The missus has a cold.

ink and gouache on paper, 9.75" x 13". 2007

It's Wear a Plunger On Your Head Day!

oil on canvas, 2007

December 18th is traditionally Wear a Plunger On Your Head Day, a day that ex-bounty hunter Vern Halsey and his beloved Komodo Dragon, Felix, continue to celebrate almost entirely by themselves.
I've looked high and low, and while I've found several sources of documentation confirming this holiday's existence, nowhere have I found any explanation—and I'd settle for an implausible one—for said existence.

Nonetheless, there really is something inherently funny about plungers, something that goes beyond pure potty humor, something about their clumsy shape and vaguely onomatopoetic appellation, coupled with the lack of romance to be found in their one true function.

For all the unsavory qualities of their calling, there is something friendly or at least nonthreatening enough about a plunger that some ninny out there would not only suction one of those terra cotta hued babies to his noggin, but declare a day of solidarity with all other such ninnies.

Smoothies!

Technically speaking... ahem...

A fruitful collaboration with St. John & Partners, a Jacksonville, FL, design firm, led to the creation of several full color illustrations for national nutritional product franchise Smoothie King’s 4th quarter promotional materials.

Owing to a new diet heavy on all natural fruit smoothies, holiday perennials Santa Claus, the Gingerbread Man, and a carrot-nosed snowman show off their virile new figures in an assortment of on-site banners, menus, and posters.

The final images were rendered in oils at various sizes, and delivered digitally for placement in their respective layouts.

The turnaround, from sketch to finish, was one week.