Art for Sale

The Society of Illustrators is holding a holiday art sale to benefit the Permanent Collection Acquisition Fund. The Permanent Collection of the Society of Illustrators is the home for hundreds of works of art by many of the greatest names in American painting and illustration. This celebrated collection is ever expanding, thanks to purchases and donations from our membership, art patrons and estates. These works are catalogued with selections from the Collection on display throughout the building.

There is a terrific selection of work available. Perhaps best of all, you can take the work right off the wall of the lower gallery and home in the same visit. I picked up this great piece by Dave Stolte earlier today.

If you're at the Society of Illustrators you should also check out the Members Open Show, which on display through December. All the work in that show, including my entry, is on sale to benefit the Art Therapy Program at The Family Center.

If you can't make it to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I'm selling some of my work here.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day!

The Art of Making a Difference

I'll be participating in this year's Members Open at the Society of Illustrators. Proceeds from the sale of art in the show will benefit the Family Center Art Therapy Family Support Program.

The Family Center works to create a more secure present and future for children whose parents have a life-threatening illness by providing comprehensive legal and social services, education and research. They will be launching the Art Therapy Family Support program this fall. Children and families will be able to utilize this wonderful expressive art form as a catalyst for healing and self-discovery.

The show opens Dec. 1, but some of the included work can be previewed here.

Here's my entry.

Thank you

Thank you:

John and Patricia Tomac, Heidi Spalholz, Elena Rossi, Chris Lanza, Kevin Koch, Alice and Bob Negron, James Toulouse, Mary Fezza, Ben Miller, Blaine and Erin Moore, Theispot.com Team, Andrew Hartman, Curtis Howard, Chad and Trisha Byler, Martha Murray, Matt Nettleton, Daniel Sciannameo, Joanna Siu, Jeff Abbott, Kathleen Anderson, Gregory Trupp, David and Grace Cicero, Rosemary & Catty McDermott, David Carleton, Chris Tomac, Moira Murray, Meghan Sperrazza, Kathy and Richard Pancoast, Angela Pensiero, Patt Early, Kathie Williams, Patricia Nichols, Alex Fine, Mario Colasuonno, Nils Anderson, Colleen Anderson, Al Passarella, Christopher Kudla, Anne Ju, Matthew Hartman, Laura Costello, Randa Jabbour, Jessica Vastola, Colin Grover, Kevin Turko, Dana Sanetti, Ryan Pancoast, Declan, Dermot, Kate, Rob and Anne Marie Connolly and Helene Conway

You helped raise over $3,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The link in the upper right corner of this page will remain because you can continue to donate until Dec. 31. All contributions are tax deductible.

Illustration Friday: Fast

The fastest way to The 1964 World's Fair is on the 7 train. Of course, This is from my own imagination, Robert Moses would have preferred you drive.

The 7 train is still one of the fastest way to reach Flushing Meadows Park assuming you catch an express train.

This poster is for sale here

Dude, Where's My Flying Car?

Here's one for this week's Illustration Friday theme — flying.

It's almost 2010. We should have flying cars now. Instead, we're still driving around on the ground like a bunch of animals. We are not living in the future promised to us by Popular Mechanics or Back to the Future, Part II. Given the current state of the auto industry, we probably aren't going to get them anytime soon.

Another thing we should have now is a cure for cancer. Help me raise money to find one. I'll be participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk fund raiser later this week. if you'd like to make a donation click here.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funds lifesaving research that has contributed to major advances in the treatment of blood cancers and treatments for other types of cancer, such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplants. These treatments have helped patients, like me, live better, longer lives. New targeted therapies that kill cancer cells without harming normal tissue are providing drugs and procedures that are improving quality of life.

On October 15 I will be participating in the Light the Night Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with the Society of Illustrators team to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If you would like to make a donation please click here.

Lucky Me

I have Leukemia.

I am extremely lucky.

I have a tremendous group of family and friends who have done everything imaginable to help me since I was hospitalized a few weeks ago and who continue to do so now that I'm at home recuperating.

I have a great team of doctors at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College who caught this thing in the early, chronic phase.

I'm fortunate to have fantastic health insurance, thanks to my job working as a graphic designer for Dow Jones & Co. Hopefully, Congress will do something soon so that this won't constitute luck.

I'm also sure that this is nothing more than a bump in the road, thanks to a wonderful drug called Imatinib, but better known as Gleevec thanks to the good people at Novartis.

Gleevec is not the traditional cancer treatment. Instead of bombarding the body with radiation or chemicals, this drug is a targeted therapy. Gleevec works on the cellular level to stop the abnormal build-up of white blood cells. Left untreated this condition causes white blood cells to crowd out others in the blood causing all sorts of problems. Because it just targets the overproduction of white blood cells I don't have to worry about too many of the traditional cancer treatment side effects like nausea, fatigue or hair loss. That means I'll look like my normal self in June when I get married.

So far, the treatment seems to be working. When I was hospitalized on September 22 my white blood cell count was 390,000. As of yesterday, it was down to 24,000. Normal is between 3,000 and 10,000. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting close. When my white blood cell counts normalize I'll be a third of the way to remission.

In May, 2001 it took the FDA just two-and-a-half weeks to approve its use. In the same month Time Magazine hailed it as a "magic bullet" in the war on cancer. What would have been a death sentence 20 years ago is now a manageable condition, akin to high blood pressure or high cholesterol. If you'd like to help fund research for other, future leukemia treatments click here.

The image above was produced during the Great Depression as part of the WPA's Federal Art Project. I'm not planning on slowing down anytime soon. Hopefully I'll be cranking out images for years to come. I'm not even 30 yet. I figure I have a good 50 years to keep on drawing. If I'm lucky my work will be providing inspiration to another generation of artists, like the one above.

On October 15 I will be participating in the Light the Night Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with the Society of Illustrators team to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If you would like to make a donation please click here.