i’ll have three puppets in a group show at Strychnin Gallery in London.
the show is called Kings & Queens and Childhood Dreams.

http://www.strychnin.com

introducing ‘smith’ he is inspired by the trials i am having with my son Owen right now. Owen is sure that the monsters are going “to come in from other there, climb up that wall, then slide down to my bed and take my music.” how do i convince him that he is safe, that there are no monsters and that i am here to make sure of it. so, smith comes from the need to show owen that he can physically see this ‘protector named smith’ and that his job is to keep all the locks safe and secure.
the only bad thing now is that smith needs to travel to london on other business…

generator: his role is solely to make sure all the nightlights work correctly.

bruja: she is there are a last resort, if the locks fail and the power fails then casting a curse over the monsters will surely do the trick.

i was approached by Arts Council Indianapolis this summer to submit concepts and sketches for a 26×9 foot outdoor lightbox as part of the Public Art Indianapolis project. The piece they chose is titled See Saw.

In this scenario Ian sees what Ann saw, hence the title See Saw. You, the viewer, cant exactly see what they see, but my intention is that you will be encouraged to take the time to look at things differently and also enjoy the varying viewpoints of others.

the piece was installed on October 2nd and will be up for 12 months.the crew from Sign Craft were nice guys that i enjoyed hanging out and working with on a beautiful day.

i wanted to have a piece that incorporated the large open hoosier sky above the location.

Located at the entrance of the Mass Ave Cultural district of Indianapolis, Ian and Ann welcome visitors to the area from three intersecting streets.

i’ll try to get a nice nighttime shot of the light box posted on hear soon.
cheers

here are two sketches that were in the first group of roughs that started it all taken from a sketch book while flying out to NY to meet with a publisher. the idea got some laughs but nothing serious came from it. the sketches got filed away back in the studio and from time to time i would sit down and make myself laugh coming up with sketches and word pairs. several months later i get a call from Megan Patrick an editor with HOW books that asked about any ideas i might have for ‘fun’ books. after a phone conversation where i run through several ideas and getting not much of a response, the one idea about a twin sister and brother that see the same thing in their own way written with homonyms, was the one that she liked and asked that i work on some more. after going through hundreds of homonyms we weeded it down to a resonable list that i started doing sketches from. out of those about 10% made the cut and that was how the book started.

I am pleased to announce the release of my first book that is titled ‘The Look Book’ published by F&W Publications.

As siblings Ian and Ann try to keep themselves entertained during a long and boring summer day, they learn that the world around them is more exciting than it first appears. After they leave the house on a quest for amusement, they come across an unusual array of characters and scenarios that make them see the world in surprising new ways. From exercising priest to priests exorcising, and kitchen sinks to sinking kitchens, everything depends on how you look at it. Creative word plays grace every spread and teach the duo that there’s plenty to see if you open your eyes to the world around you.

$17.99 (Can $21.99)
ISBN 978-1-58180-940-4

the book is available at:

http://www.fwbookstore.com/product/1552/0#

It is a solid 8″x8″ book packed with with 64 color illustrations. The cover is die-cut so you can see through the spectacle ‘lenses’ to Ian and Ann on the inside.

below are two spreads from the interior, click on them to enlarge:

It was reviewed on Pop Candy, USA Today’s blog that ‘unwraps pop culture’s hip and hidden treasures’ on 09/07/2007 in The Week in Pop: My Favorite Things. They had this to say about it.

A gorgeous book just came out called The Look Book by Chris Sickels (How Books, $17.99). It’s somewhere between a children’s book and an art book — he does this amazing 3-D illustrations that remind me of Tim Burton movies and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/2007/09/index.html

the Pepsi Frito Lay halloween P.O.P. campaign i worked on in 2006 was recognized in the 2007 Communication Arts illustration annual.
i’d like to give a big THANKS to the Art Director of the project Scott McFadden, who was not credited in the annual due to a clerical oversight. He had a great vision for the project and i appreciate all the confidence he had in my work and what it could achieve.

a piece for Reader’s Digest was also recognized in the annual.

In April MumPuppet Theater www.mumpuppet.org performed their version of The Fantasticks
Produced by Robert Smith and Directed by Aaron Cromie
i was commissioned to design the 6 main characters from the play. from my 8 ” models they built performance puppets over two feet tall. congrats to everyone at Mumpuppet for the seven Barrymore award nominations that The Fantasticks received from the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia!

the benefit auction raised $4000 for the Society of Illustrators’ Student Scholarship Fund. congrats to whomever purchased ‘flicker’
thanks!

this guys was created specifically for MICROVISIONS an invitational exhibit and auction to benefit the society of illustrators student scholarship fund.
the auction will take palce in june of this year. i should know more info soon. and you can also visit Irene Gallo’s blog for more specifics at: http://igallo.blogspot.com/

this is the first of a series of 5 images for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA’s) 2007 campaign “Newspaper: The Multi-Medium” that was launched nationally in April.