Life, the Universe, and Everything

I had the honour of working on this cover image for Queen's Alumni Magazine. Dr. Arthur McDonald was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for his research and discoveries in physics. This assignment combined my love of science with a challenging cover assignment, to explain the unseen, the subatomic, the Neutrino Breakthrough.

I am not a particle theorist, but I know this. Dr. McDonald and his team of researchers built an observatory 2 km deep in a mine shaft in Sudbury. What they discovered enhanced our understanding of physics and what we are made of, energy and the universe around us. The name of the observatory was SNOLAB, filled with heavy water and removed from man-made electric energy fields and interference.

Every second millions of neutrinos pass through us, unhindered and non-reactive, generated from deep within the sun. So then, how can they be observed and quantified?

Here's a very brief synopsis.

1.      Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles coming from the sun.
2.      There are three “flavours” of neutrinos: electrons, muon, and tau.
3.       Neutrinos switch flavours during their oscillation.
4.      Their oscillations prove that neutrinos have mass.

The SNOLAB observatory was able to record the oscillation of neutrinos. During oscillation, energy is released in the form of a photon. Observing this phenomenon established the mass of neutrinos, and enhanced our understanding of the universe in terms of it's overall mass, which affects how we understand where we came from and where we are heading.

The final illustration depicts a logorhythmic chain of images, from the sun to the earth to the SNOLAB sphere to the inner workings of an atom. A window into what we are made of.

Thanks to Andrea Gunn, Dr. Arthur McDonald, and the people at Queen's. Keep up the good work!

 

Home Brew

I've been known to relax with a pint or two after I get the work done. So I am raising a glass to Zymurgy magazine, who hired me for their January edition, an annual best directory of home brewing inventions and innovation. If you are wondering, Zymurgy is defined as the the study or practice of fermentation in brewing, winemaking, or distilling.

Last winter my family bought me a home-brew kit, which required a lot of sterilizing and boiling wort. It was an intense experience and I now can appreciate the guys who do it right. My beer ended up flat and watered down, with the exception of the one bottle I let sit for an extra couple of months. That last pour was tasty and lively, and was encouraging. I have to try it again and do it better next time.

Reading over the content of the article, I was inspired by all the creative thinking, observation, and home-spun solutions to complicated problems, like refrigeration coils, carbonation and dispensers. The brewers involved were concerned with getting the perfect pour, the right chill and obsessing over flavour, hops, alcohol content and colour. Getting the right balance is always important and nice to see others so dedicated to their craft.

Beer and illustration is a natural fit for me. I have done labels in the past, and have another project in the works. I always like doing covers, and the art director Jason Smith was great to work with. I worked with a beautifully photographed glass of beer, something that was a change, but also fit into the final artwork seemlessly.

The colour was adjusted and the title placed over the glass on the final edit of the cover.

Shaking the foundations

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
― Andy Warhol

It's been a season of change. I should have posted more work recently, I worked through a huge pile of assignments and worked with a lot of different clients. On top of that all, I relocated my house and studio (more on that in an upcoming post). I think that change is critical - to keep fresh, to see things in a new light and to generate new ideas. I was in my previous studio for 16 years and I needed to sweep out the clutter and open myself to new possibilities.

Work poured in as soon as I set up. So here's a rundown of some recent work, in no particular order.

 

 Cover art for New Trail magazine (appropriately named since I worked on this cover while on the road), for the University of Alberta. I worked with graphic designer Marcey Andrews to incorporate the text and illustration into the cover and inside spread.

Below is the inside feature.

I spent July and August on the road, travelling across the US and negotiating the move. Here's a tip from a seasoned driver: Don't text and drive! Don't drive distracted. For Road and Track magazine - Adam McGinn, AD.

 

A couple of spot illustrations, for AdWeek (AD Ron Goodman) and Wall Street Journal (AD Daniel Smith)

I also had a bit of time for the usual machinations in the illustration lab. More to come!

In case you are interested:

My new address is 355 Victoria Avenue, Belleville, Ontario, K8N 2E4

My new phone no. is 613-779-1232. Email remains the same, wiens@kos.net

Now, where was I?

Trying to keep it all together this spring, super busy with so many things going on. Here's a peak inside my head and an update on some recent work.

These are illustrations from a recent cover assignment and feature for ProSales. I worked with art director Sarah Bell at Hanley Wood. It's all about getting the right combination of elements together to build leaders. So I ran with the conveyer belt/factory/industrial aesthetic. Fun stuff (for me, anyways!).

Here's another cover assignment, for Golfworld - Timothy Carr, art director. Now that the Masters is on, I thought it would be a good idea to post this golf-related piece. Love to do covers, and in this case, it's technology meeting sport. I added a little extraterrestrial twist as well, because the golfing universe was altered forever by this strange-looking device.

While I am on the topic of strange-looking devices, here's a little 'selfie' to end things. I submitted this to Pictoplasma, and it will be part of the portrait show in Berlin in May. Mecanismos on the move. Love it!

Life on Mars

Growing up I dreamed of being an astronaut. They always send up scientists and engineers. Why not an artist? Someone who could observe and document the experience on a personal level? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been taking a series of amazing photos from the space station, capturing some of the amazing vistas of earth that can only be seen from space. An inspirational document of our planet.

Watching the unmanned rovers poking and probing the surface of Mars looking for signs of life has been amazing. I find the images of snow and ice and from the satellites circling the planet to be beautiful and captivating. When you get down to the surface of the planet, however, it gets very cold and bleak and barren. Imagine waking up on that cold and distant planet every day. So remote and inhospitable. Like the moon with an atmosphere. Could humans survive on Mars? If we go, chances are those who do will never come back. Could you live there for a year, or a decade? Or for several generations?

I loved working on this story, it asked those questions and came up with a lot of surprising answers, and unusual twists. Take the time and see for yourself.

I have had the priviledge of working on several other covers for Tor.com. Irene Gallo is always a treat to work with, these stories always take my work in new directions.