Long Distance Relationship

Here are sketches for a five page comic I am making for a romance-themed anthology. It starts kinda sad but is essentially very hopeful.

The Search

“The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” - Walker Percy

The House on Beaver Dam Road

Diana and Suzan

*UPDATED* Master of Prayer Puppet Show this Wednesday Night at JALOPY

Remember my early December post about that book I made for the puppet show, Master of Prayer? Those good folks are performing as part of the fourth anniversary of Roots N' Ruckus at the Jalopy Theater in Red Hook. The puppets (and fiddle, and band of merry puppeteers) go on at 9pm sharp, with other super awesome musical acts. Best of all the whole thing is free. I will be trotting around taking pictures and drawing and admiring the new additions to Jalopy (if they're open--they've claimed the bar-next-door recently). Here's the line-up for Wednesday evening:

This Wednesday we celebrate 4 years of Roots n Ruckus at Jalopy! The Showstarts a half-hour EARLY this week!
9:00 (SHARP) - The Master of Prayer (an hour-long puppet show about a hilarious and insightful story written by an 18th century rabbi. featuring Craig Judelman)
10:00 - Feral Foster
10:30 - The Whiskey Spitters
11:00 - The Dust Busters 
11:30 - I$TO

The Jalopy Theater is located at 315 Columbia Street in Brooklyn. Directions here. 

Here's some more info about the show from the writer and director:

The Invisible Kitchen presents:

MASTER OF PRAYER

A puppet allegory based on the story by Rebbe Nachman.

Based on a story by by the 19th century rabbi, our show tells of a mythical kingdom, thrown into chaos by a great wind. The Master of Prayer, who lives in the woods with his followers, singing and dancing like hippies, hears of a city of riches where people are valued only according to how much money they have, and is compelled to save these poor fools from their money-lust. To this end, they depart together on a journey that takes them through many kingdoms, each one obsessively valuing one trait to the exclusion of all else. Through the journey we learn that whether they worship money, wisdom, prayer, lust, or death, they are all misguided, because a man must have all the colors on his palette in order to paint life's picture.

Some say the protagonist symbolizes Rebbe Nachman and is thus at the same time a comment on the role of the tzadikim (enlightened teachers) in a corrupted society, and how they provide instruction for social change. This in turn reflects back on the important role of the artist/storyteller in modern society, and ourselves as performers/puppeteers retelling and reintroducing this old story to contemporary audiences.  And so, in our show, the puppeteers themselves play important roles as characters in the piece.

I know this all sounds very serious, but most of the time we are playing for laughs, and most of the story is told in clowning and hand puppets.  It's fast paced, and funny, and features great live traditional and original klezmer music by Craig Judelman (facebook.com/CraigJudelman).

The show makes use of many kinds of puppetry including hand puppets and cranky, as well as giant masks and clowning.  The puppets are designed and built from recycled materials by me, Adam (www.adamende.com).

Photo Source: http://benjaminslure.blogspot.com/2011/03/tune-in.html

 

Society of Illustrators Reception

Whew! What a fun night! It was nice catching Anelle Miller and Joan Chiverton and hearing some of the interesting things the Society is involved with.

I rudely interrupted one of G.B. Tran's pals to tell him how much I enjoy his work, only to realize I had met him the previous year through a mutual friend. New York is crazy! Check out G.B. Tran's book, Vietnamerica here.

Here's a photo of one of his award-winning pages. It's really beautiful.

Some silliness at the party.

I really like the folks there, they are good people. The show is on view through January 21st, and they have a new animation screening room downstairs, be sure to go see it if you have a moment. It's free and as I mentioned, they are incredibly nice folks.

Status Quo Ante Bellum at the Society of Illustrators

The reception for Illustrators 54: Sequential-Series, Moving and Uncommissioned Works is this Friday from 6pm until 9pm. I am really excited. The admission is $40 for non-members, but the show will be up for a few weeks (until January 21st) so if you're in that neighborhood or need an arty weekend jaunt, I recommend checking it out. A load of incredible artists are represented in the show, and it's a great honor to be included in this year's exhibit and book.

Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street
(between Park and Lexington Avenues)

Thomas Woodruff's "The Four Temperament Variations" at P.P.O.W. Thursday 11/5

My former mentor and chairman of the Illustration and Cartooning Department at the School of Visual Arts is having a reception for a new (super weird and awesome) series of paintings. His work is sweetly obsessive and low-brow but has a lot of meat-and-potatoes painting skills and really thoughtful motifs in his work...so low-brow without the emptiness...mid-brow? Uni-brow? Waxed goth brow? Whatever you're into. On view until February 4th.

The Four Temperament Variations - Thomas Woodruff

Thomas Woodruff, Landscape Variation, Phlegmatic 2010-11, acrylic on linen, 66 x 90 inches