About Me
Paper Dolls Redux
I've always been the sort of guy that's attracted to retro design.
A boomerang ashtray, a magazine cover by Alvin Lustig, a thrift store shirt from the '50's, "Googie" architecture, and vintage motel signs: These and other pop culture artifacts are among the things that I enjoy and that inspire the work I do as an illustrator and graphic designer.
My first year in Manhattan I worked at a restaurant while I was getting my art career up and running, a joint called "The Garden of Eating": ) on the city's tony upper East Side. My fascination with "Paper Dolls" started one night when I was making my way home (at the time 105 and Broadway) after a long shift of waiting tables. There, in front of a gutted store front I spotted a dumpster full of debris, a fairly routine sight in the city, but something in this one stopped me dead in my tracks. A smirking technicolor vixen beckoned from an old paperback cover. As I approached, I saw more paperbacks scattered within the trash. I had to go in and rescue them! The dynamic cover art of these vintage books ( a battered copy of 'Murder- Queen High' and 'Anna Becker' were 2 of them) seduced me and inspired me to collect others. While I never pulled any more out of the trash, my bookcases and storage boxes are now overflowing with paperbacks- I guess I'm hooked.
About Paper Dolls
Paper Dolls celebrates those beautiful, alluring, sexy, ruthless, and sometimes dangerous cover gals of the paperback book known to collectors as "good girl art." All publishing genres, including, science fiction, westerns, juvenile delinquent, sleaze, swamp and mysteries featured these vixens on their covers. Paper Dolls will be an art book exhibiting a wide selection of these steamy and vibrant book covers from the 1930’s through the 1960’s.
Pure Sweet Hell, The Ranch Cat, Kitten with a Whip, Hootenanny Nurse, The Tigress, Coffin for a Cutie, Worlds Within, Dig a Dead Doll, The Lewd Angel, Swamp Bred, Loves of a Girl Wrestler, The Girl with the Hungry Eyes, Dr Passion, Sinful Sisters, Dames are no Dice, The Cheat, Perfect 36, and A Dame Called Murder are just a small sample of these, and the covers are even more provocative than the titles.
Books
Sensacional, Close Cover Before Striking, Motel Fetish, Cuban Style, All American Ads-50's, Uncovered, In the Groove, Hot Countries, Richard Prince: Nurse Paintings, Cine Mexicano, Vixens of Vinyl, and Over My Dead Body
Favorite Flicks
The Postman Always Rings Twice, Run, Lola, Run, Touch of Evil, Mildred Pierce, Scotland PA, Blow-Up, Playtime, L.A. Confidential, Pulp Fiction, Rear Window, The Life Aquatic, Badlands, Lolita, Kill Bill v1&2, Psycho, most Coen brother movies, Withnail and I, Chinatown, Dr Strangelove, Bottlerocket
Music
The Clash, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Raveonettes, Sparklehorse, Beirut, Pavement, Iggy Pop, NIN, Elliott Smith, Gun Club, The Breeders, M.I.A., Radiohead, Iron and Wine, Steve Wynn, Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams, Pixies, New Order, White Stripes ...
Groups include: Imaginary Museum, All Things Retro, Episodes from Ground Zero, The Retro Lounge
Feel free to add your favorite "good girl art" to the Comments section!!
