Hello sun!

Made this today. It's been sunshine-y lately and so I got inspired. Hello, sun. I want more of you, please.

Thinking about selling this as a print on my Etsy. What say you, dear peoples?

Philosophy & Good Design at the Thrift Store

Thrift stores are a funny thing. Each time I walk into one, I'm both appalled and exhilarated. Appalled by the excessive junk that we dispose of on a daily basis, and exhilarated by the potential of finding something overlooked and forgotten. The exhilaration of possibility is what drives me. Wednesday, I walked into a thrift store that we haven't visited for quite some time and I stumbled upon some wonderfully forgotten paperbacks on philosophy and theory. Forgotten textbooks, discarded after a yard sale, perhaps. I wasn't actually seeking out these particular books, but the covers were what piqued my interest. Nice, simple graphic covers, with bold colors and text. I guess you could say on a philosophical level that I didn't find these books, but rather they found me. How profound.


The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner. No mention of cover designer. Simon & Schuster, ©1953, 1961.


Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science by Werner Heisenberg. Cover design by Guy Fleming. Harper & Row, NY. ©1958, this edition 1962.

This last one isn't on philosophy, but was found in the same section:


The Enduring Art of Japan by Langdon Warner. Cover design by Roy Kuhlman. Grove Press, NY. ©1952.

Not sure what was erased in that upper right-hand section—original price, perhaps? Instead of photoshopping it out, I decided to leave it be.

Wednesday Ephemera

Funny how time flies. Didn't even realize that it's been about two weeks since I've last posted something. First off, I'm happy to say that both Pasha and Diana received their Ward-O-Matic Etsy prints. We tracked down Diana after a couple of days of searching. I'm happy that they both seemed happy to receive the prints. It's a great thrill to know that your work is hanging on the walls of complete strangers' homes. I guess it's an aspect of being an artist to have your work shown and presented in a manner that's out there, and not laying around in your basement or buried deep within the confines of your hard drive. Enjoy your prints, Pasha and Diana! I had a lot of fun making them!

Okay, now onto some serious vintage ephemera. I have to come clean here: I've been holding out on you all, so to make it up to you, here's a bunch of old stuff from my collection (Click on each to view Flickr page):

Let's start of with a cool book cover for The Plague And I, by Betty MacDonald, who also wrote The Egg And I. Published in 1948. No mention of illustrator:



Next, Damascus Cook Book cover, illustrated by "Butte":



No mention of date, but probably late 40's to 50's. Inside, there are some sweet two-color illustrations:







Next: Gordon's Vodka booklet cover (probably late 50's to early 60's) illustrated by Kelly Oechsli. Kelly gets instant street cred for illustrating Muppet and Fraggle Rock books for kids later on:



More nice illos by Mr. Oechsli inside:



I love this wraparound illustration for this Carnation Easy-Does-It Cook Book. Great characters, great color:



Inside, there are tons of wonderful ink illos. Here's but a small sample:



More wraparound goodness on this Creative Cookery brochure from Swift's Premium. Again, no mention of artist:



Of course, it's much better to see it larger.

Fire Safety Suggestions brochure from the 50's:



This is a fun one from 1958. Fire Chief Hook'n'ladder fire prevention pamphlet illustrated and designed by the incredibly talented Albert Aquino:



This pamphlet opens up in the middle. Notice that you can see the slight dark silhouettes of the Fire Chief in the house, pointing to areas where a fire could start in each room. Actually, that's what they want you to see when you hold the pamphlet up to the light. Man, I love that lettering:



Here's the back to the pamphlet, with all the Fire Chief silhouettes in the house. Problem is, the white emblem on his cap makes it look like his eye, and the bill of the cap looks like his nose (in the silhouettes):



Last, but not least, we have Mothers At Work, a pamphlet on, well, mothers at work. Around the house. 1960's. Part of the MetLife Insurance pamphlet series. Oh, yeah. No mention of artist:











I have two others from this series. Some day I'll get the entire set. (Like I have the time.) The other two:



There. How's that for a bunch of old, musty ephemera for this fine Wednesday! Enjoy.

And the winners are...

Ava chose #15: Diana
Ezra chose #252: Pasha

I don't have Diana's contact info, so Commenter #15 Diana, if you're out there, please get in touch with me. You won!

Pasha, I do have your email, so expect an email from me later on today.

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners! And a BIG THANK YOU for everyone else coming out and participating in my first ever Etsy Giveaway! I think it's safe to say that I'll definitely be doing this again. It was a lot of fun for me. Hope it was the same for you.


If you liked what you saw in my Etsy shop, don't be afraid to stop by again.

New B-Boy Prints! And a Giveaway!

I'm happy to announce 7 new prints available in The Ward-O-Matic Shop on Etsy! And what's even better is the fact that all seven are from my b-boy series!




Yes! So here's the kicker: I want to celebrate this wonderous event by offering a giveaway to TWO lucky winners. To enter, leave a comment on this post by 11:59 midnight PST on Wednesday, April 1st. (This is serious - no joke!) I'll put all the numbers into my newsboy hat and have each of my kiddos pick out one number. The winners will be announced on Friday, April 3rd. Winners get a print of their choosing from my Etsy shop (with a few extra goodies).

Good luck!






B-Boy Series: Etsy
The Ward-O-Matic Shop

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED. Thank you for participating in my very first Etsy Giveaway. I'm completely overwhelmed by the tremendous response! Don't forget to check back on Friday when I announce the two winners!

Kidd's Toy Museum

Behind the bland blue door of a warehouse in SE Portland, is perhaps one of the largest private toy collections out there. I took the kids recently (in February) to check out hundreds of toys dating mostly from the 1860's to the 1930's. Although, I saw some stuff from later years, as well. The lady behind the messy desk there told me that there's even more to the collection, but is currently in various warehouses. They simply don't have the money or space to have the entire Kidd's toy collection available to the public. But what is available to view is quite impressive.

A fascinating place. And better yet, it's free!

Oh, and I have to say this: visiting the museum offered the opportunity for me to talk to Ava about racism. Hadn't planned on it, but hey, no time like the present.


No frills: the museum's hours taped up on the door. Love the "by appointment or chance" line.


Everything's behind glass cases, so it's safe for the little ones to check out the toys. Just don't bump into them, of course.


A half-awake Ezra sits next to a case filled with various Disney-related toys.


A Mickey pull-toy from the 30's.


We Three Mickeys: Interesting to see the different ways Mickey was depicted back then.


Felix is a great character that pre-dates Mickey. While taking this shot, I noticed the rabbit in the background: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Disney's first cartoon character.


Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: Disney's first cartoon character, co-created by Walt and Ub Iwerks. I couldn't get any closer without blurry shots, but underneath Oswald's name, "Universal" is mentioned. That's Ferdinand The Bull from the Disney short film of the same name (1938).


Umm....not sure what to make of this. Kinda creeps me out. It's chalkware, that's for sure.


The place had tons of coin banks. TONS of 'em. Here's a few of the smaller ones.


Toy motorcycles. Check out Popeye in the middle there.


My Dad owned one of those orange metal cab cars on the lower shelf there. I think he still has it at home. Came from his dad when he was a kid.


Odd assortment of porcelain (I think) heads. Anyone know what these are for?


Various oddities. Your guess is as good as mine.


Old pulp comics. I remember my grandparents having one or two of these around for the kids.


Ezra trying out a coin bank at the entry. Never could get the thing to work right. Ezra, of course, got mad.

A WORD TO THE WISE:
Since this is a historical collection of toys throughout the decades, mostly pre-1940's, there are several cases that have very un-PC depictions of African-Americans, mostly coin banks in blackface. These depictions are ugly to see, yet important not to forget. I've chosen not to show any photos of these items mainly because I don't feel that it's up to me to do so. I wasn't aware of the items when we visited the museum, but upon seeing the cases, I figured that I couldn't just hide them from Ava. (Ezra was asleep in my arms at the time.) I decided to sit down with her before we entered the room and talk to her about what she was about to see: about the past and how certain races of people were depicted back then. It was wrong then, as it is wrong now, but I told her that it's important to see these items and talk openly about who we are as a human race. I wanted her to see it for what it was: something ugly from our past and hopefully we've learned from it. To see blacks shown as lesser human beings on children's toys to having an African-American in charge of one of the most powerful countries on earth shows that we've definitely made some progress. But, I told her, it doesn't mean that others still won't make fun of and have hatred toward other races. And that is wrong.

Ava listened intently. "Why did they make them look like that? It looks ugly."

"I know," I sighed. "I guess that was their point back then."

So, if you want some racial education to go along with your children's entertainment one fine day in Portland, then Kidd's Toy Museum is for you.

Some more photos can be found in my Kidd's Toy Museum Flickr set.

Ward Jenkins dot com

The site has been updated and now you can check out my illustration work, animated commercials, paintings, graffiti, and short films all under one roof FINALLY.

It's weird to see it all together in one place now, especially my two short films, figure drawing and noir. figure drawing has never been seen outside of a few screenings 10 years ago, so yeah, this is like airing out my dirty laundry.

I'll be sure to talk more about those two films here on the blog soon. I promise.

In the meantime, enjoy the site and tell me what you think.