I'm moving!

If we've been keeping up through this blog please come check out my new one at www.dougchayka.com. I'll be phasing out of Blogger and transferring some of these old posts to the new blog. Visit me there and subscribe to my RSS! I hope you enjoy my new website.

My Monster, My Self

New illo in The Nation for an article titled "My Monster, My Self". Gary Greenberg writes: With our tiny screens and cellphones, we have become prosthetic gods, the whole world in our handhelds. Are we not also monsters?
I was thinking of the scene in Karloff's Frankenstein, where Frank has an emotional, introspective moment while admiring a flower given to him by a girl (who he then accidentally kills). Here, Frank skips the introspection and checks his email instead.

Fiction

New portraits of Juan José Saer and Joanna Ruocco for fiction reviews in The Nation.

Human Trafficking

New work for Teaching Tolerance Magazine, a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The article is aimed at helping teachers raise awareness about human trafficking as a contemporary problem as well as its shape in the past. My idea was to use the opening illo to show a diverse group in a boat, rowing together, and use the second illo to show the kind of work that might be forced upon them. My aim was to suggest different time periods by changing the texture and treatment of each element. Great art direction by Valerie Downes.

South Carolina Broadcasters CD

Cover art and design for "A Thousand Miles Away From Home", the new CD by the South Carolina Broadcasters. This new project and their previous self-titled CD are absolute must-have's for lovers of Old-Time, Bluegrass and Country. Their music is straight ahead and driving, powerfully rhythmic, with beautifully sung harmonies by Ivy Sheppard (fiddle), David Sheppard (guitar), and Grace Kennedy (banjo). I'm thrilled to have been asked to contribute to this project with my art.
Look for the CD at the end of January/early February 2011, more info about the band here.