Old & Lost Art

Bono Mitchell, the well-known Graphic Goddess, found these drawings in a drawer and  immediately notified the authorities. No, I'm kidding, she wisely kept one, which I did for National Geographic (twice because of a spelling error-their-fault-so doubling the price), which she'd better, as I'd given it to her when she got back from New Zealand.

Here's the one she didn't keep, done for who can say, though I remember all too well struggling with it. It came out well; I'm happiest with the shark, and the elephant not far behind. Realizing the high quality of the art, I released cards of the image through the good folks at Thompsoniana.

It'll be in the St.Patrick's Day section, which aside from being non-existent will feature many Irish-themed images, all in the best taste, you can be sure.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is my brother Tim's 50th birthday. I can remember what I was dreaming when I was awoken to be told had a brother (it was boring).

Mary Z. Gray, R.I.P..

This is my friend Mary Z. Gray, whose work was among the first I ever illustrated (including the first drawing for the Post). Mary died on February 6 of congestive heart failure. She was 96 years old.

My dad worked with Mary on the President's Committee on Mental Retardation back in the 60s and 70s. In 1982, after Mary had become a crack freelancer of humor and travel pieces, she sold a story to the Washington Post Style section and sent along a drawing I did with it. The Post published the story, which wasn't unusual, they'd run Mary's stuff for some time, but they ran the drawing too, thus inadvertently launching my dubious career.


In her book,  301 East Capitol Street, Mary, who was one of the funniest raconteurs I know, writes quite movingly about growing up on Capitol Hill, meeting Calvin Coolidge (or at least his feet) and living above her father's funeral parlor. I'd heard her talk about this before, but never known the address of her old residence. The book's cover has a photo of the house's current incarnation. It's now the Haskell Center, part of the Folger Shakespeare Library where my wife works as a teaching artist. It's cosmic, like it was meant to be, and I think she'd be tickled.

There's a full interview with Mary right here.

WAMU has more.

HAPPY 2015

Traditions are important; they're a way of saying, "I did it this way before and it seemed to work OK" or "I haven't got anything new." So to start the year off the same, here's a drawing of an elephant with a New Year's Baby. Because traditions are important, like I said.