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POETRY FOR BEGINNERS

January, 2010, my second fully illustrated book, Poetry For Beginners, will hit the shelves. Written by Margaret Chapman and Kathleen Welton, Poetry For Beginners is an introductory crash-course on the history and mechanics of one of the oldest forms of written language. "From ancient Greece to the present, Poetry For Beginners traces the wonders of the written word and shows how it is relevant in daily life."

For this book, I created 170+ brush, ink and pen drawings as well as a mixed media, digitally painted cover. Treating the book as if it were a writer's or artist's journal many of the illustrations were created without preliminary drawings. Moving straight to the finished drawing from a rough thumbnail was a significant challenge. At first many illustrations were thrown away or had to be re-done. But as the work progressed so to did my mind set. By the end of the project I realized that what I had in my hands was something fresh and unspoiled by heavy handedness. Poetry For Beginners is already garnering praise online and is a book I am particularly proud to be a part of.

"An excitement about poetry comes through on every page of this book... I found myself wishing this book had been around when I was in high school."
-- David Richo, author of Being True to Life: Poetic Paths to Personal Growth (Shambhala, 2009)

Visit your local bookseller or HERE to get your copy.

 

DEMOCRACY FOR BEGINNERS

February, 2009, I will celebrate the publication of my first fully illustrated book, Democracy For Beginners. Published by Steerforth Press and Random House and written by Professor Robert Cavalier of Carnegie Mellon University, Democracy For Beginners is a critical look at the history and mechanics of this grand governmental experiment. Beginning with the rise of Democracy in 5th Century Athens and ending with it's future through the notion of “e-democracy” and the possibility of democratic practice across national boundaries via the internet, Democracy For Beginners traces the evolution of democracy as a political concept and addresses some of its main critics (from Plato to contemporary social choice theory).

I lent my hand to more than 120 individual black and white illustrations, including a full color, digitally painted cover. In hand it's a gorgeous book which makes for an informative and provocative read. Look for it at your local book seller.

The official release date is February 10th, 2009. For those interested in pre-ordering a copy, visit HERE or HERE.

UPDATE: I am currently illustrating my second book in the For Beginners line, Poetry For Beginners. Look for it later this year.

LUCY'S LEGACY

LUCY'S WORLD (detail)
A 78 x 10 foot digital photo-collage mural by Viktor Deak and Reuben Negron
Part of the exhibition Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia, on view at the Houston Museum Of Natural Science, Houston Texas.

This mural, created to accompany the fossil remains of "Lucy" as part of a 6 year touring exhibition about the history and culture of Ethiopia, was created from over 4000 photographic images. Viktor Deak and I traveled to the Badlands of South Dakota, Devil's Tower in Wyoming and El Yunque in Puerto Rico, to find the images capable of representing a 6 million year shift in Ethiopia’s landscape. Models were then photographed and transformed in Photoshop to become our hominid ancestors. With an auxiliary staff of three other artists, the entire process took an intensive 4 months to complete, working at nearly 24 hours a day through it’s entirety. The exhibition opened in August 2007 to great fanfare and controversy.

To learn more about the opening exhibit in Houston, Texas, visit WWW.LUCYEXHIBITION.COM
To learn more about the work of Viktor Deak visit WWW.STUDIOVDEAK.COM

Click HERE to download a hi-res version of the complete mural.