Artwork for the Cardinal Award. It is presented each year for outstanding stewardship by the Peaks Island Land Preserve.

DownFront ice cream shop on Peaks Island, ME, uses “The Big Catch” on their packaging, labels, signage and apparel, including a cool one-color version screenprinted on a canvas boat bag.

A new store has opened on the island, Maravilha. The owner is from Portugal. “Maravilha” means “marvel” in Portuguese, suggesting the quality of her antiques and home goods. But it is also made of two words, “mara” and “vilha”, which means “hello island”, a friendly welcome to people passing.

My hand-lettering is inspired by colorful “sweetheart handkerchiefs”, embroidered with romantic sentiments and images of flowers and birds. In the past, young women would create them, then give them to their sweetheart. Today, it is a traditional handcraft.

Blueberries for Sal, the children’s book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey, has been turned into a play. A musical, in fact, with some parts performed by puppets. When it was to be performed locally by the Children’s Museum and Theater of Maine, I was commissioned to create the art for the poster. The designer requested that I make it look like Robert McCloskey’s art, but not too much like his. The art also needed to have enough background to be cropped for multiple uses with proportions wide to tall.

I have been enjoying cutting paper. I have years of X-acto knife experience cutting frisket and masks for airbrushing, but cutting paper is a different experience. More direct. At first I was leaving them white, the color of the paper. But now I generally prefer them darker, and have been painting them with my airbrush.

Blue Shutter is a charming summer cottage just down the road from us. I was pleased to be commissioned to create a portrait for the owner, so he and his family could enjoy the memories of their summer getaways.

Walter Scott, 50, a fork-lift operator studying massage therapy, was fatally shot on April 4, 2015, by a white North Charleston, SC police officer. Scott had been stopped for driving with a non-functioning brake light.

To download the Say Their Names poster shown click here.

I had a blast with the project in Steve Simpson’s “Handlettering Meets Illustration” class (Domestika)… a psychedelic record sleeve. Your name is the band and you pick a song from his list. The process is reference, thumbnails, rough layout, tightened rough with tonal concept, my airbrushed line art, color concepts, and finish.

Shipyard Brewing released a limited edition beer to celebrate Maine’s 200th anniversary of statehood. Each can label in the 4-pack points out a specific aspect of the great state of Maine. I was selected to represent “Coastal”, which is fitting because I am lucky enough to live on a Maine island. The brew is available at the Shipyard Tasting Room in Portland, Maine.

I had fun getting the client’s ideas into visual form on these labels. Inflatable sporting goods for classic wrestling role playing or floating around the beach or pool. The labels appear on the item, and also the boxes I designed to sell them.

The Maine State Library Day By Day Literacy Activities Calendar’s name pretty much explains the point of this calendar. It aims to get kids excited about reading and helps parents with ways to do that. Maine has a great history of children’s literacy, and I made reference to the work of Robert McCloskey, Barbara Cooney, and E. B. White in my cover art. Each month features the work of other inspiring Maine artists.

A friend wanted a logo and label for his island-crafted chocolate business. He had elegance in mind. Peaks Island is a great place, but it isn’t elegant. He agreed with a “hand-crafted” look featuring my hand lettering and the shape of the island for the logo and labels. The chocolate is moulded in the shape of the island and the labels are clear to make that visible in the boxes, with printing in white.

The chocolate was very popular, but many people asked about a regular bar. Tom cooked one up, and I designed a label for it based on the design of the original boxes. It has been selling quite well.

These images were a private commission. The client wanted two pieces of art depicting Portland, the Maine city we are technically a part of, and Peaks Island, our home three miles out in Casco Bay. Both pieces have details that will mean something to people who know the areas.

…when you have a library card! This is a private commission which was presented to our island librarian at her retirement.

The Children’s Department was the starting point of the Portland (Maine) Public Library’s website redesign. I was commissioned to create simple, colorful art for six sections. Each piece of art works both as a category icon and as the category banner. Sections of artwork were also used on the library’s redesigned bookmobile.

I designed and illustrated this 12 page activity book to accompany Lyn Smith’s book What Makes an Opossum Tick? It includes coloring pages, a maze, word puzzles, and other activities for children.

Top is a detail of the Peaks Island, Maine summer street scene as people arrive on the ferry. Below is the homepage of the Peaks Island community website. The image is 5 illustrated layers which move in a parallax scroll. See it in action at peaksisland.info. This will likely not work on your phone.

This logo is based on a bookbag I illustrated for the Friends of Peaks Island Library. They liked the art so much they asked me to just change the type. The art for that bag was based on the art for several previous bookbags, each of which featured a book-sailed boat heading to an island.

The Portland (Maine) Public Library invited 30 artists to create a comic of one panel, having some relation to the library. The panels were reproduced at 30 by 30 inches and displayed in the library gallery. My image includes Montgomery, a life-size but very toy-like wooden sculpture of a moose, which stands as mascot by the door to the children’s department of the library. Also included is a young girl, who might be one of the many resettled refugees in Portland, many of whom speak French.

I had fun designing this logo for a mobile art classroom. Its home is a 1963 Airstream trailer that roams the coast of Maine hosting art workshops and classes.

  My original sketches had a much zoomier trailer shape in keeping with the 1960's "atomic" feel the client was looking for. Then I learned that the Airstream trailer community will probably be drawn to this project as much as the art crowd will, so the illustration is a much more accurate representation of her actual 36' Overlander International trailer.

   The Atomic lettering is based on the chrome nameplates that every 60's car sported on their fenders.

Poster design and airbrush illustration for a Portland (Maine) Stage Company production of nostalgic songs of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, complete with a big band and dance routines.

The Portland (Maine) Public Library’s celebration of its 150th anniversary was a series of commemorative bookmarks. I was pleased to be invited to illustrate my connection with the Library, and of course I focused on what makes the Peaks Island branch unique.

The cover of the Phonebook Publishing telephone directory for the islands of Casco Bay, Maine.

Designer Christopher Hadden's entry for the 2017 Tour de France visual identity competition, incorporating my airbrush cyclist illustration. Our design made it to the semi-final round.

Blast Off! The occasion is a turn of the century rocket launch in Monument Square, Portland, Maine. Eight artists were commissioned to create an image around the idea of recycling. They appear at Clynk recycling centers around Maine. My airbrushed poster appears at the Clynk center at the Hannaford's in Waldoboro.

Post-card style hand-lettering and airbrush work for a Portland Stage Company poster and a Con-way Freight ad.

A fictional scavenger hunt in San Francisco becomes real when Curious City, children's book consultants, creates an event for 1000 librarians at a book convention there. Recreating the fictional game from the YA novel Book Scavengers, 100 copies of the just-released book were hidden around the city, and the librarians set loose with a page of clues and this map to find them. Created through Curious City for Henry Holt & Co. publishers.

PeaksFest is the annual summer celebration of our island community. I have created most of the t-shirt designs.

Curious City, a children's book consulting company, wanted to depict the increased breadth of their business at 10 years old. My airbrush and digital illustration depicts the diverse world of Main Street in Curious City. Designed as the banner for their website, the art is also used in other promotional materials.

The Narcissus is a trolley that ran along the Maine seacoast. It earned a place in history as the trolley that carried President Teddy Roosevelt on a 1914 trip to Maine’s Great North Woods. The car is being restored at the Seacoast Trolley Museum in Kennebunk, Maine. This vector illustration was based on a photo provided by the museum and is used as part of a display there.

The typewriter for author Liza Kleinman's logo was drawn based on several old photos found on-line. To avoid copyright problems I created my own typewriter using the photos as reference.

Who hasn't gotten lost gazing into a campfire on a summer night? The cover of AudioFile magazine conveys the power of a good story.

Gritty McDuff Brewing gives their line of brews a new look. I worked with designer Chris Hadden to create art for their labels, cartons, bottles, boxes, truck and assorted merchandise.

Lettering for...
posters of 3 productions of Portland Stage Company
an Italian restaurant logo

Last Gas is a bittersweet romantic comedy that takes place at a convenience store on the edge of nowhere in northern Maine. A Portland Stage Company poster.

Everyone knows about the Wright brothers. But what do we really know? The Center of Gravity...a play part fact, part fiction...is an interesting tangle of egos, relationships, and aerodynamics. A Portland Stage Company poster.

Logos I've created for...
Backshore Communications, Internet security
Bates College Food Services
Holbrook Community Foundation, working waterfront preservation
Center for Grieving Children, Concert for Grief Relief
Newport Music Festival, classical piano festival
Newport Music Festival's anniversary
Harbor Watch Vacation Rentals
5th Maine Regiment Civil War museum

 

David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries is a cynical and wickedly funny account of Sedaris’ experience as a Christmas elf at Macy’s Santaland in New York. His character, Crumpet, is definitely not jolly. A Portland Stage Company poster.

"Good Eggs”, a Bates magazine feature article, explores the world of egg factories and the largely migrant laborers who work there. Near the Bates College campus, a group of students worked to improve worker's living conditions and access to heath care. My illustration looks behind the image of sunny “farm fresh” eggs at the not so bright reality the students discovered.

The Washington Post Weekend cover highlights outdoor activities in the Washington, DC area. My wife, Jamie, introduced me to cross-country skiing and we love to get out on our skis in the woods around our house. That’s her in the illustration. Note that I'm not keeping up with her.

I designed this poster to raise awareness about the dangers of tar sands oil being piped to the edge of Casco Bay, where I live. I donated it to The Natural Resources Council of Maine to use as the fight spread across the state. We did stop the pipeline.

The folks at MovieMaker magazine appreciate a visual solution. Given these two feature articles titled “Secrets of the Editing Room: My Love Affair with Film” and “It’s Alive! Give Your Movie New Life by Re-releasing It on DVD”, I couldn't help but come up with something theatrical.

I created this image of some of downtown Chicago's iconic buildings and sights for The American Psychological Association's 105th annual convention, which was held there.

In this Smith Alumnae Quarterly feature article, the author of “The Dog Communicator” explains how she talks with dogs and conveys their thoughts and feelings to their owners.

Charlie Beigg’s Restaurants bottles their popular BBQ sauce. I provided the sizzling art for Christopher Hadden’s design. Russell French shot the tasty photo.

One of my holiday cards.

This Delaware Today cover is about the down-sizing taking place at DuPont Corporation, based in Wilmington, DE.

Kirsten Cappy, Executive Director of I’m Your Neighbor Books, which uses children’s literature to build welcoming communities for New Arrivals and New Americans, is the subject of this airbrushed portrait.

Madison Avenue meets Mussey Road. When print broker Creative Imaging Group opened CSquared, a full service ad agency, to better serve their customers, they commissioned me to create this kick-off artwork. Designed for their box-truck, it was also applied to their van, and will appear in additional promotional uses.