Richmond Guide Fall 2008 - Walking the... Iron Dog

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In this one Frank was again indispensable with his suggestion of the Iron Dog in RVA's justly famous Hollywood Cemetery. Even though I was very familiar with the cemetery itself, not so much with the Iron Dog. This being the fall issue of the guide and Halloween being around the corner, it seemed appropriate to have a cemetery in one of the illo.s. Once we decided on the Iron Dog as the main focus the rest of the idea seemed self evident and spelled itself out for us. Someone would have to walk the dog and...

Richmond Guide Fall 2008 - Hetty Cary... a night out

It was Frank the A. D. for Richmond Guide who suggested Ms. Hetty Cary for one of the illo.s. To be honest I was completely unfamiliar with her. She designed the original Stars and Bars, the confederate flag. At first I was at a complete loss as to how I could depict her with her infamous design. I realized that it was a potentially explosive symbol and I had to be careful so as to avoid unintentionally offending anyone. I believe it was Frank who suggested putting it up on a gallery wall and somehow alter it so it would look like a piece of contemporary art. Which I thought was a good idea but then it occurred to me that it might be fun to take it a step further and have it be a DIY art piece being worn by a gallery goer with Ms. Cary looking on somewhat longingly and a little bewildered at the young punk. In recontextualizing the flag like this it was my hope that it would lessen the power that this symbol from the old south still yields. 

Richmond Guide Fall 2008 - Maggie Walker Bling

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In researching this piece I was struck how in all of the photos that I came across of Maggie Walker she comes across as very serious and business like. Which makes a certain sort of sense, she was a very successful business woman as well as a teacher and a banker. In fact she was the first woman to charter a bank in the United States. So yeah I guess she was serious. Viewing her in this light I thought it might be fun to take her out shopping for some lively perhaps even ostentatious shades. I wanted to be careful so that I handled this with the proper amount of respect but have some fun with her persona at the same time. Whether or not I achieved this balance will be up to each individual viewer to decide.

Richmond Guide Fall 2008 - Robert E. Lee... The Duke Of Hazard

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If you're familiar with RVA you'll know about Monument Ave. It's one of the main boulevards that runs through the fan neighborhood in the heart of Virginia Commonwealth University. At almost every intersection you'll find a monument devoted to a different civil war hero. Since the idea for this issue was to place some of  RVA's historical figures into a contemporary context  Frank and I thought it might be funny to have General Robert E. Lee driving the General Lee from the 1970's show The Dukes of Hazard. on his monument.

Richmond Guide Fall 2008 - Mr. Bojangles... MadSkilz

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I believe that this one was done for the Performing Arts section of the guide. I've always wanted to do a drawing featuring of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson ever since I first heard the the song way back in the late 60's, early 70's. Corny? Yes, but in my defense I was only around 12 years old when I first heard it. And like much of pop music of that time, due primarily to radio stations playing an intentionally limited playlist, the song was burned into my memory, for better or worse. Not that radio has improved much in the last 30 years but that's a post for another time and perhaps another blog. Anyway Frank and I thought it might be fun to put him in a night club scratching records... with what he was best known for... wait for it... his feet.

Richmond Guide Fall 2008 - Sushi Poe

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This was done for Richmond Guide. I know it sounds terribly dull and it could be but luckily because of it's A.D. Frank Engler and publisher John-Lawrence Smith, it's not. John-Lawrence also publishes Virginia Living magazine which is art directed by Tyler Darden. It's an absolutely beautiful magazine and I've had the the privilege and pleasure to work with Tyler a few times as well. I'll be posting some of the jobs I've done with Tyler in the near future.

Richmond Guide is what it sounds like a small magazine for out of towners to get an idea of where to go and what to see while in RVA. It also has articles about Richmond spread through out each issue. It's usually divided into 6 to 8 categories such as Dining, Galleries, Explore,Events,etc. and the illustrator does an illustration for each. 

The guide comes out on a seasonal basis, Fall, Winter,etc. and the the illo.s reflect this. In the past I've worked with Frank to create characters that would carry through the series to create a narrative of sorts. This time we decided to discard a narrative thur-line and take historical personalities from Virginia's past and put them in a contemporary environment, hopefully creating a gag of some kind in the process. The first one involved Edgar Allen Poe eating sushi at RVA's own Sticky Rice.