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.

From November 10-14 I will be an Artist-in-Residence at Duke University’s Sanford Institute for Public Policy. As part of my time on campus, I will be creating a sculpture to commemorate the 2008 Presidential campaign. The University will then have the option to cast the clay sculpture to add to its permanent collection.

The Sanford Institute will also be holding a forum titled “Laughing at Power: Satire in American Politics” on Tuesday November 11 (See Poster above). It will feature myself and the great North Carolina cartoonist Dwane Powell as well two staff members of the “Daily Show” with Jon Stewart.  The forum is Free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

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.

I was interviewed on the NPR radio show titled “Studio 360″ on the subject of the donkey and the elephant. You can listen to the session above.  The producers at the show did a great job distilling a 45 minute interview down to a cogent short piece.  My only regret is they forgot to include my affiliation with The Economist during the introduction.

I am very excited to announce the launch of an exciting new website. USDemocrazy.net is the creation of students and staff at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). The site is fun and informative, using cartoons, animation and playful language to help address and explain the complexities of our democracy.

My team at USDemocrazy set out to capture the color and character of each of our 50 states. To help in this endeavor, we contacted the very best experts in each state-The Political Cartoonists-to be our first contributors. With their help we have built a growing data base of fun and important information.

Check out the short introduction video below:

http://www.usdemocrazy.net/mission

The site is an interactive venture.  We are still looking to add more information on each state and expand our state animations (I have finished 32 so far). Check out the site and offer your insights. 

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 have been working on my caricatures of the two Presidential candidates. It takes time to fully understand the dynamics and subtleties of a target’s face.  After months of observation, I am beginning to get the hang of these two personalities and the peculiarities of their faces. My experience suggests these caricatures should continue to improve. Let’s see!