Chris Buzelli at Drawger.com!

The Hanging Game and The Birdwing Butterfly

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:03:38 EDT

I literally felt my throat close while reading this story. Thanks to Irene Gallo and Tor for trusting me with this very powerful and disturbing folktale, The Hanging Game by Helen Marshall. It was exhilarating illustrating a story that was so wonderfully haunting and vivid. I'll definitely be checking out more from this author who created such wonderful atmosphere and characters. The kids in this story play a bit of a game, similar to the fainting game that I stupidly played when I was a kid. However, these kids take it to a whole other level in order to see their future and the ominous bear god/spirit HangJaw! Sometimes a game, even a sacred game, can have far-reaching consequences. In bear country young Skye learns just how far she is willing to go to play the game properly in order carry on the traditions that came before her and will most likely continue long after she is gone.

I'm also in a group show "Kindred" that opens tonight March 14th 6pm - 9pm at Bold Hype Gallery 547 W 27th St. NYC. The show was curated by Nathan Spoor and is full of some fantastic artists. My painting was based on a PBS nature episode called Life on Fire_Ash Runners and the impossible flight of the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing Butterfly. This butterfly is one of the world's rarest butterflies and survives in the shadow of the active volcanoes of Papua New Guinea. Yes, I'm a huge PBS/natural history nerd!

Death and Madness at Diamond Mountain for Playboy

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:54:06 EDT

Here's a piece for a recent article in Playboy magazine called "Death and Madness at Diamond Mountain." This unbelievable true story took place in Arizona's Diamond Mountain Retreat Center where people come to achieve peace of mind through Tibetan teachings, meditation and yoga. Christie McNally became one of the spiritual leaders at the Center. This story follows the rise and fall of Christie where she became obsessed with the dark Hindu mother goddess Kali who is usually depicted holding weapons and decapitated heads. Christie's illicit sexual liaisons and use of weapons led to her banishment from the center that followed by a mysterious death of her closest follower. It's really exciting to get a call from Playboy and get a non-fiction piece where truth is really stranger than fiction. Thanks to AD Justin Page!

Samurai Cherub and Realms

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:19:09 EDT

My painting for the Sundance Film Festival A to Z Book designed by Todd Oldham Studios. This book was made especially for this year's festival and includes 26 illustrators with a cover illustration by Wayne White. Each illustrator was given a letter and various movies, actors and/or directors that began with that letter to interpret in their own way. I was given Q which luckily included one of my favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino, as well as the films Queen of Versailles, and Quinceanera. Queen of Versialles was a really great riches-to-rags documentary. It follows the life of the extremely wealthy Siegel family as they build the largest and most expensive single-family house in the U.S. and the crisis that arrises as the economy crashes. Quinceanera is a film that I saw a few years ago. It was about a Mexican American teen in L.A. dealing with her upcoming Quinceanera (15th birthday) and her hidden pregnancy.

Thanks so much to Todd Oldham and Greg Kozatek (once my former student and now designer at Todd Oldham Studios who currated this project). The book can be purchased at the Sundance Festival Store or at Amazon. •

This painting was for a publication in Italy (AlixPartners). It was about the current fragile conditions of the Italian economy and their small banks. These banks assume that they are kings of their own small realms but will soon need to merge in order to survive. Thank you to AD Syndi Becker. Both of these paintings as well as a selection of my 100 Power Portraits are in the current annual juried exhibit at the Society of Illustrators in NYC. It is a fantastic show and will be up until January 26th. I was so proud to see two of my former students and now illustration superstars, Victo Ngai and JooHee Yoon awarded with Gold medals at the opening!

Face to Face with the Infinite

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:51:20 EDT

Illustrating the iconic cover of Harper's Magazine has been on my wish list for a long time. Back in college I was introduced to the world of editorial illustration by one of my instructors, Russell Jones. He was a fantastic editorial illustrator and his wife Angela Reichers was the Art Director of Harper's. To illustrate the cover seemed so out of my reach. I'm really honored that I was asked by Roger Black to illustrate the cover this month. Face to Face with the Infinite is about Garth Illingworth, an astronomer currently studying one of the most distant galaxies seen so far. This distant galaxy, which is seen as a faint red glow, is about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away from the earth. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. So, when we look at a distant object in space that is 186,000 miles away we are seeing the light it emitted one second earlier. The light we see from distant galaxies, like this one, is from billions of years in the past. I'm baffled by this and I feel the same when I'm looking up into the night sky. •

This month I had another check on my wishlist. I'm featured in this months Communication Arts Advertising Annual 53. Caitlin Dover wrote the 8 page spread about my life's work so far. She did an amazing job and I'm so thankful that I was matched up with her. It's strange to see a story written about yourself. It feels both embarrassing and delightful at the same time. Huge thanks to the editor Rebecca Bedrosian for this highlight in my career.

100 Power Portraits

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:22:31 EDT

I painted 100 portraits of the world's most powerful asset owners for aiCIO magazine. I took on this project initially because of the challenge. The challenge to improve my portrait skills, explore new color palettes and hopefully to find a gestural/loose direction. I worked directly from really poor references for most and had to find ways to fill in the details. At first I was making very detailed underdrawings but thought it took away from the freshness of the direct oil painting. Then after about 30 I felt like I was in trouble because of the deadline and the fact that there were 70 more to go. But the short deadline forced me to make decisions that I was not used to, forced me to experiment and work with my mistakes. After about the 99th portrait, I actually felt that my eye-hand coordination was on automatic drive and my brush was moving effortlessly. Here are 24 of the 100 portraits.

Breaking The China Taboo

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 14:35:11 EDT

Hot off the press as of this Sunday morning! The Washington Post contacted me to work on their Sunday Business section cover about the myths surrounding American busnesses entering the Chinese market. Luckily the title "Breaking the China Taboo" was full of conceptual possibilities. Thanks so much to AD Marianne Seregi for working with me. Sorry for the short post but I'm at the airport and about to board my flight out to Kansas for a lecture SooJin and I are giving at Kansas University on Monday. Below are a few process shots.