How To Explain It To Your Parents

This video from Dutch designers Lernert & Sander is one of a group of nine conversations where Dutch artists explain their work to their parents.

In this case, Arno Coenen tries to explain the artistic statement behind his beer brewing to his father. It is a clash of subversive ideas vs conformity, passion vs reason and then ultimately degenerates into the intransigence of the familial power structure.

I find it utterly delightful ... laughed out loud in parts, because it reminds me of conversations between my son, Adam, and I so much.

12 minutes with subtitles. Watch it in full screen mode for readability.


How to explain it to my parents - Arno Coenen from Lernert & Sander on Vimeo.

More of the series How to explain my parents from Lernert & Sander can be viewed on Vimeo.

Leslie Nielsen not Drebin for me

No doubt about it. Leslie Nielsen can be thought of as the American Peter Sellers. He earned his place in comedic hierarchy by playing clueless characters in spoofs like Airplane and the Naked Gun series during the latter part of his career.

But I'm sorry. Every time I see a Frank Drebin clip, my subconscious mind won't let it pass without recalling this film. It must have made a big impression on me at an early age. I guess Nielsen will always be Commander John J. Adams of the United Planets Cruiser C-57D for me.

Given Nielsen's obvious dry sense of humor, I'd bet they had a blast on the set while making Forbidden Planet ... especially the way it reeks of 50's-era veiled sexuality.

It's interesting to note that the film seems to have made a big impression on Spielberg as well. This trailer is remarkably similar to the opening titles for Star Wars.

Pilgrims and Indians Cartoon for Thanksgiving Buffet

I did this cartoon for the Royce Hotels in the mid-1980s. It ran in newspaper ads for Thanksgiving day buffet promotions in various hotel restaurants.

The Royce Hotels were a chain of upscale suite hotels run by West Palm Beach, Florida based Servico Corporation. They were mostly located near major airports and geared for the high-end business traveler, but also featured high-energy nightclubs and upscale restaurants that pulled customers from the community at large.

Back in the days of mostly black and white newspaper advertising, grabbing attention and getting traction from an ad could be difficult. I often used humor and a little extra white space to great effect. You can check out more of my designs for Servico Corporation here.

It's A Book - By Lane Smith

For your listening pleasure

Creative people are usually multi-talented. Here's a guy who was a RISD graphic design student when he started a little band.

We suck lizard squeezings

Editorial cartoon animator Mark Fiore's story is the perfect parable of artistic insight and courage. He stopped doing traditional editorial cartoons for the San Jose Mercury News in 2001 in order to present Flash animated cartoons on his own Web site.

Who knew that this could be a path to success? Well, most of us did, but few took the risk.

Just nine years later he became the first cartoonist to receive the Pulitzer prize for a submission that was entirely comprised of animated editorial cartoons.

BWT, our whole lives and all of our fortunes are entirely based on the sucking of lizard juice. Who knew? Well, most of us do. But typically, Mark Fiore was the first to clearly articulate it.

A Rolling Stone gathers no respect

Rolling Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood typically gets no respect from the press or critics when it comes to his visual art. The usual attitude (conceit) is that he doesn't deserve serious consideration because he is looking to trade on his name.

In the case of this recent article about losses in Wood's London art gallery Scream, the reporter asserts that Ronnie has "has developed a new passion for art." Nothing could be further from the truth. Wood was a student at Ealing Art College, considering a career as a theatrical set designer, before music intervened — first with The Faces and then The Rolling Stones.


I had the pleasure of interviewing Wood about his art over the phone in 2006 for an article in ValueRich magazine. His agent warned me that Wood doesn't like it when an interview is supposed to be about his art but all the questions end up being about the band. I assured the him that I'd keep it on course, but he needn't have worried.


Wood couldn't have been a nicer guy over the phone, and we hit it off right away. Halfway through the interview I realized the conversation had ceased to be an interview and was just two artists swapping ideas. He volunteered stories about his early days as a musician on his own. He seemed genuinely reluctant to finish the call when his wife reminded him they were late for a dinner date.


It turned out to be a great story. You can download it to read as a pdf file by clicking this link.