Akron Art Museum

Left Wall

Right Wall (click to enlarge)

Full Mural (click to enlarge)

This is a mural I designed for the Akron Art Museum in Ohio (akronartmuseum.org). The museum will print and install the mural. It is going to be 30 ft long (including the door) and 8 ft tall. It will be on display from February 9 to August 4. It is part of an exhibition called Draw Me a Story, which will also feature picture books created by 2^nd and 3^rd graders of Leggett Elementary, King Elementary, Glover Elementary and The Lippman School. Here is a clip from the museum’s member’s magazine with more info.

click to enlarge

The books the children made and the mural I designed are homage to Ezra Jack Keats and to his groundbreaking book The Snowy Day, which was the first modern picture book to feature an African American protagonist. An exhibition called The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats will open at the museum on March 16. It will be the first retrospective of the award-winning author-illustrator in the US.

click to enlarge

Keats books are set in Brooklyn where he grew up and lived. His spreads are filled with Brooklyn buildings,  graffiti and traffic lights. But more importantly, his books feature children of diverse ethnic backgrounds. They reflect the environment that surrounded him. This is a nice little video on youtube with plenty of information on Keats’ work and life.

Keats’ work was revolutionary in terms of content, but also in terms of technique. He would do collage and mixed media when no one else was doing it.

spread from The Snowy Day

I have a lot of admiration and I feel a great affinity towards Keats. I do collage in my illustrations (but I use the computer). I am drawn to urban settings and try to make relevant social commentaries in my work.

The Snowy Codex

I wanted the mural to look like a modern Pre-Columbian codex set in contemporary Brooklyn during winter. The characters are always drawn in profile and I chose to use a limited palate: blue, red, white, black, gray and a tiny bit of yellow. The color choice was intentional. Red, white and blue are the colors of the American flag. The US is one of the most, perhaps the most diverse country in the world. There are people from all races and backgrounds here, especially in big urban centers like New York. Unfortunately a lot of prejudice and racism still prevails.

I had a lot of fun with this project and tried to make reference to several pieces of art and artifacts. The bundled children are inspired by egg-shaped Aztec sculptures in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City.

cihuacoatl

The four children making snow angels in the center are meant to look a bit like a Huichol Ojo de Dios. The 4 directions are of utmost importance to indigenous groups. I drew children of different ethnicity pointing towards each direction.

I included some text in the mural. The text comes directly from things that 2nd and 3rd graders wrote. I sent them a brief letter with a short questionnaire. I asked them what winter sounded, smelled, felt, looked and tasted like. I also asked them what was their favorite thing to do on the first snowy day of the year. My drawings are based on their responses. Snowball fights and sledding where among their favorite activities. Those are also some the things Peter, the protagonist of The Snowy Day does in the book.

I tried to integrate some of their text into the image, and make it a part of the illustration, much in the spirit of my friend Lauren Redniss.

I will be visiting Akron from April 12 to the 16. I am looking forward to meeting the students that I corresponded with and seeing the full scale mural! Hopefully you can make it to Akron and see it yourself. When the exhibition ends I will be donating the mural to one of the Elementary Schools that participated in the project.

Chivas and Miller Lite

for the “Expresa tu Pasión” Chivas and Miller Lite contest

This is a poster I designed for the “Expresa tu Pasión” contest for Miller Lite, the official sponsor of las Chivas de Guadalajara in the US.

My design is currently competing. If you like it, vote for it here  https://www.facebook.com/MillerLiteLatino/app_511795078837873 It takes a bit of work to register, but once you are registered you can vote once every day. Check out the other artists that are competing and check out this Miller Lite Sizzle video.

I was thrilled when I was contacted about the contest a few months ago. I’m a big Chivas fan and Miller Lite is an off the hook beer. The assignment was to design a poster that featured Chivas fans demonstrating their passion for their team.

These are some of my initial sketches

My first thought was to do something with the actual Chiva, the teams mascot. But then I decided to use a fan with a Chiva mask  instead. Miller Lite shared with the artists some products they have designed and one of them was a Chiva luchador mask, so it seemed appropriate.  

My artwork is influenced by Pre-Columbian art. For this piece I looked at  this page from the Borgia codex for inspiration. I believe that the two Gods are Quetzalcoatl and Miquiztli.

I liked the mirror like effect and decided that I should include at least two fans in my poster. This is a sketch which is getting close to what my final design was. I included a pair of Chivas and some old school soccer balls as a framing devise. I dropped them from the final piece though, so that it would be cleaner and have a billboard like effect.

…Mohawks and fohawks are in style among soccer players

Marco Fabian

Balotelli

Neymar

The 11 stars at the bottom of the poster represent the 11 championships the team has won. Chivas are the most succesful team in Mexican soccer, they have the biggest fan base and they are the only team in the league that plays with Mexican players only. Four players of the Mexican soccer Olympic team that just won the gold in London are from Chivas. This is a short vid I made animating the poster. The song is “Chivas de Corazón” by Banda Machos.

I took a bunch of goofy pictures rocking my friends autographed Chivas jersey. Unfortunately it is not mine…

#Smoof-moofness

Goooooooooooooooool!

el rebaño sagrado

Marco Fabian

Chivas!

I illustrated the cover of a book about Las Chivas a while back. I have a blog entry about it with images and interesting anecdotes of the team. Check it out here http://duncantonatiuhmex.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/chivas-y-tuzos/ its in Spanish… y arriba las Chivas!!!!

Día

I am very excited to be an ambassador for El día de los niños / El día de los libros, Children’s Day / Book Day, better known as Día.

Día is a year round celebration of children, families, and reading that culminates on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Día was started by the wonderful author and literacy advocate Pat Mora in 1996. When she learned that in Mexico and in other Latin American countries April 30 is a holiday to celebrate children, she decided to create a similar celebration in the US and further, to link it to literacy. She soon found enthusiastic allies. Members of REFORMA, the  National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, joined her efforts and in 1997 the first Día was celebrated.

Día has grown and grown over the years. It is now sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). There are Día celebrations hosted by librarians, teachers and community leaders all around the country. A Día day may involve readings by guest authors, book give-aways, games, activities and cultural performances.

Día is an opportunity for children to spend a great day with their families and to enjoy books. It is a day especially important for children who live in underprivileged areas or who have parents whose first language is not English. There is a wonderful map on the American Library Asociation (ALA) website where you can look for a Día event near you (click on the map) .

If you are a librarian, a teacher or someone interested in hosting a Día event there are wonderful resources in Pat’s webiste http://patmora.com/ and in the día website http://dia.ala.org/ There is a very thorough and insightful resource guide with everything you need to know about Día based on more then 15 years of experiences here:

There is in fact an award, the Mora award, named after Pat’s parents, where libraries, schools or educational institutions receive a 1,000$ stipend based on the creativity, focus and outreach of the Día event they plan to host. You can find out more about the Mora award here:

Be sure to check out Pat’s blog where she is hosting díapalooza, with daily April entries related to Día: http://sharebookjoy.blogspot.mx/

Again, I’m thrilled to be an ambassador along with other wonderful authors and illustrators. ! I’m fortunate to know and be friends with some of them like: Monica Brown, René Colato Laínez, Yuyi Morales, John Parra and Lucia Gonzales. Check out the full list of ambassadors here:

I made a pair of videos for Día where I’m reading from my books. Enjoy!!

Dear Primo, A Letter to My Cousin

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours

ZapaShiva

ZapaShiva

The image above is of ZapaShiva, a Zapatista woman in the Shiva pose. I made the image for the 5year Plan which was started by my friend Aaron Sinift, an artist, activist and entrepreneur in Brooklyn NY.

The first project that Aaron curated and brought to life was an artist book featuring the work of 26 artists. I made an image for the book. You can check it out in this earlier post. The images were printed on cotton khadi. The cotton was spun by artisans in India. The idea behind the book is to make a sustainable art piece and to celebrate the Gandhian ideals of self sufficeincy and non violence.

This video explains the project really well. 

In both images I’ve made for the 5year plan I tried to make a link between social movements in India and in Mexico. I am not an expert on the Zapatistas, but their struggle for self-governing and their resistance to transnational corporations resonated for this project.

The woman is holding a shovel and an ear of corn to symbolize the struggle for autonomy . She has a cell phone and a laptop, because the internet was a fundamental tool for the Zaptistas and it has proven to be a fundamental too for any social movements to come.

She is emptying a Coca-Cola bottle to simbolize the resistance against transnational corporations and she is holding a chilli because when I think of Mexico and India I think of food, spicy food. The cotton bolls and the wheels that frame the image are there to represent the fact the image will be printed on hand spun cotton khadi.

ZapaJhola mock-up

Now Aaron is working on jhola bags. His approach with them is twofold. He plans on printing some limited edition jhola bags with original artwork featured on them.

But he is also looking to work with large retailers to offer jhola bags at their store for shopping. The jhola bag is the anti plastic bag. There are no carbon emissions involved in its production because it is made by hand and it helps some of the poorest people in India and the world to support themselves.

t-shirts

ZapaShiva tee

I have been making some t-shirt mock ups lately. The one above is of ZapaShiva, a Zapatista woman in the pose of the Hindu godess Shiva. I’ll write about the image on my next post.

This is another mock up I made.

Original Baller

I am thinking of submitting my designs to Threadless. An online store and community where you submit your design and people vote for it. If people vote for your design Threadless considers printing the tee and selling it. The designer/artist gets a cash prize.

M train, West 4 to Marcy Ave

This one has one of my subway sketches on it. I made it on the M train from the West 4th Street stop to the Marcy Avenue stop. To see more of my subway sketches click here. Any thoughts or suggestions on these tees? If I print them, would you buy one?

Machete

Danny Trejo: Machete, Machete, Machete

 

I would love to make animations for the initial credits of films… Experiments TK soon.

 

 

Dope, catchy song by Novalima that is featured in the Machete soundtrack.

 

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours

page 3

This is a sneak peek at my upcoming picturebook “Diego Rivera: His World and Ours” I am the author and illustrator of it. It is going to be published by Abrams and will be available next spring.

page 9

The first part of the book is a biography of the great muralist.

But then the book asks what would Diego paint today? For instance, “Would he paint our craze for monsters and creatures of outer space as he painted the god Quetzalcoatl and the feathered serpent?”

page 30-31

What I admire the most about Rivera is that he looked back at the art of ancient Mexico and combined it with the art of the modern era.

p16-17

In my work I attempt to do something similar. I look back to that ancient art also, but I try to combine it with the tools of the digital era.

NIOSH

These are a series of illustrations I did for NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. They will be displayed in brochures at the Mexican Consulate to inform immigrants about safety measures in the work place.

In the first illustration I tried showing a hardworking immigrant family looking for a better future. I tried flipping this border sign image.

 

border sign

 

The second one is about the risks of injuries while working in jobs such as construction when the adequate safety measures are not provided.

 

roofer, rufero

 

The third one is about the dangers of toxic chemicals in the workplace.

 

cleaning lady

 

 

Tbilisi

Duncan

One of the most exciting experiences I’ve had this year was attending the Tbilisi Regional Art Festival -Degree & Profession in Tbilisi, Georgia. I was invited to present my project Journey of a Mixteco, which was my senior thesis at Parsons the New School of Design in 2008.

I went to the festival with Lydia Matthews, Dean of Academic Programs at Parsons and three other Parson’s alumni: Christopher Nesbit from Photography, Ida Benedetto from Design and Technology and Georgeana Ortiz from Fashion. It was Lydia’s sixth time in Tbilisi. Besides her work at Parsons she is a curator and has brought artists to the city before. We were the only American university invited to the event. This invitation was largely due to the relationship and passion that Lydia has with the Georgian country.

Several European universities were invited to participate. Unfortunately due to the volcanic ash, only Parsons and the Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction from Armenia were able to attend. The event was hosted by the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, but several schools from Tbilisi were involved. The Romualdo del Bianco Foundation was an instrumental sponsor of the event.

Most of our Parsons group flew from JFK. Some of us met for the first time at the airport. Ida, who is a Fulbright grantee in Ethiopia, flew from Addis Ababa to meet us.

Hagia Sophia

We were able to work out a day stop in Istanbul before heading to Tbilisi. Istanbul is an incredible city, and it was a tease to be there for such a short time. Click here to see more photographs I took while in Istanbul.

***

The Tbilisi festival organizers were incredible hosts, especially Nana Iashvili the Dean of the Faculty of Art Media, who always looked after us. Plenty of food and wine were a must every day. During our visit we attended a variety of cultural events and were able to go sightseeing in the country on two occasions.

We visited Mtskheta, Bodbe and Sighnaghi.

near the Jvari monastery

I was really taken aback by the churches. They are very sparse, like caves and have wonderful Byzantine art. Being in such ancient places makes one realize how old the world is.

This is a link to more photographs

***

Shibori

We we were in Tbilisi for 4 days total. On the second day Georgeana and I participated in a Shibori workshop. Shibori is a Japanese dying technique. The workshop was held at La Maison Bleue, a textile art studio established by five artists, all graduates of the Tbilisi State Academy of Art. The workshop instructor was Keti Kavtaradze. I got to meet her and Nino Kvrivishvili, also an artist at the studio.

Nino Kvrivishvili

The students that participated were from a variety of universities and from different disciplines, but mostly from textile design. These are the pieces that Georgeana and I produced.

Click here to see more photographs of the workshop.

***

Presentation Day

On the last day of the festival we did the presentations of our thesis. Ida presented Lilliput, a photographic non-linear travel log. Chris showed his drawings of vanished buildings in New York imposed over photographs and videos of what stands there now. Georgeana showed a sustainable fashion collection inspired by the atmosphere and a best practice manual for sustainable fashion designers. I presented Journey of a Mixteco, a short graphic novel based on the true story of an undocumented Mexican worker that now lives in New York.

when I come to New York I have so many jobs, man

There were a number of Georgian students that that also presented their thesis, as did two of the Armenian students. Most of the other projects shown were in the fields of architecture and animation.

After the thesis presentations there was a break. Afterwards there was a presentation of the projects that were produced during the workshops. In most of the workshops a variety of students came together for a couple of days and put together a short presentation that addressed a topic. Many of them had to do with globalization, and many were a celebration of  Georgian culture and heritage.

A fashion show followed, and afterward there was a ceremony to announce award winners.

Christopher won the award for the best design. And to my delight my project won the prize for the best presentation. I was thrilled. It is very encouraging to know that although my project is very specific to an area in the world it is able to transcend and to be appreciated and understood in a completely different part of the world. I really want to continue developing the project now. I am looking for grants. Suggestions for places to look into are very welcome.

Chris, me and the xinkhali

It was a very special trip for me. I was able to connect with my Parsons peers through out the week and I was able to connect with some of the Georgian staff, faculty and students. They were very glad I won the award and that made the experience that much more memorable.

Georgians can and love to sing

I know the Festival was being filmed for a program on Georgian TV. I would love to get a hold of that footage.  It’d be very amusing to watch. I’m also looking for a youtube link to Mexican soap operas in Georgian. I saw a clip on TV for one of them at the hot baths…

***

The flight back to New York was brutal.

at the Istanbul airport

NarcoCorridos

Los Tigres del Norte

Los Tigres del Norte are perhaps the most accomplished Mexican group today. Their musical career expands over three decades. They sing songs of love and heartbreak. But they also sing songs that have a social message to them. They sing very poignantly about Mexican migrants in the US.

Even more, in 2000 they founded a non-profit to preserve Mexican and Mexican American music. UCLA was the recipient of a grant from their foundation and they have used it to digitize one of the largest collections of Mexican music from the early 20^th century.

But what identifies Los Tigres del Norte the most is that they are the most succesful NarcoCorridos interpreters both in Mexico and abroad.

NarcoCorridos are a genre of muisc that stems from the Corridos. Corridos are a genre of norteño music, a grandchild of the polkas, and their distinctive feature is that they tell a story. Corridos became popular during the Mexican Revolution. They communicated news to a largely illiterate population.

NarcoCorridos also tell stories, but they tell stories about narcos and drug trafficking. They first became popular in 1973 when Los Tigres del Norte recorded “Contrabando y Tracion” Drug Smuggle and Treason also known as Camelia the Texan.

Los Tigres newest NarcoCorrido is called “La Granja”, The Farm, and it makes allusion to George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

But this song and all other NarcoCorridos have been banned from the airwaves in Mexico by president Felipe Calderon. His argument being that NarcoCorridos celebrate drug traffickers and violence and are therefore to blame for the current violence and drug war in Mexico.

Granted, there are some NarcoCorridos that do celebrate violence but I consider banning them scapegoating at its worst. Not only that, it is a spit in the face to Mexican’s liberty of expression. NarcoCorridos are not responsible for the drug war. They are a critique and reflection of it.

The real reasons behind the drug war are:

1) Government corruption at all levels.

2) The insatiable demand for drugs from US consumers.

3) The ease with which weapons, most of them legally bought in the US, are re-sold and bought in the black market.

I’m surprised there haven’t been more protests against the prohibition. Imagine the uproar if Gangster Rap was banned in the US. But then again just because something is banned doesn’t mean people don’t listen to it. I mean, drugs are banned…

***

Los Tucanes de Tijuana

Los Tucanes de Tijuana are another group that stands out when it comes to NarcoCorridos. Their lead singer and guitarist Mario Quintero writes all their songs. He has very witty lyrics.

In his song My Three Animals he uses the slang words perico, chivo y gallo (parrot, goat, rooster) to talk about cocaine, heroine and marijuana.

And similarly in his song my 3 women he sings of a white woman, a woman with green eyes and a black woman to talk of those drugs again.

Besides trafficking marijuana from Mexico and cocaine and heroin from abroad, Mexican Narcos have recently become a large producers of methamphetamines too. What animal or type of woman would best suit to describe this drug? A crazy macaw, perhaps?

I’d love to collaborate with Los Tigres or Los Tucanes and do a CD cover for them. Hence the square format of my illustrations. And I plan on doing more illustrations of Mexican music genres and prominent Mexican musicians. Suggestions are welcome.

I also recently found out that narco videohomes, a B-movie industry about narcos is thriving. Check out this article on Vice. They are kind of like the Ghanean movies that you find in black hair saloons and that are loved by the African Diaspora worldwide. But they are with Mexican people and about drug smugglers.

narco videohomes

I’d love to do some dvd covers for them too.