The art of political caricature
Election year is open season for cartoonists and illustrators. Ryan Ostrander, who has won first-place awards from Scripps Howard News Service and the Society of Professional Journalists, likes to “render (in acrylic) rather than apply sweeping or painterly strokes.” Recently he’s been working digitally: a mix of scanned textures and hand-drawn elements manipulated and rendered in Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. To see how he works, visit his website at ryanostrander.com. —M.B.
Read It
Extraordinary women artists Prestel Press has just released a lushly illustrated anthology of the works of 50 women artists dating from the Renaissance to the present. Accompanying the glimmering reproductions are a biography and timeline for each artist— information that places each achievement in context. Marina Abramovic, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Camille Claudel, Eva Hesse, Jenny Holzer and Louise Bourgeois are just a handful of the fabulous artists featured in 50 Women Artists You Should Know, edited by Chrisiane Weidemaann, Petra Larass and Melanie Klier (London: Prestel, 2008; www.prestel.com. —Maureen Bloomfield
Of Donkey (at right; acrylic, 4x6), Ostrander says, “I’ve always viewed politicians as players in a strange and unnatural game, sort of like a circus.” “To create George W. Bush (acrylic, 14x10), it took some effort to block out the commonly used exaggerations.”
The Progressive
www.artistsmagazine.com ■ November 2008
The Cincinnati Post
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