http://www.inspirefusion.com/homeless-street-art/
Michael Aaron Williams
Inspired by the emotions on the faces of homeless and street children and to draw more attention to their fragile conditions street artist Michael Aaron Williams created a series of art named homeless street art. Since he loves hand-made art he puts homeless street people (made with cardboard) in places where others will find them.
He doesn’t glue them up with the walls but simply tapes them so that anyone who passes by might want to stop, take them off the wall, and bring them home. Ultimately, it’s up to the viewer to decide on the fate of these characters; whether they’ll end up discarded, trampled on, and thrown away or lovingly taken home.
I love the depth to Williams' work and the latter statement on that, 'it's up to the viewer to decide on the fate'. This reflects a lot of society and how, there is a lot we could do to help homeless people, however we choose to overlook them a lot of the time.
My art is a narrative, visual poetry, making a social statement to move the viewer to action or realization. An important part of my work focuses on the street, the place where people live their daily lives. This allows me to interact with an audience on
their own turf and observe how they react to the art; it is a social experiment. These open‐air installations focus on the ephemeral state of street people and enable the viewer to participate in the outcome of the pieces, whether the viewer leaves or saves them from the street. My goal in depicting street people is to show their beauty and fragility, while bringing their situation into the eyes of the viewer, refusing to let them be forgotten or ignored. (This is what I have been aiming to do in my project)
Similar to the outdoor installations, my gallery artwork also focuses on the
ephemeral nature of people. Through my paintings and drawings, I attempt to
represent the fragile nature of life, purity, and culture. Paint and ink are the vehicles
by which movement and conflict are expressed. The beauty and pain of human
nature are represented by the creation and deconstruction of the artwork. Rather
than wholeness necessitating beauty, I portray the human soul as complete despite
the fractures. As such, the artwork becomes more relatable to the viewer and
consequently more impacting.
represent the fragile nature of life, purity, and culture. Paint and ink are the vehicles
by which movement and conflict are expressed. The beauty and pain of human
nature are represented by the creation and deconstruction of the artwork. Rather
than wholeness necessitating beauty, I portray the human soul as complete despite
the fractures. As such, the artwork becomes more relatable to the viewer and
consequently more impacting.
His paintings are also incredible and I could learn a lot by studying his work. I could even use his style of drawing in my publication? Or at least explore it. I find these pictures so beautiful and expressive!
Interview with Michael Aaron Williams
How did you start down this creative path?
I have always loved building things out of wood since my Dad builds houses. I grew up in the country, so for fun I used to herd goats, feed chickens and pigs and ride horses. I’ve always loved hands-on stuff. I didn’t make any art until late high school when I had to take an art class. It allowed me to use that love of creating things with my hands and just play. Then, to my surprise, my teacher wanted me to skip a year of art class to do AP art, and I became immersed in art. Since then, I have been trying to find my style and I think the street art has become my favorite to create… it’s addicting.
What inspired you to want to create the homeless street art?
Well let’s see… there are a lot of reasons. My favorite thing to paint and draw is portraits and more recently the human figure. I think that the homeless wear so much emotion on their faces; they are beautiful people. I am also doing a series right now on street children, and I have been drawn to their situation for a long time now.
I want to someday have an orphanage in Thailand to help children get off the streets and into a nurturing home. I am also a Christian and feel like I am drawn to street people and what some people feel to be outsiders because Jesus went to these outsiders of society rather than the really religious and rich. And if I am going to go all out and do something I want it to either help people or have a significant impact on people. I hope that the homeless street art will continue to draw attention to the fragile condition of the homeless and street children.
Which other street artists are you inspired by?
I am inspired by a lot of different artists. As far as street artists are concerned, I love JR, Vhils, Herakut, Swoon, and many more. They have all influence my style. I also love Chuck Close, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, amongst others. I used to research art for two plus hours a day trying to find more artists and styles, it’s just so interesting. I am more inspired by street artists because I love the heart behind it.
What's been the reaction to these homeless street art cardboard characters?
I have had great reactions from people. I put my contact info on the back and people actually email me after picking them up off the street. I just ate dinner with some lovely people in London who picked up one of my pieces in Brooklyn a few months ago. They invited me into their home to see the newly framed piece hanging in their apartment. I love that art has given me the opportunity to meet all sorts of people I otherwise never would have known. I also get emails from people all over the world; Japan, Brazil, Russia, etc. who have been really moved, some to tears, by the artwork. This reaction from people makes the art extremely rewarding and encourages me to keep creating.
What's next for you?
Right now, I am in the Mediterranean hitting up four different countries and seven cities in 11 days. After this I am going back to the States where I will be getting married to the most beautiful and amazing gal in the world. In May, I will receive my Undergrad in Fine Art, and then hopefully continue on to get a Masters in Fine Art. All the while, I want to continue creating street art and travel to as many different places as possible.
As far as future projects are concerned, my fiancée and I are planning on living in a different country for at least a month out of every year in order to love and serve the people in the village or city we will live in (preferably a third world or developing country). While there, I want to paint pictures of the people and put them up around the city as a way of showing how precious and important these people are. After that, I’d like to do a series of the people we’d met with a portion of the profit going back to them in the city to bless them. I also have some more projects cooking right now but I will have to wait and surprise you with them here in the next six months or so.
I have always loved building things out of wood since my Dad builds houses. I grew up in the country, so for fun I used to herd goats, feed chickens and pigs and ride horses. I’ve always loved hands-on stuff. I didn’t make any art until late high school when I had to take an art class. It allowed me to use that love of creating things with my hands and just play. Then, to my surprise, my teacher wanted me to skip a year of art class to do AP art, and I became immersed in art. Since then, I have been trying to find my style and I think the street art has become my favorite to create… it’s addicting.
What inspired you to want to create the homeless street art?
Well let’s see… there are a lot of reasons. My favorite thing to paint and draw is portraits and more recently the human figure. I think that the homeless wear so much emotion on their faces; they are beautiful people. I am also doing a series right now on street children, and I have been drawn to their situation for a long time now.
I want to someday have an orphanage in Thailand to help children get off the streets and into a nurturing home. I am also a Christian and feel like I am drawn to street people and what some people feel to be outsiders because Jesus went to these outsiders of society rather than the really religious and rich. And if I am going to go all out and do something I want it to either help people or have a significant impact on people. I hope that the homeless street art will continue to draw attention to the fragile condition of the homeless and street children.
Which other street artists are you inspired by?
I am inspired by a lot of different artists. As far as street artists are concerned, I love JR, Vhils, Herakut, Swoon, and many more. They have all influence my style. I also love Chuck Close, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, amongst others. I used to research art for two plus hours a day trying to find more artists and styles, it’s just so interesting. I am more inspired by street artists because I love the heart behind it.
What's been the reaction to these homeless street art cardboard characters?
I have had great reactions from people. I put my contact info on the back and people actually email me after picking them up off the street. I just ate dinner with some lovely people in London who picked up one of my pieces in Brooklyn a few months ago. They invited me into their home to see the newly framed piece hanging in their apartment. I love that art has given me the opportunity to meet all sorts of people I otherwise never would have known. I also get emails from people all over the world; Japan, Brazil, Russia, etc. who have been really moved, some to tears, by the artwork. This reaction from people makes the art extremely rewarding and encourages me to keep creating.
What's next for you?
Right now, I am in the Mediterranean hitting up four different countries and seven cities in 11 days. After this I am going back to the States where I will be getting married to the most beautiful and amazing gal in the world. In May, I will receive my Undergrad in Fine Art, and then hopefully continue on to get a Masters in Fine Art. All the while, I want to continue creating street art and travel to as many different places as possible.
As far as future projects are concerned, my fiancée and I are planning on living in a different country for at least a month out of every year in order to love and serve the people in the village or city we will live in (preferably a third world or developing country). While there, I want to paint pictures of the people and put them up around the city as a way of showing how precious and important these people are. After that, I’d like to do a series of the people we’d met with a portion of the profit going back to them in the city to bless them. I also have some more projects cooking right now but I will have to wait and surprise you with them here in the next six months or so.
Pieces of Art That Have Inspired Me
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This is called 'Ignoring the Homeless' by Judith Rue and I found it interesting because of the movement and expression within it. I played about with drawing my figures like this of homeless people going about their day and would like to look more into drawing in this way.
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| This is a piece from an Artist who goes by the nickname of ShyPanter and I found this piece on DeviantART. I just fell in love with his drawing technique. I have really taken to drawing with ink this year and I think I could really use this as inspiration. |
The next passage below is very touching. It also reminds me of the story that I have drawn about in my publication, about Andy the Artist. I hope so dearly that he receives the same fait that John has.
John Dolan, Artist, & George the Dog
OCTOBER 13, 2013
John Dolan and his thoughtful dog, George, have become an East End landmark in recent years, sitting patiently day after day in the same spot opposite the petrol station on Shoreditch High St while the world and the traffic passed by. Yet, all this time, John was watching and, after a year of looking at the same view each day, he picked up a pen and began to draw what he saw before him. Soon after, John’s drawings were published in a local magazine and it proved to be a life-changing moment.
“That’s when I knew in life what I should do,” he assured me, standing in the Howard Griffin gallery where he has his first exhibition. It is just across the road from the spot where John used to sit and has been a sell-out success, leaving him inundated with commissions and a book deal. Yet George takes it all in his stride even if John is rather startled by the attention, gratefully embracing this opportunity to forge a new identity for himself as a artist. ‘None of this could have happened without the support of Roa, the street artist,” John admitted to me, in relief at the current twist of fate, “It’s got me away from breaking into shops to steal money.”
When you meet John, you are aware of a restless man with a strong internal life and he looks at you warily, his eyes constantly darting and moving, as if he might leave or take flight at any moment. But although John may have only one foot on the ground, George plants himself down and surveys the world peacefully – as the natural counterpoint to his master’s nature.
“I’m from King’s Sq, Goswell Rd, and I could walk from my door to St Paul’s in five minutes when I was a kid,” John revealed, speaking with affection for this neighbourhood in which he has spent his life,“From my window I could see the three towers of the Barbican and the dome of St Paul’s. At fourteen, I climbed up the to the top of St James Clerkenwell when it was covered in scaffolding.” John’s minutely detailed urban drawings are equally the result of an observant sensibility and an intimate knowledge of the streets and street life of Shoreditch.
A few years ago, a series of misadventures and spells in Pentonville Prison led to a low point when John found himself bereft. “I was spending my days in day centres and only mixing with homeless people and I couldn’t relate to my family at that time,” he confessed, “but having this exhibition has been a way of getting back to them – when they came on the opening night, they were very impressed. It’s been called ‘a successful debut show’ and you can’t get much better than that.”
The exhibition has been the unexpected outcome of a series of events that coalesced to permit John to regain control of his life. “I got rehoused in a flat in Arnold Circus after I had been living in temporary accommodation on Royal Mint St and before that I was homeless,” he explained, “In the recent benefits shake-up, I had my benefit cut to £36 a week and, each time I appealed, they cut it down more until I had nothing. I’ve got arthritis in my legs and I can’t walk very far, so I came down here to Shoreditch High St and started begging to get some money. But I’m no good at it, so I put a cup in front of George like he was begging and people gave him money. Then I got bored and I started drawing the two buildings on the opposite site of the road.”
John outlined to me how he acquired George, the dog that gave him a new focus. “When I was living in Tower Hill, I used to let homeless people come and live with me and there was this couple – and one of them, Sue, she was offered the chance to buy George for the price of a can of lager by a Scottish fellow, so she gave him £2o.” John recalled, speaking in almost a whisper, underscored by an emotional intensity, “He was a pretty violent guy who would go round robbing homeless people.”
“George is my first dog in a very long time, I had a dog from the age of ten until I was twenty-three – Butch. He was named after a dog that my grandfather had that was legendary. It was so painful when Butch died, I said I would never have another – but George was such a lovely dog and needed a home. When the Scottish fellow came back and told people he was going to take the dog off me and expecting money every time he saw me, I had to have serious words with him.”
John gave me a significant look that indicated he and George are never to be separated now. “I went to Old St Central Foundation School and the only thing I was good at was Art,” he informed me proudly,puffing on his cigarette in excitement, “The teacher said I was so bad at Geography it was a wonder I could find my way home.”
http://streetartlondon.co.uk/blog/2013/09/02/interview-john-dolan/
Interview: John Dolan
Photography by Rob WeirInterview by Carina Claassens
If you’ve been to Shoreditch on a sunny day you would have noticed John Dolan and his dog, George, sitting on the High Street. George sits patiently while John draws portraits of him and the buildings opposite. In this in depth interview we find out exactly how John became the artist he is today.
Where are you from?
Goswell Road in Islington. I’ve lived in London all my life.
How old is George and how were you brought together?
He is six years old. I was living in shared accommodation at the time and a couple of rough sleepers bought him for the price of a strong can of lager off a mad Scotsman. They had him for about a week and then gave him to me.
How did you train George?
I got him when he was one year old and he was one of those dogs who would nearly bite your hand off when you tried to pick up his ball. He was a cat chaser; he chased foxes. I just have an authoritative voice if you could say that. I had dogs growing up. You need eyes in the back of your head with dogs like these, especially when it comes to food. It’s just using your voice in the right way really. You don’t train a dog with your hand, you train him with your voice. With these types of dogs, they just love you and show so much love anyway – he’s very loyal. He’s a great bloody dog.
How long have you been drawing?
All my life, all my life, I’ve always had a natural talent for drawing – my grandfather was a good artist. It’s only in the last few years that I’ve actually picked up a pen and started drawing the way I am now. I spent many years in and out of jail and came out one day and I was homeless. I climbed into a building site, slept there and would get out in the morning before the builders came. This particular day I was in this building site, in Whitechapel behind the mosque, and there was a security guard that I didn’t know about. I had to jump over a wall – I landed okay but my ankle gave way and arthritis kicked in. As a result I couldn’t duck and dive. I had to literally walk up to people in the street and ask them for money.
I would never have dreamt of doing something like that but I had no choice. From there I started sitting down and when I got George I started sitting down with him. I trained him to sit in front of a hat and I would stand away from him and people would take his picture because he’s a beautiful dog. In the summer time I made a fortune but then the winter kicked in. I had to wrap George up because he was cold and it actually made for a good picture. I found it embarrassing just sitting there watching people throw money into his hat so I started drawing again. I started drawing just to get over the embarrassment and my drawings got better and better. The idea was to teach myself watercolour and I started drawing buildings. I started to draw houses and once I watercoloured the pictures and did all the rest of it I would put a calling card under the doors saying, “I’ve drawn your house, would you like to view it and buy the picture?”
I wasn’t a building drawer. What happened was I was sitting opposite the buildings that are on the other side of the road from where I usually sit, the old decrepit buildings, and I started drawing them to practice and get it right. I thought I would do it with these ones because they’re rotten old buildings.
Today I’ve sold more than 500 pictures of those buildings and they take me two hours to draw.
A John Dolan building drawing (note Burning Candy Crew):
Do the drawings of George sell well?
People started asking me for drawings of him and I would walk out of the house with four or five – they take me about 20 minutes to knock up – and I take them out and they sell. The only time that I don’t really sell any stuff is when the weather’s gloomy but when it’s sunny, sat where I sit, I sell loads of pictures.
What is the most you’ve sold in one day?
Five.
Who or what would you say inspires you?
I like Gilbert and George – they walk past me every night and George always says hello to me. I love them. I don’t mind Tracy Emin. Jackson Pollock blows me away. And of course some of the old masters.
So you’ve just always had a natural talent?
When I was 13 I lost an art contract. My grandmother worked as a cleaner and took one of my drawings in to show her friends. It was a fantastic picture, I copied it out of an old comic book – my grandfather used to buy me comic books.
A guy looked over her shoulder and said, “I work for a meat company in Spitalfields meat market, and I’m looking for a freelance artist. If your grandson can do us a trademark we’ll give him £5.” I just couldn’t deliver the goods; it was too much pressure for such a young mind.
Would you say that you are a street artist?
Yeah, I’m in a book about street art as a street artist. Up until the point that I went into the book I didn’t know what I was or who I was. If you asked me now what I am, I would say a street artist.
Have you ever sat anywhere else?
I pretty much always sit in the same spot on Shoreditch High Street.
Why there?
Because of those two buildings across the road – that’s all it basically is.
I can draw them with my eyes closed. In the summer I’ll go sit in Covent Garden and Southbank. The thing is, I’ve been sat in Shoreditch for such a long time that I don’t have to put signs up. People know me and if they want a drawing they buy it.
If you couldn’t draw and you had to do something else, what would it be?
I don’t know, fly an aeroplane? It’d have to be something good, not something bland like working in a factory or putting cream in doughnuts. It would have to be something good.
What do you do when you’re not drawing?
Sleep (laughs), because I’m always drawing. Even when I’m at home I draw.
What do you draw when you’re at home?
I usually finish pictures that I started on the high street or I’m given stuff to draw. A lot of people order drawings.
Do they just approach you on the street and ask you to draw something?
Yeah, “can you draw my dog?” or “can you draw my girlfriend?”
What’s the most general thing that people ask you to draw?
Where they live. They give me photographs.
What’s the most unusual thing?
Nothing yet, I’m still waiting for something strange.
Do you ever work in other mediums than you do now?
I sometimes work in charcoal, only the basics. I want to start using spray cans. I’ve had a little practice and I’ve got the gist of it.
Would you say your favourite thing to draw is buildings?
Anything really, anything that is a challenge. If I’ve never drawn it before, even better. I’m having real difficulty with a picture of a girl that someone gave me about a month ago. It’s of a girl’s face. She’s very pretty but I’m just not very good at drawing girl’s faces anyway. It’s not like a man’s face that’s crinkled and if it is it’s covered in make up. She’s a stunning girl but I just can’t bloody get her eyes right and I’m banging my head on the table. The amount of paper I’ve wasted…
I assume that most people’s reactions to your drawings are good?
Yeah, I get told every day that I’m very talented. It’s so nice and it’s strange because drawing is such an easy thing for me to do.
Have you ever had a bad experience while sitting on the street and drawing?
Not so much while drawing. But yeah, every Friday night – it’s nothing worth talking about – just drunk idiots you know. I am financially troubled and that’s why I have to do what I do – I’ll never badger people or ask people for money. If someone puts a bit of change or a £20 note in George’s cup I’ll always thank him or her. If they put a note in the cup and I have a picture to give them, I do.
If George could draw what do you think he would draw?
He’d probably draw me. I’d like to think that he’d do a fine job of it as well.
You say you’re a street artist. To what extent do you identify with the other artists you see on the street?
Like me they also stand or sit in the cold doing what they do. They’re open to criticism. I mean the amount of times that people walk past me and go “ah that’s shit”.
So it’s a bit like public art? You’re both public artists?
Yeah. I’m envious of people who paint on the walls because it can be there for a long time. I love it. There’s a lot of good stuff in Shoreditch and Great Eastern Street. I painted my living room wall for a little while.
Street Art London: Thanks John!
In September Dolan has his first solo exhibition at Howard Griffin Gallery in Shoreditch.Over 40 international street artists and graffiti writers will also collaborate with Dolan as part of the exhibition.
Quentin Blake
Illustrator Quentin Blake, who has been knighted in the New Year Honours list, is perhaps best known for the distinctive drawings that helped bring to life some of the most popular characters in children's literature.
Over many years, he worked with Roald Dahl on some of his most famous books and his sketches captured the very essence of Willy Wonka, Matilda and the BFH.
His own heavily illustrated and quirky books include Mister Magnolia, Zagazoo and Loveykins.
Born Quentin Saxby Blake, he was born in 1932 in Sidcup, which is now part of south east London, and studied English at Cambridge.
After National Service he did a postgraduate diploma at the University of London, going on to teach at the Royal College of Art, where he was the head of illustration between 1978-86.
He was first published at the age of 16 in the satirical magazine Punch - while he was still a pupil a Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School.
A later cover featured his illustration of a weightlifter at full stretch being aped by a dog carrying a bone.
He said: "I can remember getting a letter from the art editor congratulating me on being the youngest contributor and I thought 'this is alright!'. I started drawing for print then."
From there, he went on to illustrate nearly 300 books with writers such as Joan Aiken, Michael Rosen and John Yeoman.
Blake also worked on more than 150 episodes of the BBC children's show Jackanory, providing the illustrations for the books narrated for the young audience.
'Big chap'
"I draw every day - unless I'm being interviewed," Blake told the BBC.
"What is nice is to have different kinds of things to do."
Blake began working with Dahl after a meeting in 1975 set up by their publisher.
By that point, Dahl had already published some of his most famous works including James and The Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr Fox.
"Initially I was rather apprehensive because he was a big chap and very famous, but it was a relationship that worked," said Blake.
"Because I had established myself as an illustrator, I had something to bring to it."
Blake became the first ever Children's Laureate when the position was created in 1999, using his tenure to promote literature for the young.
Among his other accolades are the JM Barrie lifetime achievement award, which he received in 2008, the Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration in 2002 and an honorary degree from the Anglia Ruskin university in Cambridge.
He was made an OBE in 1988, a CBE in 2004 and will receive his knighthood at Buckingham Palace during 2013, for his services to illustration.
The 80-year-old's most recent collaboration has been with comic actor and writer David Walliams.
They first worked together on Walliams' debut children's novel The Boy in the Dress, which was published in 2008.
He admitted he was initially apprehensive about working with the Little Britain co-creator.
"I was also worried it would have loads of projectile vomiting," he said, "but I wanted to do it as soon as I read it."
He added: "I had breakfast with David and I think we were on the same wavelength. It was very nice because he wanted me to do it and I got so involved in it that I did twice as many drawings as I was supposed to."
'Part of the culture'
The pair have now worked on five books together, including Walliams' latest book Mr Stink, about a girl who befriends a local tramp and hides him in her garden shed to stop him being driven out of town.
Walliams said of Blake: "His work kind of means children's books somehow, so even if you haven't studied it or don't pay attention to who illustrators are, you know his work.
He added: "I think the magic of his work is that it doesn't tell you exactly what the person looks like, it allows you add your own imagination to it.""It has been copied everywhere so many times that it is now part of the culture."
As well as illustrating books, Blake also does work with hospitals and mental health units, decorating buildings with his sketches.
"It's a different kind of brief, a different kind of audience. A lot of the pictures I do in hospitals are to cheer up gaunt surroundings," he said.
He was also the instigator of the House of Illustration project, which aims to open a museum dedicated to illustration in London by 2014.
However, even the most beloved of artists have their critics and one slight levelled at Blake is the consistently upbeat nature of his drawings.
"There are a lot of smiles about, it's true," he admitted. "People have come up and said 'thank you for your work' - and 'joy' is the word they've used, but I've also been reproached for it, for being too cheerful.
"But if you add a smile, it doesn't make it necessarily joyful."
I ended up colouring my images in, in the same style that Blake has done the three above images. Throughout this project, Blake has been my biggest inspiration as I was completely stuck with what to do with my drawings for ages until I came across his work. And then it was as though everything fell into place. I love his sketchy, scruffy style that is so unique to him.
Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco was my first inspiration for this project. I studied his book, 'The Great War' to get a good understanding of how image and text works well together in a comic book style. His illustrations themselves are beautiful along with, what looks like handwritten text as speech. Everything is very cleverly and carefully positioned and it's brilliant!
Joe Sacco is a Maltese citizen currently residing in Portland, OR where he makes his living as a cartoonist and journalist. Sacco received his bachelor of arts degree in journalism at the University of Oregon in 1981. Two years later he returned to his native Malta, where his first professional cartooning work (a series of romance comics) was published. After relocating back to Portland, he co-edited and co-published the monthly comics newspaper Portland Permanent Press from 1985 to 1986; PPP lasted 15 issues, and included early work by such cartoonists as John Callahan and J.R. Williams. In 1986, Sacco moved to the Los Angeles area, where he worked on staff for Fantagraphics Books, editing the news section for the trade publication The Comics Journal and creating the satirical comic magazine Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy. From 1988 to 1992, Sacco criss-crossed the globe, producing six issues of his own comic book Yahoo for Fantagraphics Books as he traveled. He returned to Malta for a half a year; he spent a couple of months traveling around Europe with a rock band (an experience he recorded in the story “In the Company of Long Hair” for Yahoo #2, since included in his collection Notes from a Defeatist); he lived for close to two years in Berlin, where he drew dozens of record sleeves and posters for German record labels and concert promoters; and, in late 1991 and early 1992, he spent two months in Israel and the occupied territories, traveling and taking notes. When he finally returned again to Portland in mid-1992, it was with the intention of communicating what he had witnessed and heard during his Mid-Eastern jaunt — to combine the techniques of eyewitness reportage with the medium of comics storytelling to explore this complex, emotionally weighted situation. Palestine, the first issue of which was released in January, 1993, was the result. In the years subsequent to the release of Palestine, Sacco has gained widespread praise for the depth of his research, the sensitivity of his handling of a delicate subject, as well as for the craft exhibited in his dynamic, sophisticated layouts and bold narrative. Palestine set new standards for the use of the comic book as a documentary medium, and was the first non-fiction graphic novel to invite serious comparison with Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus. Sacco was a recipient of the prestigious American Book Award in 1996 for Palestine. His first post-Palestine work, the short story "Christmas with Karadzic," appeared in Zero Zero (#15), the leading alternative comics anthology. The story was the subject of a major feature on Sacco in The New York Times in June of 1999, and set the stage for the success of his next major opus, Safe Area Gorazde. (It has since been collected in the book War’s End.) In 1998, Sacco was commissioned by Details magazine's then-comix editor, Art Spiegelman, to cover the Bosnian War Crime Trials in the Hague, Netherlands. His six-page story was hailed as one of the best pieces of journalism in the magazine's history, and the magazine promptly commissioned a second strip from Sacco. The second time around, Sacco was sent on tour with R.L. Burnside, one of the elder statesmen of the great living Mississippi bluesmen (Sacco is a great aficionado of classic American blues). The strip was published in the May 2000 cover-dated issue. In 2000, Sacco finished his first major follow-up to Palestine: a 240-page exploration of a small Muslim enclave in Bosnia called Gorazde (titled Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995) and based upon Sacco's recent travels to the war-torn region. Published in August 2000, the book received the most attention of any of Sacco's books to date, with major coverage from TIME magazine, The New York Times, NPR, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and dozens of other publications. In April of 2001, Sacco received a Guggenheim Fellowship to help pursue his work. In 2003 he followed up Safe Area Gorazde with The Fixer, another work of graphic journalism set in Bosnia. During 2004 he became the staff cartoonist for The Washington Monthly for one year, creating a series of two-page satirico-political strips. 2006 saw the release of But I Like It, a collection of Sacco’s rock and roll and blues oriented strips, from Fantagraphics Books, and in 2007 Fantagraphics collected Palestine for the first time in hardcover in a new "Special Edition" complete with all-new introductory materials. 2011 will see the release of a similar "Special Edition" of Safe Area Gorazde. A 40+ page comics story Sacco did about Chechen refugees in Ingushetia was published in an anthology called I Live Here, a benefit book for Amnesty International, in 2009. Sacco's most recent major work is a book about the southern Gaza Strip — both journalistic and historical — called Footnotes in Gaza, published by Metropolitan Books in early 2010; this book received the 2010 Ridenhour Book Prize in March 2010.
http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/joe-sacco-2.html?vmcchk=1
"Joe Sacco is a genius. Easily one of the most important journalists, writers and cartoonists alive, every stroke of his assured and humblingly mature pen captures what the camera simply cannot. Through his reserved yet compassionate use of words and pictures, he allows us to occupy the horrifying inner and outer boundaries of human cruelty and desperation — yet all, I believe, with the aim of returning to what it means to be a civilized, sympathetic and possibly even forgiving soul." – Chris Ware
"In a world where Photoshop has outed the photograph to be a liar, one can now allow artists to return to their original function — as reporters." – Art Spiegelman
"By combining eyewitness reportage with the political and philosophical perspectives of those he meets, Sacco tells stories in which the experiences, memories, and voices systematically excluded from mainstream news coverage — those pushed aside, to the margins of history — are recuperated." – Lisa Fischman, Curator, University at Buffalo Art Gallery
"Born in Malta, raised and based in Portland, Sacco has become one of the most well-respected comic book artists of his generation, winning all the big grants, and spoken of as a successor to Art Spiegelman. But in many ways Sacco is not a successor to anyone... One can't call him a 'graphic novelist,' because this is real reporting. He is an observer, a witness: He offers no solutions and no relief from the harsh world he is documenting. He is a self-described 'war junkie' who recently traveled to Iraq, much to the dismay of his friends and family. But he came back. His work is so important one hopes he will always be coming back." – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"There's nobody else anywhere near Sacco's level doing journalistic comics in English." – Douglas Wolk
"He is showing you far more than a film or photographs could. It’s just drawing — it’s a superb example of what art can do." – David Hockney
2010 recipient of the Ridenhour Book Prize
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