]]> http://www.stanandlou.com/distractions/stanandlou-in-the-news/feed/ 2 http://www.stanandlou.com/friends/lous-former-roommate-separate-bedrooms/ http://www.stanandlou.com/friends/lous-former-roommate-separate-bedrooms/#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:23:48 +0000 Lou http://www.stanandlou.com/?p=1937 Artist / Designer Interview 3 – Kim White
By DotDesign | September 30, 2008

How long have you been an illustrator?
I grew up in the mid-fifties the son of an illustrator. In my early teens, I followed my father and his promise of a career in commercial art that will be “fun” and “glamorous” and “rewarding”. This was about the same time that I learned one of the Great Truths of Advertising: “Don’t believe anyone, not even your father.”

What inspires your work?
Later, in art school, while pretending to listen to lectures, I would surreptitiously doodle unflattering cartoons of my lecturer. All the while asking myself the age-old student question, “What the hell good will knowing any of this ever do me?”

Now, 35 years later, as a Creative Director at an advertising agency, I spend most days in fancy conference rooms surreptitiously doodling unflattering cartoons of Account Executives. I no longer bother to pretend to listen, however. Account Executives don’t respect creative types unless we appear abstract and non-plussed. And while knowing any of the stuff they blather on about still hasn’t done me a hell of a lot of good, I am at least getting better at doodling.

What media do you work in and why?
My method consists of flipping through a book of hundreds of stamps, with an idea in mind. When I find the stamp, I rough in the cartoon in broad strokes with a soft #2 pencil. I ink the final and add all the detail on the fly with a Sakura Pigma Micron 02 pen.

I lick the stamps with my tongue.

How would you describe your style of artwork?
About the time I started working for my father, I started cartooning on envelopes. This always seemed to be very popular with friends and family because, (a) who doesn’t like to get mail that’s not from the power company, and (b) who wouldn’t like to see beautiful portraits of politicians, statesmen and even saints made fun of by a guy with a pen?

Do you do any initial sketching or planning before starting a new piece?
And that’s really the fun part of what I do. For instance, for the game warden of my county, I once rendered Smokey the Bear (spokesbear for ecology and fire safety) cooking an endangered species over an unsafe fire pit. Sometimes I like to compromise the mission of a commemorative stamp. Like a cavalier John Audobon blasting birds out of the sky with a shotgun. Or take a stamp memorializing the-father-of-my-country George Washington (of “I cannot tell a lie, I cut down the cherry tree” fame) and put him in a crowd of George Washingtons laying blame on each other. This is, after all, how politics works in America now.

Which artist most inspires you?
As far as illustrators go, I have always admired R. Crumb for his wit and line quality and R. O. Blechman for his economy and emotion. I admire both of them for getting by with the first name of “R”. And of course I have always been inspired by my father, The Liar.

“Politics” has been described to me by Kinky Friedman as “Poli” meaning “many”, and “tics” meaning “blood-sucking parasites.”

What words of advice would you give to any aspiring artists out there?
Which leads me to my inspirations and advice. Kinky Friedman is a pretty funny writer, and who, like Dave Barry or Roy Blount Jr., remind me when I read him that great writers are the best inspiration for visual artists. Face it, if you can put a picture into someone’s head without actually using a picture, then you’re pretty damn good in the Picture Department.

After thirty years of inking envelopes, as far as I know, they have all been delivered. At least the ones I’ve dropped into mailboxes have. I’ve done a lot of commissions however, which get framed rather than mailed, I think because of the price. This leads to another Great Truth of Advertising: whether your product is any good or not, if you charge too much for it people will love it.

Kim White www.kimwhite.com

Jim White (Kim’s Dad) www.kimwhite.com/jimwhite.html

“If you can’t fix it with a hammer, you’ve got an electrical problem.” -Dad

Or just hands on frosted glass?

I say alien hands on frosted glass!

That stems from many different factors – natural disasters (floods, etc), changes in farming techniques, but also government intervention in agriculture, specifically subsidies for food products to create biofuels like ethanol. Other articles also talk about the ratio of energy produced versus consumed to create these new fuels to cut the use of fossil fuels. All interesting reading.

In the June 28th issue of The Economist, they discuss Brazil’s biofuel industry. There were many interesting points to the article, but what stood out in my mind the most is that the ethanol that the brasileiros produce “packs 8.2 times as much energy as it used in its production, compared with just 1.5 times for corn ethanol, according to the Woodrow Wilson Centre, a Washington think-tank.”

My main problem with all of this talk is that people are living on less than $1.00 in food and people are concerned about using food to produce fuels that will preserve our future. Why don’t we care about people we can save right now, using those same resources?

Here are some shots from that night. You can enjoy more photos when you click the word, Lou_Is_One_Good_Looking_Guy!!! Click Reggie Gives Thanks to watch Reggie thank the Academy!

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THE SKATERS, FANS, REFS AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE
MADE GOING TO THE ROLLER DERBY EVERY BOUT A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE! YOU
HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THAT IS APPRECIATED! EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS TO FRO-ROCIOUS, THE COLONEL, MISTILLA THE KILLA, CARMEN GEDDIT, JEKYLL & HEIDI, DEMENTIA, DEATH BY CHOCOLATE AND SO MANY MORE.

The gift-wrapping job that new STANANDLOU Account Service and Media Service hire, Danica Badurina, did today was absolutely incredible.

I bought a large piece of embossed paper from Texas Art Supply (it was on-sale for a buck) yesterday in which to wrap two T-Shirts I got for my best friend who is getting engaged today: 8/8/08 at 8:08 pm. He’s Chinese, you see, and the number eight has some spiritual significance, as seen in the opening of the Beijing Games.

I had originally planned on making a shirt myself with iron-on letters, if they even still make that kind of stuff, but then I had an idea. Good old creative production agency 808, Inc. sells some very well designed shirts, and they seemed appropriate. Very appropriate. I called up Robert Campbell, the Creative Director over there, and he set me up with two shirts. They have two little owls joined together at the ass and “808” underneath. Perfect.

Back to the real story.

With the aforementioned piece of large, embossed paper, I was simply going to roll up the shirts and tie it up with a piece of robin’s egg-blue ribbon that I swiped from my mom’s sewing room on my way to work. (Yes, I still currently live at home. Think what you want. I have good reason.) I asked Kate and Tiffany if they could tie a nice bow, because all girls are born with, or are taught early on, how to make nice bows and wrap the hell out of presents. I still can’t really do it — the ends get all messed up. Kate told me to ask Danica to do it. She’s really good at it, Kate says. I was skeptical.

I quickly went to Danica’s office where I found her at the computer wearing her ubiquitous scarf. She is always cold. I pity her. I showed her my tube-package-thing. “Ooh, that is so unattractive,” she said in her lovely Latin voice. Oh, how I love the Latin accent, “You cannot give that as a present. I will take care of it.” And my shirts, my ribbon and my paper tube were whisked away.

An hour later I returned to my office (I had to play a few games of foosball) to find something magnificent, something odd, something abstract — my present. What was once a large piece of embossed paper, some stolen ribbon and another business’ promotional material, had become a stunning objet d’art. I knew immediately that my friend and his soon-to-be-fiancé would love it and that all of their friends would know how thoughtful I am, and then, of course, question my sexual preferences.

There must be some sheik in Dubai, dripping in Euros, who would erect a building modeled after Danica’s design. I will not rest until my friend’s engagement present dots the desert horizon of that Emirate city-state!

And if any of you want Danica to wrap your presents for you, call her at STANANDLOU. 713.683.8000. Her name is pronounced DAN-IT-SA. I don’t know what she’ll charge and I haven’t figured out what I will charge as her creative agent. Just know it’ll be a damn fine-looking present.

You can flush right photos like this…

or just stick in the middle!

The STANANDLOU putt-putt team proved the nay-sayers wrong and earned a good deal of respect in the Houston Putt-Putt/Advertising community with a strong third place finish in the first annual Ad2 Houston’s “Who’s Your Caddy” Putt-Putt Golf Tournament.

The STANANDLOU team, led by high-scoring captain Tiffany Morris, braved blistering humidity, unkempt greens, and sabotaged holes to garner an average score of 61.5.

“We really gelled as a team today,” remarked team member Scott Brinkmeyer. “I did

well on the first nine, but I was disappointed with my back end performance.” When asked about Scott’s back-end, other teams members were unavailable for comment.

“I enjoyed popping Crepe Myrtle buds and admiring the debris in the waterfall,” noted Matt Walsh, whose score of 43 is close to a national record, he thinks.

Although Team STANANDLOU did bring in one hole-in-one by ringer Justin Bantuelle, it was not enough to earn the coveted second or first place trophies, all of which were hand-crafted by local trophy artisan Crystal Land.

There was some confusion concerning the scoring of the event, with the winning team earning an average score of 26. Being the mathematically savvy programmer he is, Bantuelle complained, “That’s freakin’ impossible. They would have to each get 10 holes in one, and then par 2 for the remainder of the holes.’ No formal challenge was submitted, however, since team captain Morris’ early departure from the award ceremony left team STANANDLOU without an official representative.

“That’s total crap,” muttered Bantuelle, as he chucked his trophy across the parking lot, “We’ll show them next year. I’m getting a season pass here. That’s for damn sure.”

There were only four teams.