Hello Mr. President!

Well, of course part of my intention of starting this blog was to shamelessly plug and promote various things I might be selling. More often than not it will be my artwork but in this case it is my Zazzle shop.

Instead of simply giving you all the old “I just posted this, hope you like it, please go buy it.” routine. I thought it would at least be a little more interesting to tell you the story behind the art, the products and the thought that went into them. In this case I will be discussing my U.S. Presidents Collection. Then hopefully you will go buy something!

So, why the Presidents? I mean, on the surface it is a pretty boring subject for most people, especially for kids. So why go there? I say why not? But instead of creating a bunch of crappy products with images of boring, stogy old presidential portrait oil paintings. I thought it would be much more interesting to portray them in a unique and fun way through caricatures wrapped in fun facts. So my goal was to do something completely different yet informative.

 Of course there is a challenge. Presidents like “Bubba” Bill Clinton or George W. Bush are easy, but what about the more obscure ones like…say, Chester A. Arthur, our often forgotten twenty first President? How the hell do you make that guy fun or interesting? Sure, he had some awesome muttonchops but what else? Well the first place to start is research and finding a unique story or factoid about each one that he could tell. For example, who knew that John Adams, our Nation’s second President was the first resident in the White House and got lost for several hours, wandering north of the city trying to find his way there? Maybe he should have used a GPS! Then there is Ulysses S. Grant who fought through some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War but somehow got sick at the site of red meat! There are tons of interesting fun facts about these men that most people don’t know and help to show them in a different light.

By taking these moments or personality quirks and illustrating them in my unique character style I have created what I believe is a fun product line that not only entertains but also educates.

I started out with a collection of eleven of our forty four presidents:

1. George Washington

2. John Adams

3. Thomas Jeffreson

4. James Madison

16. Abraham Lincoln

21. Chester A. Arthur

26. Theodore Roosevelt

33. Harry S. Truman

40. Ronald Reagan

42. Bill Clinton

43 George W. Bush

Each product I have created is custom designed. I take the time to do this because I believe that the end result is always much more effective if the artwork is designed specifically for the product. The unfortunate thing about Zazzle is that too many people post products with little thought and even less creativity and the end result is a web site that is just watered down and filled with this kind of “take one photo and apply the same thing to 100 products instantly mentality”. As any designer or artist it is my job to make the best use of the space I am given. No sense trying to fit a square peg in a round hole if you know what I mean.

 Any item from this collection would make a great gift for an adult or child. Currently available are coffee mugs (complete with 3 fun facts on each), mousepads, campaign buttons, keychains, stickers, postage stamp t-shirts and more coming every day. Here is the link to all these products and more on Zazzle: U.S. Presidents Collection.

 I have all forty four Presidents sketched out and ready to go. In the end, my hope is to complete the collection, but I feel I can only justify that time if there is a demand for it. If you like the collection please let me know by commenting here or on my Zazzle page. Please share the info on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or anywhere else you can help to spread the word of what I think is a great collection