Calliope's Nest

This piece of mine ran in the NY Times last week. I thought I'd better write about it a bit, because I'm getting an uncommon amount of requests for prints.

It was about reading being such a private and personal pursuit. The idea came from my childhood. I would occasionally climb up a russian olive tree in my yard to read when I didn't want to be bothered.

Giclee prints are available on 10x8 somerset velvet. Image size is about 9x6.
$45 signed, $35 unsigned, includes shipping. Paypal me at: alex@alexnabaum.com
Or email me for my address if you prefer to mail a check.

NY TIme Op Ed today

For today's NY Times OpEd.
Aviva calmly called me yesterday around 5pm with a 2hr deadline.
Plenty of time...last oped rush job I got a total of 45minutes.

The article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/opinion/26baran.html

Everyone's a Reality TV Star

Seems like anybody can have a reality tv show now. This was an 11 by 19 inch illustration for the Los Angeles Times. Really glad I bought an oversize scanner awhile back.



The story was about the both the endless variety and the mundaness, so I had to cover both in the roughs. I'm so glad Judy Pryor ,the smart AD on this one, went with the hair roller cameras.



Here's the how the it looked as the section cover.

A Post-Holiday Post

Forget to post this one I did for Joey Santos at the LA Times over the holidays.
Feature was about holiday party manners considering swine flu and electronic invitations.


The roughs. Alas, the Purell wine bottle did not make the cut, but it was a bit weird, plus using a brand name and label, probably was good it didn't get picked.

One of the inside spots.

Notable Opinion Art of the Year: 2009

I was pleased to see my Obama and Iran painting made it into the New York Times,
"Notable Opinion Art of the Year", which was a nice little surprise.
Check out all the other great artist's pieces:

NYT Notable Opinion Art of the Year

Circled is my piece, but my favorite is the Bruce McCall piece of the astronaut.

Creche Display

I always liked the old new yorker cover with santa holding up a newborn baby and how it captured both Christmas and New Years.
So this year I decided to see if I could do a card that seamlessly combined both.

I thought it might make a nice New Yorker cover, since their end of year-two week issue usually falls on Christmas and New Years. Here's the mock up I pitched to them in late November.
I knew it was a long shot, but I was happy it even got considered.

Newsweek International

This cover was for a Newsweek story about how about India has done a 180 when it comes to talking about carbon and climate change. I don't have the final cover design yet, but in the meantime here's the last typography I saw.
The roughs, the change that India is saying "Yes" now in carbon negotiations needed to be explored as well.

I did quite a few color studies for this one. Adolfo had the idea to push the orange to make it feel hotter/dirtier like global warming/pollution, but do it in abstract way. So in the final I ended up using some spray paint for the smog. I didn't dare risk overspraying the final painting, so I sprayed a similar sized board, scanned that and laid it in in photoshop.