Zina Saunders - New York Artist

(Bill Gurstelle is guest blogging here on Boing Boing. He is the author of books including Backyard Ballistics, and the recently-published Absinthe and Flamethrowers)

I had a chance to converse with artist Zina Saunders at the GEL 2009 conference in New York City last month. (GEL stands for Good Experience Live, which is something like an East Coast mini-TED conference. Basically, the organizer, Mark Hurst, invites schedules a day of 20-minute talks given by interesting people with unusual experience. Each presenter speaks about what makes up good experience.)

Saunders does a lot of work for the magazines and newspapers,(the political stuff is wickedly funny depending on your outlook) but she may be best known for her delightful collection of New York City slice-of-life portraits called Overlooked New York. It's a huge and creatively rendered look at New Yorkers do interesting things below the radar. They raise pigeons on the rooftops of their flats and long distance swim in the East River. If you visit the site, be sure to check out the story of the Puerto Rican Bike Men.

http://www.overlookednewyork.com

Also as it turns out, both Zina and I find the fire plugs and sprinkler connections on New York City sidewalks unexpectedly interesting. They reflect, albeit imperfectly, the neighborhood in which they reside. The ones on the upper west side are all shiny and new, while the ones in the grittier parts of town are beaten up and covered with unfriendly looking spikes.

http://www.drawger.com/zinasaunders/

• [minmax]

  There is a quite an array of characters in Saunders’s series. I live in NYC and the appeal is not in the tourbook sights, but in the richness of ordinary life. I’ve never seen any express this so well in either words or pictures, much less both. If I were coming here for a vacation, I think I’d study this series.

• [Anonymous]

  I went to the Brooklyn City Reliquary’s Bike Fetish event this year, which always has a huge turnout from the “Puerto Rican Bike Men” and their awesome chopper bicycles. They have some great photographs of these characters on their website from past years:

  http://cityreliquary.com/events/archives/000099.shtml#000099

• [Keeper of the Lantern]

  I doubt they’re just raising the pigeons: In many parts of the city they’ll be flying them.

  Pigeon flying in NYC (most particularly in Brooklyn) involves causing the pigeon flocks in big swooping circles and then colliding that flock with another flock in an attempt to grab pigeons away from the other pigeon flyer, most likely across the street.

  If you drive down the elevated parts of the BQE, you can often see the big swoops of pigeons flying in circles. If you look down below, you’ll see the fly-er with a flag or painted stick or directing the pigeons.

• [thequickbrownfox]

  Some very skillful tonal realism there, this is her M.O.

  http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/09/page/2/

  Addendum: in response to being asked about her medium and approach, Zina replied:

  I’ve been changing and developing my approach for a while, but I guess it would be best described as “mixed media”. I sketch in pencil, and sometimes paint some of it traditionally and then scan and paint digitally on top of that. Sometimes I do all the painting digitally.

  Each painting is different, but that’s the gist of it.

• [Anonymous]

  From her website:

  Zina is the daughter of pulp magazine artist Norman Saunders, who painted some of the most popular bubblegum cards from the 60′s and 70′s, including Mars Attacks, Batman, and Wacky Packages.

  He’s one of my favs.

• [bklynchris]

  Wow, these are stunningly beautiful.. Thank you.

• [bklynchris]

  Yeah, I too wondered about whether this was the method as well, kind of like that movie from whats his name, and just used in a spoof on the daily show last night.

  We have a pigeon coop neighbor, Its cool to see them swooping around in circles, but did not know they “steal” from each other. Huh, thanks KOTL.

• [druranium]

  Her book of art “The Party’s Over” recapping the 2008 election was good stuff: Palin doing cheerleader kick at the debate podium while biden looks on was so good to see

  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/407054

• [TroofSeeker]

  I adore the wobbly, cartoony style. It tickles.
  It makes my heart blossom with glee. Kind of a girlie thing to say, I know, but I don’t care- it’s true, and it’s magic how blobs of paint can make one’s heart jump, for joy, for sorrow, for fear, for tranquility. Tell me it ain’t magic.
  And thank you, Zina. That tickles!

• [Beanolini]

  Are these drawn from photos? They have that quality about them.

  This is something that intrigues me- I find that many people will have a clear opinion as to whether a piece was drawn from life, or from a photo; but it’s very hard to explain why.