Mickey Ross

I had never heard of this artist prior to picking up this hefty (4-pound) sealed book, at Tuesday Morning of all places. The front cover image of a cupcake-esque ship is mediocre, but the smaller ones making up the back cover blew me away. Being an artist myself, and an extremely competitive person in general, I G--gled his name and found even more breathtaking illustrations, almost all a deft blend of elegant sensuality, aesthetically-pleasing typography, and visual puns. The overall effect is a dreamlike, retro-futuristic utopia in which it's always Saturday and the sun is always shining. Within under a minute, he was vying for the top spot on my all-time favorite artists list, with the likes of René Magritte, Saul Bass, Salvador Dalí and Wassily Kandinsky. Yes, he's that good. How he's not a household name is beyond me. Look up his Monte Carlo Country Club tennis poster (featuring a huge agave plant to connote arid warmth), and his portrait of Duke Ellington high above New York City, for two great examples.… (plus d'informations)