehow when I saw this J.C Leyendecker image a few weeks back the concept of two extremely quiet still lifes came to mind. I think you can sense the compositional and color inspiration.

The Scorpion was motivated by the idea combining innocence and violence.

The Dragonfly is in honor of the upcoming chinese new year, the year of the dragon. It is actually the year of the water dragon, which makes this all the more relevant

Despite it’s simpleness, I really enjoyed making this picture and was surprisingly pleased with the result; I’m not going to lie, when I got the approval I thought to myself “oh, that sketch?”. It wasn’t a question of art director’s judgment, it’s just that I normally get hired to draw full figures.  Regardless, I think that may be the reason I am excited about it; the stripped down and direct message. It accompanies an article about the depletion of our nations munition supplies and is meant to play up the idea of the old war propaganda posters from the 40′s.

thanks!

I wanted to express my thoughts about a recent project I had the pleasure to work on. In the current issue of Spirit Magazine writer Christina Kelly tells a true account of her chance encounter on a commercial flight with a Military Dog named “Lucky”. The story of Lucky is really nothing short of heroic. It’s a heart wrenching read (aren’t most stories about dogs?), not because it’s sad, but because of the constant reminders of the stoic loyalty and unique bond a dog can bring to someone’s life. It just so happens that this story is backdropped by war, certainly escalating that emotion.

When I was first contacted about the job my interest was immediately peaked by the mention of “military dog”. I knew dogs served a role in the military, but I had no idea to what extent that service was. After further discussion it was apparent that this service member  was special. As a dog lover and long time owner myself (family dogs count right?) I was excited, but also incredible nervous to tackle the challenge of doing this  emotional story justice. To take that responsibility one step further, Lucky’s journey isn’t just simply about him, but also about the very special soldiers who served as his handlers. I respect anyone in the military, but In my opinion it takes a unique type of solider to be a warrior in the battle field, but also a trusted friend and loyal partner to his dog- no matter what. A lot is asked of these K-9 soldiers and, unlike humans, we can’t just sit down and talk to them about it. How do they perform under pressure? How does it effect them? Do they even want to be there? Because of that, in my view, a dog’s heart will always be pure and his intentions honorable; no questions asked, no signs of fear, just do the job.

To make the pressure worse, it became evident that this article is not just simply about Lucky or his handlers. It also highlights many other aspects of what it means to be a K-9 for the United States Military. There is a very interesting history of military dogs, some of which is quite sad and downright immoral, to be blunt. During the Vietnam war, service dogs were considered “equipment” and left behind in the jungle because it was “too expensive” to transport them home; another dark smudge on a war that had many. Things have drastically changed since that time, but in some sense I still felt as though the artwork (and story) honoring Lucky was beyond just him. It was more a summation of all the service given and all of the dogs who sacrificed themselves to save human lives and do good-will around the world on our behalf.

My family has been rescuing dogs for many, many years, If my count is correct, somewhere around 9 total (peaking at 6 in the house at one time!) so I understand what it means to give a dog a second chance. It was incredibly special to read this account of dogs who can do the same thing, be it on the battlefield or at base camp for us humans.

The story is beautifully written and extremely informative at the same time. When approaching illustration assignments I always try to bring something more to the “conversation” than the text provides. I suppose this is still the case with this story,  however my only real goal was to give honor those people, like Lucky and SSgt. Martinez, for their contribution to our country.

I encourage all of you to read the full article here.

Thanks for reading.

First image is about having luck in the workplace and was for “your favorite illustrator’s favorite publication*”. The second is for a fun project from some designers in Germany. My job was to visually interpret a quote (go figure) from a German musician which will then be screen printed and sold on t-shirts. That’s the short version of the project, for more information go here. My design will be available in the next 2 months, I believe.  I took the opportunity to make a full on painting and then translate it to a screen print friendly version. The quote is “I am the horseman”.

I should probably thank my studio mate for this. She did a painting of some flytraps that has been staring at me for the past 9 months. I couldn’t help myself…

]]> http://seejbdraw.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/flora-fauna/feed/ 0 seejbdraw blog_bartlett_luck bartlett_horsemanblog horseman_mock http://seejbdraw.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/fallen-star/ http://seejbdraw.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/fallen-star/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:42:16 +0000 seejbdraw http://seejbdraw.wordpress.com/?p=564 ]]>

The United States…kind of like a celebrity having a career slump…

Ah, two pieces that seem fitting to post next to each other I’d say. First, an image for The Utne Reader about a new video game set to be released in which the gamer is not actually a soldier but a “media guy” filming the action. The second, an illustration about memories from one of Nixon’s early speech writers; a very interesting article that I really enjoyed working with (Penn Gazette).

I wonder if war based articles will start phasing out now… my guess is no.