By Mark Kaufman
Fresh illustration that is running in the Queer issue of the Stranger. This drawing accompanies the introduction which offers advice to same sex couples going to California to get married. 

By Mark Kaufman
Next week I'll be attending ICON  5, the Illustration Conference in New York. I will be hawking my wares/whoring myself out at the Roadshow on July 2. I will be sharing a table with someone, but I don't know who yet. This is how I envision the evening. That is me on the left. If you are in NYC next Wednesday and you want to attend the Roadshow make sure to RSVP before June 30th, here’s more info:
ICON5 Roadshow Illustration Salon
Wednesday July 2nd 5:00-8:00pm
Roosevelt Hotel 45 E. 45th Street off Madison Avenue
RSVP by June 30th to admin@theillustrationconference.org
Use Roadshow RSVP as the subject heading

By Mark Kaufman
New category, Sketching after midnight. I have slips of paper everywhere with random notes, sketches, cartoon and illustration and design ideas. Lot's of them are done late at night. In the morning or when I find them in a pocket weeks later I have no idea what they mean. Here’s one that I do know the provenance of, it is a sketch I drew of John McCain while watching some late night newscast. I am not sure whether or not I dig his oversize black sunglasses. They come across as some sort of third rate supervillain in a 1960’s spy thriller. I realize they actually serve a purpose given his melanoma problems, and for blue-blocker type shades they are about as tough looking as you can get without seeming like grampa on the way to the early bird breakfast. Anyway, that's what I think about after midnight.

By Mark Kaufman
I love hand painted signs. Roadside signs, side of the building signs, retail window signs, I love them all, they are meant to inform and to decorate and serve as a differentiator to the competing business down the street, regardless of artistic or spelling capabilities. I saw these in a local dry cleaner window. For some reason part of the visual langauge of the dry cleaning business  happens to be crude hand painted window signs. So I thought I would stop and snap a couple of shots of these. Upon closer inspection these are not hand done, they are in fact stock window decals made to look like they were done by an untrained hand. Does it infer a homey feeling, a small family run business, a patron of outsider art? I don't know, but it is curious that the dry cleaning business maintains these visual cues for it’s patrons and the world at large.

An American Affairs Desk comic from a few weeks back. Hillary turns the table on the Hillary cult…I mean her supporters,

By Mark Kaufman
Some very good news today from very good friends and clients, Gavin Groves and TJ Montague Groves of Garden Party Flowers. Better Homes & Gardens Magazine has highlighted their rose stem cleaner in their “Our Favorite Tools” section. The rose cleaning device designed and invented by Mr. Groves is also available for sale at the New York Botanical Garden and at finer garden supply shops nationwide. A hearty congratulations to two very talented and hard working folks. It is always nice to see good things happen to great people.

By Mark Kaufman
I was looking for a business card of someone I met last year, and I came across this. It’s a detail from my School of Visual Arts ID card from 1978. Many things have changed, but strangely in my current official head shot my eyes are also closed. Thirty years on I still haven’t a clue.

By Mark Kaufman
Meet the Press moderator and NBC News Bureau Chief Tim Russert passed away today of an apparent heart attack. Tim provided me with countless hours of enjoyment, yelling at my TV during one of his pointless gotcha interviews or mentions of his frickin’ Buffalo Bills. I had even done an American Affairs Desk comic about him once which wasn't very complimentary. That being said, by all accounts he was a great guy, so as a tribute I am flying this Buffalo Bills flag for him at half mast. My thoughts are with his family. Rest in peace Russ.

By Mark Kaufman
These days my portfolios are never current, they are always terribly out of date. I am updating my book for ICON next month, and have hundreds of pieces scattered around the office. I never liked putting a book together, I usually had to do it on a rush basis for a meeting or presentation, but thankfully I have some time this go-round, which really helps with the editing process. What I think is an absolutely essential piece today, will look trite tomorrow. More time means the ability to find juxtapositions that work, and more importantly gives me an opportunity to think about what I have done, what I want to do, and what I want to say…which of course will probably also change tomorrow.

By Mark Kaufman
In the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times amongst the photos of Manhattan swells in the Evening Hours page, I saw a few snaps of The Society of Illustrators J.C. Leyendecker show. At first glance I thought, “Hey, ain’t that grand!”, on closer inspection however it was strangely disappointing. There were party photos of well-respected illustrators bracketed by social X-rays, which is all well and good, but the captions read…Peter de Séve, an illustrator and Tim O’Brien, an illustrator…as if they were merely accessories or the hired help or worst of all charity cases. Why can't they be treated the same as the moneyed class in these photos? Am I wrong on this? I do not know who these socialites are in this section of the paper every week. Should I know? Should I care? I do not care about these folks one way or the other, they are attending charity events, or donating their time and dollars to good causes, so I harbor no grudges on their see and be seen nights out on the town, but it struck me as demeaning to classify the “illustrators” and not the trust fund babies and titans of industry that pepper the page. I am going to a book release party this evening, and I do hope someone snaps a photo of me. No title necessary.

I’ll will be exhibiting at the ICON Roadshow Illustration Salon
Wednesday July 2nd 5:00-8:00pm
Roosevelt Hotel 45 E. 45th Street off Madison Avenue

If you are an art director or designer and will be in New York on July 2 and you want to see what I and 99 other illustrators have been up to you must RSVP by June 30th to:

admin@theillustrationconference.org
Use Roadshow RSVP as the subject heading

By Mark Kaufman
Wherein Michelle Malkin sees terrorists behind every iced latte. 

By Mark Kaufman
Totally awesome haandpainted sign I saw on the side of a van. LOVE IT! 

By Mark Kaufman
Yet another American Affairs Desk comic that is past it’s post by date.