#5 in The American Iconography Series is The Jack of Hearts

Today, The Knave of Hearts takes his place among his fellow playing cards in The American Iconography Series.  The Knave of Hearts is #5 in a series of ongoing designs that promote my own personal message about the state of affairs in America today.

#4 in The American Iconography Series

And now we present, The King of Clubs, which is #4 in The American Iconography series and by far the one design that ended up drastically different compared to my concept sketches than any of the previous three playing card designs.

My original thoughts were to design this playing card around a bizarre, surrealistic looking military officer before deciding upon a more contemporary theme of a misguided neo-patriot who preaches sedition against the United States while at the same time swears allegiance to the National Rifle Association.  Again, my message is not so much about being anti-anything as it is a quest to get people to open their eyes and see just how divisive we as a nation have become.

#3 in The American Iconography Series

After several false starts, I am please to announce that The Ace of Spades is complete and takes its place as the #3 playing card in The American Iconography Series.  The ace of spades has long been identified as the “death” card so I was sure to make a skull the centerpiece for this design.

I am still undecided as to how many individual playing cards will ultimately make up The American Iconography series but I am creating each design both as a 4 x 6 card and a 13 x 19 poster size print.

#2 in The American Iconography Series

Introducing the Queen of Hearts, image #2 in my American Iconography Series.  She is based on the image of Columbia (the female personification of the United States of America) but has now been adapted to communicate a different message.

Holding a bomb and revealing her skull through torn flesh is a way of showing how the country itself has suffered recently through two, long and protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we will have to wait for history to tell us if the price paid was worth it.  This image is not meant to be anti-war but merely a question about the costs of any military conflict.

#1 in The American Iconography Series

My original inspiration for The American Iconography Series began when I was looking through some old screen prints and masks that were lying around in my basement.  Most of these items were just old, throw-away pieces that I had made out of boredom but I really don’t like wasting any of the art that I create so I started thinking of a way to repurpose them into something more cohesive.  Well, I am still not certain about the cohesiveness of this new series but I have decided to start creating images based on playing cards.

The Joker is the first in a series of images that is meant to convey the current state of affairs in America.  As the words say, we are a house divided.  I chose a skull wearing an American flag themed top hat as The Joker because I wanted to invoke something that was both dark and comical because to me, this imagery comes to mind when I think about how ridiculous it has become watching two sides bicker and both ultimately fail at achieving what should be common goals.

The American Iconography Series

When in the course of human events…

We The People is the first print in my upcoming American Iconography series.

Boredom actually motivated me to dust off this old design based on a mask that I created while working on The Mask Project. Conceptual t-shirt design, I have some obvious aesthetic issues to work out but I always prefer to print a hard copy of the design to give me a better feel as to how to refine and finalize it.

Wow.  Yup.

Gig poster for Doctor Hu show at First Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis.