WWII Posters played an important roll during WWII, helping mobilize the nation. Inexpensive, accessible and ever-present, the poster was an ideal agent for making war aims the personal mission of every citizen. Government agencies, businesses and private organizations issued an array of poster images linking the military front with the home front—calling upon every American to boost production at work and at home.

Deriving their appearance from the fine and commercial arts, posters conveyed more than simple slogans. They expressed the needs and goals of the people who created them. I was just a kid then, but I remember seeing many of them, still hanging in garages and plants long after the war ended. They represented a way of life, a collective spirit to do what was necessary to win the war and bring our boys home.

Cousin Mike emailed a collection of such posters to me the other day and I thought I’d share some of them over the next few weeks. I wonder how we’d respond today if asked to make such a commitment to the war effort. (Click to enlarge)

Above: The Treasury Department financed the war through the sale of bonds and stamps to the public. War bond posters called upon all citizens to share in “ownership” of the war.

To be continued…

Got this from Denny who says, “They look fake to me.”

As promised, here are the winners in our 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Hand Turkey Drawing Contest. Extra points were awarded for little kids’ entries, but there were a few “big kids” who received Honorable Mentions as well. Thanks to everyone that participated! Winners receive a coveted 1-year free subscription to Inessential Musings and the admiration of their parents and friends! Whoo Hoo!

Grand Prize goes to Janet (4) for this wonderful Thanksgiving scene:

First, Second and Third Places go to…

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It’s time for out 2nd Annual Hand Turkey Drawing Contest. I know, the 1st Annual got off to a late start, but we’re starting a little earlier this year. Draw a hand turkey, scan it and email it to me (see “Contact” in Navigation Bar at right) and I’ll post the “winners”. The usual valuable prizes will be awarded! Kids’ efforts get extra points and the deadline is midnight Thursday.

For those of you who’ve forgotten how to draw a hand turkey, here’s an animated GIF from my old website to help jog your memories:

Have you ever wondered what becomes of old phones when they’re replaced by newer technology? Sure, most end up in the proverbial scrap heap and become land fill. But some, perhaps the lucky ones, are given a new lease on life…

When client Delena emailed some of these photos to our office last week, I thought, “Grazing sheep made of old rotary telephones, how novel!” Then I wondered who, when, where…why? Well, I gathered a little information. But first, meet the rest of the herd…

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Literally.

“Sometimes they catch me, sometimes they don’t,” says the 28-year old performance artist who approaches strangers on the spot — usually a bar — and literally hurls her body at them. Hilarious and poignant, the resulting photographs make you wish you had been there to see what happened after the shutter release.

A tour of her web site includes several such “moments” along with video montages of her hugging strangers or protecting a chalk drawn box on a busy city sidewalk from passersby who might otherwise step inside. It’s an unusual art form in which McElroy is expressing herself… and making people laugh.

The Laguna Beach artist who created California’s iconic whale-tail license plate is making a splash with state coastal officials, revoking the state’s right to use his art after they snubbed his request to share profits from the image with his environmental group.

Wyland, the marine muralist whose paintings of ocean life envelop buildings around the world, let the state use his hazy blue image of a whale’s flukes for environmentally themed license plates fourteen years ago in what state officials describe as a “handshake deal.” But Wyland says he allowed the use of his image for environmental causes for a period of time and that the time is up unless an agreement can be reached.

California earns about $3.77 million a year from the plates, but the Coastal Commission receives only a third of the funds: about $15 for each new plate sold; roughly $1.4 million a year. The rest goes to other state environmental programs. According to Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas, Wyland gave his image to the state unconditionally. Not so, says Wyland. Read the full story

Personally, I think Wyland may have erred in not getting something in writing at the onset and then waiting fourteen years to press the issue. What’s likely to happen? IMO, Wyland will either take the offer the Commission claims to have offered, or we’ll soon see a different whale tail on our license plates.

This is kind of fun and will give you something to do over the long weekend. Upload an image (faces work best) and the application on this site converts it to ASCII letters or squares, b&w or color. Here’s one of Dawn…

Pulpbard is an open project on wikispaces I know at least a couple of you won’t be able to resist. Of course, if you haven’t seen the film classic Pulp Fiction, none of what follows will make any sense to you…

“Welcome to the Pulp Shakespeare Project, devoted to the reconstruction of William Shakespeare’s play A Slurry Tale, which curiously resembles Quentin Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction. There is no way to stop this from happening, so this wiki exists to ensure that it is done well, or as well as it can be.”

Forsooth, two memorable scenes originating, as near as I can tell, on Kevin Pease’s LiveJournal, written as the Bard himself might have written them (were he the screenwriter which, of course, he wasn’t, but I’m just sayin’…):

ACT I SCENE 2. A road, morning. Enter JULES and VINCENT, murderers.

Vincent:  And know’st thou what the French name cottage pie?
Julius:     Say they not cottage pie, in their own tongue?
Vincent:  But nay, their tongues, for speech and taste alike
                 Are strange to ours, with their own history:
                 Gaul knoweth not a cottage from a house.
Julius:     What say they then, pray?
Vincent:  Hachis Parmentier.
Julius:     Hachis Parmentier! What name they cream?
Vincent:  Cream is but cream, only they say la crème.
Julius:     What do they name black pudding?
Vincent:  I know not;
                 I visited no inn where’t could be bought.

ACT 1 SCENE 8.2. Your pardon; did I break thy concentration?

Mike sent this collection of 22 origami using U.S. currency. A fascinating and increasingly popular art form that’s also a creative way to save money! Our friend, Dave, does this for a hobby.

Click on a thumbnail below to view all 22.

A physicist with more than 40 patents to his credit would seem to have his career clearly mapped out. But Robert J. Lang’s first love is…folding paper. One of the world’s foremost artists in origami—Japanese paper folding—Lang creates creatures of such realism and complexity that it seems impossible that each is composed of a single sheet of paper, no cuts, no glue.

Inspecting Lang’s eight-inch-tall ibex, for instance, you can see its beard, ears, horns, even its cloven hooves. His grizzly bear has teeth. His insects—Lang’s favorites—have fat bodies, twiggy legs, antennae, sometimes even spread wings.

And some of Lang’s origami creations are life size, like his eight-piece orchestra commissioned by a European paper company, or the Pteranodon with a 14-foot wing span created from a single, four-meter-square piece of paper. It flies on permanent display at the Redpath Museum of Natural History in Montreal, Canada.

Perhaps Lang’s most elaborate commercial origami assignment was creating an entire landscape for a Mitsubishi commercial. He, colleague Linda Tomoko Mihara, and a small team of model-makers folded mountains, clouds, wheat, several hundred trees—lacy trees so people could peer through the branches—tree bark, cobblestones, eight-foot-tall skyscrapers, Victorian homes, simple and complex leaves, several dogs, a deer, perching birds, flying birds and a dragon.

“In just the last 50 years, we’ve seen the number of published origami design grow from about 100 to more than 36,000, says Lang. “And in origami, we’re nowhere near the limits of what’s possible…”

Got this from one of our clients…

A thief in Paris decided to steal some paintings from the Louvre. After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings and made it safely to his van. However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas. When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, “Monsieur, zat is ze reason I stole ze paintings!

I had no Monet

to buy Degas

 
to make ze Van Gogh.

 
See if you have De Gaulle to send this on to someone else.

 
I sent it to you because I figured I had nothingToulouse.

 
Thanks Jim!

Jennifer Maestre is a self-taught artist, at least in her current medium of choice - pencil sculptures. She has also produced works in beads, nails and pins, but it was her works made entirely of sharpened pencils that first caught my attention and made me want to share her work here.

Her pencil sculptures are made by drilling holes in one inch long sections of pencils and sewing them together using a sculptural beading technique called “peyote stitch”. Take a walk through her site. I think you’ll find the work unique if not inspiring.

I’m always fascinated and often amazed by sandcastles. Not the kind we all built as children - primitive creations made at the beach with wet sand, a bucket and maybe a Dixie cup - but those produced by what I’ll call “professional” sand castle builders. They sometimes create their works of art at the California State Fair but are more often spotted drawing a crowd along popular beaches.

I happened across this image the other day of a comparatively modest but very romantic sand castle built as a marriage proposal to “Sarah”. I couldn’t help wondering if she answered “yes” (how could she not?) and so I did some ‘net surfing to try and find out. Sadly, I didn’t find an answer about Sarah, but I did learn that sandcastle proposals are a staple in many castle builders’ portfolios. Who was first? I wonder…but I digress.

In the process, I came across a really nice collection of notable sand castles at Travelburner. Surprisingly, it includes the wedding proposal (There are still romantics in the world!) along with nine others. Check them out. Like I said… I’m often amazed!

By the way, if you’re “Sarah” (or know her), I’d love to hear your “story”…

Click on the linked image and move your mouse across the face to choose backgrounds…

James Koehnline is a Seattle, Washington based freelance illustrator/designer specializing in book and magazine cover art and text illustration, as well as posters, t-shirts, mousepads, postcards, notecards, bookmarks, signage and advertising art. You can see more of his work on his home site.