The New Yorker years, part 2

 all images, c. kevin sprouls  Going back through the vaults of my original art boards, I am struck by the relative consistency of the works I produced under the art direction of Chris Curry, at the New Yorker magazine in the early 1990's. I'm a trifle disappointed the relationship didn't continue longer than the 2-3 brief years it did, as I consider most of my pieces produced for the magazine fairly effective. During the years of my retainership, all of the G.O.A.T. art was in black and white. This was a design consideration, certainly. There may have been a change at the top that brought a close to my participation in the weekly publishing endeavor. I recall that this "Goings On About Town" section began using full color art spots concurrent with my departure from those pages.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! ca. 1990The very first installment--- David Strathairn and Jean Stapleton playing Pinter, 1989.Rock 'n Roll! '80's Rocker Sylvain Sylvain. A fun piece to draw. Gotta love that outfit...Now here's a musician for you. The fabulous bluesman, Robert Cray. I once heard this great guitar hero interviewed on radio. He told an interesting story about how the band made sure club owners would actually pay for gigs... By sending Cray into the back office at the end of the night with a bad-ass act. According to Cray, he was effective, though in truth he was just another sensitive musician type. I am sorry, dear reader, to delve into such lurid detail on this blog, but,... that's Show Biz.Antonio Tapies, expressionist painter. For this piece, I incorporated the painter's strokes into my portrait.Announcing the IBM sponsored exhibit, "Pompeii". It was a real labor of love to be drawing all those individual tiles!Although the hours were long, the notice was (indeed) short, and the pay unprincely, I must confess that these images, produced for the New Yorker, remain some of my favorite children.