A Window in the City

I painted this for a calendar back in the '90s, one of several I did for a Japanese cellphone company. It's fun to imagine what it's like to look out at a city scene like this, each window framing another private life. My window looks out on treetops, kids on the sidewalk, the cottages across the street and the lake two blocks away.

Life's Merry-Go-Round

Carnivals. Cute children, cotton candy, games, carefree summer nights, singing crickets, carnival barkers advertising rigged games of skill, carnies, sideshow freaks, crime, carnality. This illustration leaves out the darker side, which is what calendar art does. Leave the other side to films like Gun Crazy and Strangers on a Train.

Think Warm Thoughts

It's snowing a foot an hour in New York today, and I'm sending my friends there encouraging thoughts and instructions, like how to sit comfortably atop a steam radiator, how to thaw frozen extremities while eating an elegant lunch. Sometimes it's best to think of warmer places. In this economic climate I don't know how many beach vacations are in my future but I can still draw them when called upon. Unlike a photographer I do not need to be flown to a tropical island to conjure a woman in a swimsuit, but if flown I will conjure her even more convincingly than this. I did this calendar for a Japanese client back when Japanese clients published calendars.