this is the end, beautiful friend, the end

Obviously, Monday Artday is dead and it ain't coming back. I loved this blog. I loved contributing and I loved the participation. It always felt friendlier than Illustration Friday - more intimate, not as vast and stark.

But, everything must come to an end, I suppose.

Now here comes the shameless self-promotion part: I contribute regularly to my own illustration blog and I have another blog, It's Been A Slice, where I ramble on about almost anything. I hope you'll come on over and take a look.

As of this post, my final one on Monday Artday, I will no longer be posting to this blog.

Star Trek

Coincidentally, I saw Shatner last night.

Read about it HERE.

www.joshpincusiscrying.com

political debate

JPiC's views on the upcoming election... HERE.

(WARNING! Contains adult language and strong opinions)

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man in the moon

Andy Kaufman took the whole world for a ride.

man in the moon

The following is a transcript of a recently discovered recording of a conversation from the command module of Apollo 11 on July 19, 1969.  WARNING! Contains adult language!

bath time

I drew this in 2007, but it is timeless.

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avengers

The current challenge on the Monday Artday illustration website is "avengers", with inspiration coming from the movie. That big-screen bomb with Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman that didn't come close to capturing the quirky coolness of the classic 60s TV show?

 

They're the only Avengers I  know.

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office

I have ranted… I mean, related many anecdotes from my nearly thirty years as a professional artist. There’s one story that I have told numerous times, but have never put into print… until now.

I was employed for almost five years in the advertising department at the main headquarters of a major after-market auto parts retailer whose mascots are three big-headed Jewish guys, one of whom used to smoke cigars…. y’know the company of which I speak? Well, I worked with a group of other artists in a large, moldy, poorly-ventilated studio. We were a happy (and mostly) fraternal group. We were expected to be human machines, cranking out various versions of full-color weekly advertising circulars at unrealistic breakneck speed. The ads, which were essentially the same each week with the same three hundred products rearranged, were tedious, time-consuming projects. High importance was placed on accuracy and alacrity. Compensation was minimal in comparison to expected output. Our decisions were constantly undermined by the advertising executive committee who — as they say — didn’t know shit from shinola. But, we were artists and we were used to it.

slumber party

Little Lizzie Borden invited a few friends for a sleepover.

Then, things got a little out of hand.

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moldy

Jake couldn't remember if that plate in the back of his refrigerator was from Tuesday or Monday or October.

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re-imagined album cover

Frank Sinatra expressed intense dislike for the cover mock-up of his 1958 album Come Fly with Me. He told his producer Voyle Gilmore that he thought it looked like an advertisement for TWA.

Well, Frank...

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miscalculated (part 2)

For years, my wife has been in pursuit of the perfect hamburger. While a lot of carnivores share this quest, it should be noted that Mrs. Pincus has kept a strictly kosher diet for over forty years. Eating kosher meat within the privacy of one's home is a fairly easy task. At one time, a kosher butcher shop was the only outlet for certified kosher meat. As time went on and the number of families seeking kosher products increased, major supermarkets began stocking a variety of commercially-packaged meats along with other mashgiach- supervised groceries. Thus, the preparation of kosher meals at home is not difficult, however finding a decent kosher restaurant in the Philadelphia area is another story.

only shades of gray

But today there is no day or night,
Today there is no dark or light,
Today there is no black or white,
Only shades of gray.

My wife and I are avid accumulators. Our house is an interesting amalgam of pop culture pieces from our youth and antiquities that predate even our parents' childhoods. Don't expect to see us on Hoarders anytime soon. Our collections are displayed in an orderly fashion throughout our three-story residence. We do, however, have a collection of collections. One morning in the early 90s, my wife and I set out to browse the offerings of a collectibles show at a convention center in Valley Forge, PA, not far from our home.

miscalculated

Ever since a visit to a California airfield, Douglas Corrigan became interested in flight. He began taking flying lessons at an airfield where aircraft manufacturers B.P. Mahoney and T.C. Ryan ran a small airline. He eventually took a job at their San Diego factory.

Just after Douglas was hired, a young aviator named Charles Lindbergh contacted Mahoney and Ryan with plans for a specialized craft. Douglas assembled The Spirit of St. Louis' wing and installed its gas tanks and instrument panel. When Lindbergh took off from San Diego to prepare for his famous flight from New York, Douglas personally pulled the chocks out from the wheels of the aircraft. When news of Lindbergh's success reached Douglas and his co-workers, they were excited, but Douglas vowed to someday make his own transatlantic flight.

In 1929, Douglas received his pilot's license and he purchased a used monoplane. He began to modify the craft, readying it for his own flight of glory. Unfortunately, the government repeatedly rejected Douglas' applications for transatlantic flight. He had flown from San Diego to New York on quite a few occasions and was certain that his modified plane could make the trip across the ocean. The US government believed otherwise.

umbrella

“When two men share an umbrella, both of them get wet.”

— Michael Isenberg, author

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Bad Idea Picture Book Cover

Okay, kids, Uncle Josh is gonna read you a bedtime story.

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avatar self portrait

You mean like this?

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soap

Tyler Durden explains the art of making… um… soap :

“The clear layer is glycerin. You can mix glycerin back in when you make soap. Or You can skim the glycerin off. You can mix the glycerin with nitric acid to make nitroglycerin. You can mix nitroglycerin with sodium nitrate and sawdust to make dynamite. You can blow up bridges. You can mix nitroglycerin with more nitric acid and paraffin and make gelatin explosives. You can blow up a building, easy. With enough soap, you can blow up the whole world.”

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cards

- Freddie Mercury -

The Queen of Wands

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Here's a piece I wrote about  "The Queen of Wands"

melancholy

My wife’s grandmother turned 101 this past July. When I met her nearly thirty years ago, she was a feisty, strong-willed woman who called things as she saw them and took no shit from anyone. She came from humble beginnings in Russia and lived an even more humble existence upon her arrival in the United States. She single-handedly raised two children – and by “single-handedly”, I mean that she got absolutely no help from her perpetually out-of-work husband. Eventually, her husband, through some shrewd maneuvering, became prosperous and his latent financial success allowed her to enjoy the life she always longed for and certainly deserved. She doted on and cared deeply for her children, their ensuing spouses and subsequent children. She hosted elaborate Sunday dinners and made sure everyone was abundantly satisfied. She was generous to a fault, but she also enjoyed frequent gambling excursions to “the casinas” — as she called them — to win more money with which to be charitable.

My wife’s grandmother always held a special place in her heart for her grandchildren and that place grew larger as offspring multiplied with progeny of their own. With the birth of my son twenty-four years ago, the family welcomed the first great-grandchild of the generation. I began referring to my wife’s grandmother as “GG”, short for “great grandmother”. She approvingly responded to the nickname.

GG lived on her own until well into her 90s. She currently resides in a gracious assisted-living facility.