View from the Zoo

3×3 has just announced their winners for this year’s edition of the Children’s Show, a juried collection of illustrations and books for children. Just to get in, the majority of the eight judges have to vote for the piece. I’m very happy to announce that three of my entries were selected – one for a newspaper illustration about relaxing activities for kids during Spring Break, a second for a poster showing the handmade Bambino sled and, the third, for the ADzif line of blackboard wall decals «Memo». Congratulations to La Presse, goslide.ca and ADzif! 

All the winners will be published in the upcoming annual No.7. 3×3 is a magazine of international contemporary illustration, published in New York. In addition to the magazine, 3×3 organizes three juried shows each year and publishes an invitation-only directory.

I just received my copy of the 2010 3×3 Illustration Directory and there is my Christmas tree on page 246 at the head of the whimsical section. With over 300 illustrations, this directory is special. It is curated like a show by the one and only Charles Hively, publisher of the wonderful 3×3 magazine of contemporary illustration and is by invitation only. Each illustration is carefully displayed to create a harmonious continuity throughout the book. There are lots of animals, too. Great work, Charles!

Sorry to have been inactive this long. I have been working on restructuring my website and reworking my designs into viable collections available for licensing. Here’s an ad that will be running in the next Total Art Licensing magazine. You can see a few samples of new patterns and designs on the left that I will present on this blog soon. The website, well, will be ready once my collections are in order!

These illustrations certainly made me think twice before biting down on my gummi bears. Who would have thought that a balloon dog and a candy bear would have insides other than sugar and air? Illustrator Jason Freeny obviously had some prize winning ideas. These ads for BrainOBrain Jumeira, picked up the grand prix award in the outdoor advertising category at the Dubai Lynx 2009 advertising festival. Jason kindly answered a few questions:

Q: Who is Jason Freeny?
A: I am a 38 year old designer with two kids living in and around New York City.

Q: What inspired you to do the anatomical series? What were you thinking?
A: Anatomical series began with the idea for the balloon dog. I had used the balloon dog in another illustration and decided I wanted to see what it would look like if it were a real living creature. Most of my work starts that way… «What would it look like if…?»

Q: How long did it take to complete the images?
A: The balloon dog took me almost a month to construct and complete. I can usually only work at night so this plays a role in the long process. If I had attacked it as a regular 40hr a week job it would have taken a little more then 2 weeks. I have sped the process more and more with each illustration seeing as I now know what I am doing.

Q: What were the reactions to the illustrations?
A: The reactions were quite unexpected but very welcome. I have been an artist for almost 20 years now and it wasn’t until a year or two ago when these works began bringing attention to my stuff. The fact that people love these so much really brings me joy.

Q: Can we buy the images?
A: I sell prints from my website. The early works are an unlimited edition but I have begun creating limited runs on some of my new works. I am testing the market…

Q: Any future projects that you would like to mention?
A: I have many toys in the works but only 1 or 2 I am allowed to speak about openly at this moment. I recently teamed up with Toy2r to produce a limited edition anatomy toy of their iconic Qee figure. This is an honor for me seeing it was the Qee and designer vinyl that really influenced a lot of my newer work. The Qee is slated for a 2010 release. We are also working on a production run of my BBQee sculpture… I have a spread in the upcomming premiere issue of WIRED UK out on April 1st and will be participating in a contemporary illustration book out this July published by Harper Collins. I look forward to many more collaborations in the future.

Q: Anything that you would like to comment on?
A: To this day I have only participated in one public gallery showing. I have been rejected or overlooked by every gallery I have submitted to yet my work has become quite popular virally. This does not upset me, but brings up the question of the stigma that digital art still has to this day of its relivance in the art world. Is it art YET?

Thanks, Jason!