I’m just back from a Artist-in-residency at Duke where I was creating a sculpture to commemorate the 2008 campaign.  I elected to do an Obama crashing through a barrier titling the piece “Race 2008″ .  The art is still “in-progress” and when finished will be ready for casting.  You can see some early renditions here.

I was stationed on campus at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy. I was positioned in a public space where I enjoyed many conversations with students, faculty and administration while working on the sculpture.

The Duke Chronicle wrote an article about the project that you can read here

I was also visited by two local North Carolina cartoonists Dwane Powell and Cullum Rogers. I handed each a piece of clay to play with.  They responded to my generosity by creating mini caricatures of me.  You can see the fruits of their labors below.  Dwane’s bust is on the right.

 

There is a difference between the two cartoons above. One cartoon (the bottom cartoon) ran in The Economist this week.  The second cartoon is being distributed to publications in the US and elsewhere through syndication.

 

HINT: American english and English english employ different spelling in some select words. If you cannot locate the difference between the two cartoons, take a break and pour yourself a whiskey, or is it whisky?

I created the cartoon above for the Washington Post’s Health section. It illustrates an article on the subject of Doctor/patient conversations about politics. No doubt an unhealthy issue.

The Animated cartoons of Bugs Bunny, The Road Runner and Tom and Jerry have all successfully employed the specter of impending doom as a source of humor.  The cartoon characters in the films are forever enduring physical calamities in the shape of falling pianos, exploding cigars and nosedives from cliffs. These are standard fare in the cartoon menu. Always good for a laugh.

However, when real calamity hits these themes have a little more power.  The laugh is tinged with a cringe. Such is it today with the current financial crisis. 

I drew this cartoon for The Economist this week. Maybe the imagery is not original, but I kind of hope the punchline is…

I drew this for a Swiss weekly called Weltwoche. When I draw characters, I sometimes watch and listen to video and audio of the person while drawing to emerse myself in their personality.  I am already getting a little tired of hearing Sarah Palin’s voice. If she get’s into the Vice President’s chair I think Tina Fey and I will have plenty of material to tap.

I drew this cartoon for The Economist. This prompted a call from the BBC to discuss the symbol of the Russian bear. Symbols like the Bear, Eagle, dragon (see post below), Uncle Sam, Lady liberty etc. have long been used by cartoonists as a kind of visual shorthand. 

The bear had been a staple of for cartoonists during the Cold War. I explained to the BBC I hadn’t used the bear symbol for a time.  It was interesting for me to return to the familiar old friend. More interesting was how using only the smallest of hints (a shadow with round ears and a black hairy claw) it is not difficult to conclude that the old bear symbol is back.

I found some earlier bear cartoons which I include here.

When the Soviet Union broke apart, it was first called the Commonwealth of Independant States.  The cartoon below reflects the news of that time.

Here’s this week’s Economist cartoon. My recent trip to China was very much on my mind as I spent the day constructing and drawing this commentary.  You can find below some of the rough sketches that went into the development of the cartoon. The first are incoherent but eventually I found my way.

 

I drew the above cartoon for this week’s issue of The Economist to accompany the magazine’s weekly column dedicated to American issues titled “Lexington”. The subject is long-time Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens who has gotten himself into a little legal mess with allegations of financial/ethical wrongdoing.

Stevens has a great face for drawing. His age (84 years) has helped accentuate his sallow cheeks and scowling brow. You can see below some of my early sketches of the embattled Senator.

This week I produced a caricature of Obama and Hillary that captures the current news quite well.  I am particularly happy with the Obama caricature.  It always takes a while to get a fix on a new politician’s face and I am becoming more attuned to Obama’s features.  I enclose below some the preliminary sketches for this week’s cartoon as well as my first caricature of Obama from 2007.