Vanessa Davis's Blog

Happy Holidays! My dad, Gerald Davis, was this really great photojournalist, capturing strange and important events on film in a career spanning four decades. He died in 1997 and his slides and pictures have all just been languishing in my mom's house in Florida. This past year, though, designer Todd Oldham edited together a big, beautiful monograph of his work, and it's just been published by Ammo Books. It's called STRANGE STORIES: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF GERALD DAVIS, but you'll recognize it in the bookstore or online when you see this picture:

Today I spilled a diet soda all over literally every single page of every portfolio of original art that I keep, super professionally and securely, on the floor under my desk, open-side up so as to receive all of the possible diet soda that might fortuitously be spilled down there. Luckily, nothing was (too) ruined, but the entire hour I spent wiping down every page of every portfolio took me on a lovely stroll down memory lane of comics published but perhaps not widely seen. Long story short, here's a comic I drew when I first moved to Los Angeles a couple of years ago for Arthur Magazine.

If it seems like there hasn't been much "news"--it's because I am working! Bzz bzz. Nothing to show you yet but look, I can't always show you everything I'm doing, as much as I'd love to.

Oh, you're at the beach? Well, Mimi Pond and I are getting ready for the ICON Illustration Conference in Portland, Oregon, next week! We're emceeing it. Gulp!

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My friends taught me about the Offset filter in Photoshop! The world is just a series of locks, and friends provide keys. So now I don't have to make these jacked-up patterns anymore. Only functional ones. Now I just need a series of breakfast nooks to wallpaper.

I was honored to be invited to New York City (in the middle of February) to conduct a gallery talk at the incredible "Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix: A Retrospective" at The Jewish Museum.

Hi, have you heard? Art Spiegelman is incredible. I was terrified to talk about such a major figure in comics, art, and literature, but it was really fun and there's so much to discuss. 

Brilliant Tahneer Oksman even wrote up the event for the Jewish Book Council! Kvelling. 

The rest of my trip to New York was spent rolling around at my family's house, being sick with the worst cold I have had in years! Sorry, beloved family. It was actually pretty fun (for me). 

Now I'm back in L.A. I am still determined to make patterns happen. Even if I can't line them up for the life of me.

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I drew this poster for Sequential Artists Workshop 2014 fundraiser. $25 for a big (11x17) risograph poster; all proceeds benefit the coolest school in Gainesville, Fla.! Check out all their rewards here.