• Best to be rich. (The Atlantic) (via C-Monster)
• Questioning the short sentence. (FT)

Monochrome 2
charcoal and pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

This is a digitally altered version of Monochrome 1, which is posted below.

Take your pick.

Monochrome 1
charcoal and pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

Original version.

• A most unusual forger. (FT Magazine)
• “Losers have the time to be nice.” The early life of Frank Sinatra. (The New York Review of Books)

Nude Portrait
charcoal and oil
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

Was the model's hair really green?

• Playboy comics. (playboy comics) (via things magazine)
• Man vs. machine. (Illustration Art)

Sienna 2
ink, charcoal, and pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

More big hair.

• Irony on the internet in China. (Foreign Policy)
• Touko Laaksonen, a.k.a. 'Tom of Finland', returns home. (The Guardian)

Sienna
ink, charcoal, and pastel
30.5 x 27.9 cm (12" x 11")

I went a little crazy with the burnt sienna in this drawing. Seems to work.

This model does have lots of hair, in case you're wondering.

(And the head is probably too small for the body in the drawing. But please ignore that.)

• Angry and ugly? Christopher Isherwood's journals. (The Sunday Times)
• Are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation damaging American public education and undermining democracy? (Dissent)

Green House
oil on board
15.2 x 20.3 cm (6" x 8") ■


Interestingly the scan of the painting makes the impasto much more prominent on the screen than it is in person.

• The perils of translation. (The London Review of Books) (via C-Monster)
• Vivian Maier, the unknown American photographer. (The New York Times) (via C-Monster)

Red Sleeper
pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

This pastel was a little better before I sprayed it with fixative. The fixative darkens the pastel and gives it a hard look.

• Ed Winkleman on Kickstarter (a unique all-or-nothing funding method for creative projects).
• Paul Theroux's struggles with autobiography. (Smithsonian)

Ski Pole
ink and charcoal
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

There is part of a ski pole in this drawing. The end of a pole is by the model's foot in a foreshortened view.

Why is there a ski pole in the drawing? That remains a mystery.

• The Koch brothers versus Obama. (The New Yorker)
• The real Da Vinci code? Researcher claims to have found symbols hidden in the Mona Lisa. (The Winnipeg Free Press)

The Designer
charcoal
35.6 x 27.9 cm (14" x 11")

This model is, or was, an interior designer by profession.

• Where can I show my work? (Joanne Mattera Art Blog)
• The nowhere man. (Tablet)
• Creation drawn. (Nick Edwards) (via Drawn)

New Model
graphite, ink, charcoal, and pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

This girl was new to modelling for artists. She did a super job. The artists, less super.

• Begin Again: a Biography of John Cage. (The Los Angeles Times)

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes: Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo in concert in Zimbabwe (1987).

• Photos before and after in Mongolia. Good stuff. (The New York Times) (via C-Monster)
• A short history of ballet. (The Washington Post)
• “Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.” Verbing at its best. (Intelligent Life)
• January 28th is the day to be in Croatia: museum entrance will be free. (croatiantimes)

Untitled, Kamloops
oil on canvas
61.0 cm x 76.2 cm (24" x 30")

This looking south from a hill in Kamloops, B.C. The road leading up the hill is called Summit Drive, so I'm guessing that the hill is called Summit Hill, or Summit Mountain. When I know the name of hill the painting will be retitled.

• A Lucian Freud portrait of Francis Bacon, stolen in 1988, has still not been recovered. (The Telegraph)
• Photos from inside Paraguay's soon to be closed Tacumbu prison. (The Calgary Herald)
• Gay weddings booming in Argentina. (The Guardian)
• What's happin'? For calls for submissions, openings, residencies and more check WOOLOO.

So Long To Ya, 2010: The JibJab 2010 Year in Review!

• Who buys stolen art? (CNN)
• The new Mecca. (The New York Times)
• Worth taking a look at: Escape From Illustration Island.
• The Renaissance and the birth of modern fashion. (HistoryToday)

Qué passa?
ink and watercolour
11.2 x 15.5 cm (4.4" x 6.1")

This was done for my own amusement.

• “Put on the appearance of business, and generally the reality will follow.” The Life of P.T.Barnham. (Lapham's Quarterly)
• More grammar lessons. (The Chronicle)

Quick Portrait
digital image
27.9 x 20.3 cm (11" x 8")

The bluish background to this portrait was added digitally.

Something about the overall shape of the figure appeals to me, which is why it's posted.

Bonne Année 2011!!!

Têtes à claques: Miss Québec Super Body