Medic!

Happily and quite surprisingly, my Iwo Jima drawing, Uncommon Valor, has been extremely popular since its release on November 11, 2010. More than any previous effort, this picture has gained nationwide attention, and has generated record sales, in addition to a number of positive comments from individuals who might otherwise have never been interested in this unusual style of artwork.

Not long ago, I received a very complimentary e-mail from a Marine who had purchased one of the Valor prints, asking me to draw a Caduceus dedicated to all Corpsmen & Medics.

"As a Vietnam Veteran and a three time recipient of the purple heart, I have a special love for OUR CORPSMEN," he told me. He hoped I could come up with a design that would cross all branches of combat service, honoring those selfless heroes known to wounded soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen respectfully as “Doc”.

In just a few hours, this sketch fell out onto the paper, and quickly met with the veteran's approval.

A few weeks passed before I could find the time to tackle the drawing in earnest. I took the pencil sketch with me during an October art show tour, and chipped away at it during idle hours in my hotel room.

The caduceus design contains a helmet with traditional red cross emblem, bandage, bandaid, blood bag, butterfly, clamps, challenge coins, corpsman’s knife, dog tags (Stan N. Harmsway), dressing pouch, oral & nasal airways, pain pills, safety pin, scalpel, scissors, side arm, stethoscope, stop watch, stretcher, sulfa, syringe, thermometer (silver bullet), tongue depressor, and a Purple Heart.

Finally completed earlier this month, the Medic drawing is now available in a limited edition of 100 digitally generated giclee prints.

Can’t tell A Book By Its Cover

One measure of an artist’s success, or at least the success of his art, is the quality of literature that accompanies it on the printed page. Over the years, a few of my drawings have been chosen by otherwise right-thinking publishers to decorate the fronts and occasionally the insides of some rather impressive volumes of text.

Mesopotamia

The floral Hummingbird was selected to grace the cover of Mesopotamia, a collection of poems by Canadian author Bruce Meyer that ‘celebrates the joy and pain of our ideas of paradise.’ Published last year by Your Scrivener Press, the book adds to the chorus of literary voices emerging from northern Ontario, and elevates this drawing to a higher artistic level.

Come Cook With Me

Dear friend and colleague Dr. Betty Ruth Speir is known all along the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay for her long and distinguished career as an Obstetrician and Gynecologist, for her poetry, and for her delight in hosting sumptuous intimate and gala gatherings in the highest Southern tradition.

Betty Ruth now shares samples of her home-cooked secrets in Come Cook With Me (Two Harbors Press, 2009), a witty compilation of delectable dishes sprinkled with a tasty helping of whimsical verse. She recently honored me by choosing my Caduceus drawing for the cover of her book, a clear indication that the contents will be good, and good for you.

Mental Mechanisms & The Great Brain Book

The Left & Right Brain drawings illustrate the cover of a scholarly tome by cognitive philosopher Dr. William Bechtel that goes way over (and through) my head. Mental Mechanisms, Philosophical Perspectives on Cognitive Neuroscience (Routledge, 2007) traces the history and development of ways scientists think about, well, how we think.

Both of the Brain pictures were also included in H. P. Newquist’s The Great Brain Book, An Inside Look At The Inside Of Your Head (Scholastic, 2004) – where they illustrated the chapter on “The Care and Feeding of Your Brain.”. Bon Apetit!