The New York Times

Picking up the phone really does work.

I secured a phone list of every New York Times art director and cold called Book Review AD Nicholas Blechman while I was visiting New York from Portland. He was kind enough to meet with me and look at my portfolio, and two days later he called me with my first of several illustration assignments.

Another cold call to AD Paul Jean landed a piece of mine depicting Evita crushing the fingers of Willie Loman on the cover of the Arts & Leisure section.

My illustration for the review of David Peace’s Occupied City was later licensed for use as the cover to the Greek language edition of the book. And my illustration for the Helen DeWitt’s Lightning Rods won recognition from American Illustration.

I still can’t believe I’ve done work for the New York Times.

A million thanks to those two gentlemen for taking my calls and deciding I belonged in those pages.

Role: Illustrator
Agency: Casey Burns Creative