This is just for laughs, kootchie-koo. A caricature exercise. I've been catching Kojak reruns at 2 in the morning (great 70s cop drama, if you've never seen it) and Telly Savalas' face seemed like it'd be fun to doodle.
All that other junk in the picture -- the logo, the 70s sunburst pattern inside the lieutenant's shield -- that's just me killing time avoiding my actual work. Hey, tell me about it, baby. -v
To the untrained eye it might seem like my friend (and fellow artist) Mark suffers from some virulent strain of ADHD. The guy fidgets like a kid wearing an itchy sweater in church. And he has this habit of jumping randomly from subject to subject as if he's mentally spinning some tiny conversational carnival wheel in his head. But ADHD is an easy scapegoat.
I think the real issue behind this behavior is the fact that Mark's got a coffee pot next to his drawing table hooked into his arm like an intravenous drip. He eats handfuls of coffee beans like you and I munch on popcorn. He owns stock in Starbucks. And yeah, he never misses a deadline, but that's only because he doesn't go to sleep. I'll see him out at night 'til 2 or later, and the next morning he's waking me with a phone call before 7. I think while the rest of the world is sleeping, Mark is running in some giant hamster wheel in his basement.
Is any of that healthy? Who knows? But in the interest of helping me get more sleep, I'm now recruiting friends to help me with Mark's coffee intervention. Even if you don't want to help Mark, do it for me. -v
My mother will tell me this illustration is sacrilegious.
I will counter that by stating it's an editorial comment on the supplanting of traditional religious iconography with modern-day secular symbolism as a result of rampant consumerism and spiritual ambiguity.
But really? This is how I remember Easter as a child: Lots of praying in a hot church, plenty of talk about rising from the dead. But mostly it was about seeing how much of my Easter candy I could stuff down my throat before Monday morning.
For the record, I really couldn't stand the giant coconut eggs or the marshmallow peeps...but I ate them anyway. That the concentrated sugar in my system didn't blow my head off like a champagne cork is yet another Easter miracle. -v
Alex Patho is a fantastic photographer and one of the few printers I trust with my illustrations. He's got a great eye for color and obsesses over the details as much as I do. After just a few years of knowing him, I consider Alex a friend.
However, I do believe he's a vampire. And I’m pretty sure he finds me annoying. I once asked him for his cel-phone number and it was like I asked him to donate a kidney. What is that?
Anyway, even if Alex is one of the soulless undead, I highly recommend visiting his website. Patho Photography, a studio run by Alex and his father, is the place to go if you ever need any professional photography or printing done. These guys are old-school craftsmen with state-of-the-art equipment who really care about each and every project they work on. Visit them at www.pathophoto.com
Now we'll see if he answers my emails. -v
