You say Steinberg, I say Steinway...

Saul Steinberg - various drawings

I was very excited when I got to design a jazz inspired invitation last week. My client had requested a moody image featuring a pianist. Later, just as I was knee deep in atmospheric, smoky shots of jazz musicians and blue note covers they decided to change tack and use a line drawing, suggesting maybe a Steinberg? and I scoffed, don't you mean "Steinway"?...No! they meant the famous, and very cool illustrator Saul Steinberg. (Incidentally the Steinway piano brand started out as Steinweg...just to confuse us even further).

A quick google search revealed one of those artists that some how seeps into your brain without you even knowing it. I was immediately reminded of the doodles my Dad loves to do of men with strange shaped heads. And, in particular I remembered the electrifying day when he drew a moustache and glasses, in blue biro, directly onto my three year old sister's face. You know the type of moustache and glasses you draw on po-faced politicians, or glamorous women in the Sunday newspapers. I remember feeling terrified but thrilled at the possibility that maybe he had made a terrible error of judgement. Kate seemed to enjoy it at the time, but I think it was one of those seminal moments in her life which eventually led her down the path of makeup artistry. My mother was not present for this particular moment of madness, you only have to turn your back for one minute, and before you know it your toddler has an avant-garde tattoo of a moustache and glasses on their face...

Saul Steinberg 1944 - Kate's Revenge?

I couldn't find a Steinberg piano player (although I'm sure he must have drawn one at least once!), so here's my attempt. Not a patch on the real thing, but if you squint your eyes and look from a distance it might fool you for a second. It turns out it's really hard to achieve a fluid, spontaneous, minimalist drawing, that at first glance appears quite naive, but on closer inspection reveals that it was actually informed by years of studying and observing form, shape, line and human nuance. Who'd have thunk it!

Jazz Pianist, after Steinberg

Among other things, Steinberg was famous for his illustrations in the New Yorker. I have acquired a quantity of old New Yorkers from the late 40s, which I am going through at the moment. They are fit to bursting with wonderful illustrations and cartoons by various artists. I will post them here soon.

For more information on Saul Steinberg visit this site:
http://www.saulsteinbergfoundation.org/life_work.html

St. Patrick’s Day Greetings from Ryantown

“You can do a lot with a small brain” is a sentiment that simultaneously makes me smile and gives me solace. Wise words make a healthy appearance in prolific artist, Rob Ryan’s work; who is known for his intricate paper-cut art. It is an art famed for it’s intense skill and patience; hours of painstaking cutting, hunched over a table, scalpel blades aplenty. And yet, Rob’s work is still infused with a wonderful sense of spontaneity, and playfulness. Rob’s hand-holding, ladder-climbing lovers remind me of the scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, when Holly Go Lightly suggests they spend the day “doing things they have never done before!”. Which culminates with Holly and her young gigolo friend having a rare old time, running down the street wearing cat masks stolen from the five & dime store.

I have long been a fan of Rob’s and nearly fell off my seat when he called me at work one day to enquire about bespoke envelopes with printed lining paper for one of his VIP clients. With a few of these envelope orders now under our belts I am very pleased to have made it onto Rob’s St. Patrick’s Day list! Above is this years offering and below is last years. I am planning on putting my small brain to work and framing them - but the problem is they are so lovely inside and out! What is a girl to do!? but, add them to box 59 in a series of 200, containing beautiful printed ephemera...

Follow this link to Rob’s blog where you can read an eloquent account of his love for the paper-cut art form. And, there really is nothing better than hanging out on Columbia Road of a Sunday and having a peek inside Rob’s shop, Ryantown.

"The sea oh the sea, Gradh Geal Mo Croide*. Long my it flow between England and me.

Pity the Scotsman, he'll never be free. But we're surrounded entirely by water"

*"Great Joy of My Heart"