11:17 AM. Where is he now? The famous artist was in the bottom right hand corner of the book cover. I’m curious about the idea of dismantling imagery and definitely interested about changing context. Duchamp got it going for millions.

9:47 AM. From the library. Off-center but on target. Aiming for the reveal, ambiguity and suggestion.

9:43 AM. Looking backwards and forwards in imagery. I’m throwing into the art blender disparate things like the renaissance, kung fu and a target design resulting in an odd mix. The trick is to orchestrate it all into a cohesive visual. Revisiting equals sampling.

2:30 PM. Color and stripes. Someone asked me about colors and how I arrive at certain color schemes. In this case, the original book cover had an overall cool palette with the blue border and blue green background behind the author’s portrait. It was natural to take variations of the original hues and trust that it would work out. More importantly was how far should I go in overtaking the original design and still making the end result readable. That’s why the angle of the stripes had to mimic the tilt of the face and frame Joyce’s mouth creating a subtle emphasis.

6:42 PM. A new generation on top of the old. All gouache on paper. The way I did it was to paint the book cover as closely as possible then I would paint additions on top.