The internet has been crawling—slowly, slowly—to finally just stop working today. Erich is on the phone trying to get some help—trouble shooting our connections and the viability of the line. It is amazing to discover how dependent we are on that link to the world, particularly that of mail, for our work, our deliverables, our communication with clients, friends, family, and suppliers. The world stops spinning a bit when the connection hiccups and we find ourselves out of focus for a bit. But, I guess the nice thing is is that these instances teach us that we cannot take this marvel for granted.

Oh look. Now we are back—connected!

We are clocking down the Annual Report for a non-profit research organization we are working with along with a holiday card. We are wrapping up a small mountain of tiny projects for the main client—from consulting on an e-card, to ads and a tradeshow unification between two disparate aspects of the business to presenting a series of colorways for a corporate “little red book” document that is annually issued. Nitty little projects that often have nitty little bits to tweak and change forever, but that is what we are paid for.

I guess we are now in the throes of the peak of the color. The deciduous trees have shed enough foliage to be able to see through the branches/leaves to the darker woods or evergreens behind. The gold color against the dark is breathtaking. And the glimmers of red is remarkable too. Halloweeen approaches, and with that the long winter is in sight.The chestnuts, horse chestnuts and apples are all out…as are the extraordinary number of deer that park themselves on the front lawn as if on contract for some photoshoot about living in the country.

A sad note. Don Ivan Punchatz passed away on Thursday. He leaves an extraordinary legacy as an illustrator, mentor, teacher and friend. Wikipedia says:

Don Ivan Punchatz (born 1936 - October 22, 2009) is an artist who has drawn illustrations for numerous publications including magazines, such as: Heavy Metal, National Geographic, Playboy, and Time. In 1993 id Software hired him to create the Doom video game package art and logo. The result was named the second best game box art of all time by GameSpy [1] His son, Gregor Punchatz, has worked on special effects for several movies, and also created monster sculptures for Doom.

Here is my post from visiting/meeting him in Texas>>

I sent him a note and one or both of My Memento Mori books which he called me about. We had a great chat about how he used his illustration to cope with having stomach cancer--and how interesting and dark work came out of that process. He was enthusiastic, positive and acting as a mentor even to an odd person he briefly met with the Hartford Program. Don was instrumental in putting together the inspiring panel of illustrators in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area for our visit, and had been engaged in that sharing and exchange since Murray and Carol were with the Syracuse ISDP program. He inspired and encouraged, embraced and enthused with his people, the illustrators, and for that, his friendship, strength and quiet humor we are thankful. Bless him.