All pooped. Have been going to Kitty's dress rehearsals (with camera) until 9 for the past few nights. Tonight is the opener and so flowers are in order (we never do this...but for this one, we are), and I need to go buy tickets to tonights presentation. I don't think I will go to all 3 performances. Maybe tonight and Saturday? Need to get the food together for Cast Party and reconfirm the gathering tomorrow night.
Got an old book on the PushPin Studios with the hope to see the scope of the entire studio and to see more Barry Zeid (who is often cited by Murray). The Push Pin Graphic by Seymour Chwast with Steven Heller and Martin Venezky editing, and intro from Milton Glaser. Wow. This is a monumental inspiration for me. Its a style a day...reflecting Murray's quote from Today's Inspiration:
"I enjoy variety and I try to use style in the same way a typographer uses type faces," said Tinkelman in a 1970 interview in American Artist magazine. "The style is not dictated by whim, nor by the art director, but by the problem the job presents."
The work of Push Pin Studios confirms this feeling hands down.
Where ever these illustrator were in their lives, in their experiences, it oozed out of their work. Milton and Shirley Glaser found wonderful cut paper illustrations in Europe and bought them--and by sheer new application>presented them as illustrations. There were works on crummy newsprint with the bleed through as part of the final. There are ink paintings, line drawings, images that reflect the history of art. There are visual puns, and visual poetry. This Studio was monumental in it's reach at the time...and now, it is reaching out to me. I see great possibilities as I turn the pages to this fine book. They truly blend their love of type and typography with that of line and decorative illustration...so nothing goes untouched. Another revelation is how huge Push Pin Studios grew. I forgot Alcorn and Reynolds Ruffin's work. Glaser is so huge...its hard to remember that every single guy that was part of the studio was huge. More later