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Sounds & The City

Joe Rocco's satellite repairman
ART TODAY 08.30.17: Joe Rocco’s whimsical style is “a cross between Rankin-Bass, the Muppet Show and Eastern European Children’s animation”

ART TODAY 08.30.17: Joe Rocco’s whimsical style is “a cross between Rankin-Bass, the Muppet Show and Eastern European Children’s animation”

Best advice received: I’m rather fond of the expression “Under-Promise but Over-Deliver” (a former boss of mine said) when it comes to the work I do for any client. I like the idea of not making too ambitious a promise about the work I will do, but then going that extra mile so the client feels that I went far beyond their expectations.

The Debt Ceiling by Joe Rocco
ART TODAY 08.29.17: Joe Rocco “When working on comics I have to say that politics lately fire me up”

ART TODAY 08.29.17: Joe Rocco “When working on comics I have to say that politics lately fire me up”

I’m excited when I get an assignment from an art director to solve their problems visually with my style, talent and choices. It’s challenging, and an illustration could go South so easily if I make poor choices so the challenge is in coming up with a strong concept and executing it with skill, craft and as much panache as I can afford.

Adam Mars, artist
ART TODAY 08.26.17: Thank you Adam Mars for sharing and reflecting our evolving culture with art and humor

ART TODAY 08.26.17: Thank you Adam Mars for sharing and reflecting our evolving culture with art and humor

In 2016 and 2014, Adam designed billboards for LAXART's LA Public Domain Project, which were displayed on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood and La Cienega Blvd. in Culver City. He has also created site-specific works for the Museum of Broken Relationships in Los Angeles and the LA Art Fair.

ART TODAY 07.07.17: Steve Martin from the Jerk poster by Chris Bonno

ART TODAY 07.07.17: Steve Martin from the Jerk poster by Chris Bonno

This is a recent piece I did of Steve Martin from the poster for the Jerk, for an old friend. It is a perfect example of the extreme jump from one form of painting to another. On the one hand, the end goal of a detailed likeness (and doing a good job of it) to the freedom of creating shapes and using color without that particular pressure, just the joy of it AND the goal to do a good job of it (still considering the formal issues of the aesthetics of abstracts from what little I know of art history). I'm still informally a student of it.

Chris Bonno and Lucy
CHRIS BONNO: ARTIST OF WHIMSY

CHRIS BONNO: ARTIST OF WHIMSY

Playing with shapes and colors, Bonno chuckles when he explains that he loves the “f...k it factor.” Basically, that means going mad in his own world and giving himself permission to be loose. That freeing spirit is found in all of Bonno’s work. “I don’t leave a painting until I believe in it” he says, “until it impresses me.”

When I asked Bonno what advice he would give for aspiring artists, without flinching he stated, “Get out of your own way!” He feels that everyone has their own, private and personal relationship with art and it shouldn’t be marred by the critical voices in our head.