Riverlife Animated!

A beautiful new piece of animation from local animator Scott Benson produced by Riverlife! Riverlife is a "public-private partnership established in 1999 to guide and advocate for the redevelopment of Pittsburgh’s riverfronts. Riverlife works to reconnect Pittsburgh with its rivers by bringing recreation, ecological restoration and economic opportunity back to our waterfronts." This video is the first installment of several and we think this video really helps bring out the best of this area. It would be awesome if they utilized several local (and non-local) animators in several styles to create the future installments, but I think Scott's work here is an outstanding start!

Tragnark for Rock the Campus!

Here's a sweet new piece from Tragnark, illustrated to promote the Rock the Campus For The Cure event in Dallas, TX on April 16! So digging these character designs!

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Ambulantic's Water Matters

Shot and edited by Ben Hernstrom, head of production company Ambulantic. Checkout more of their rad videos on Ambulantic's YouTube, some of which were featured on BSH before. This video was created as a supplement to the Water Matters! Global Conference that took place this past June, as part of World Environment Day (which is June 5th this year). Also I found interesting is that the music was created in this video by none other than transplanted LA PGH-based artist Andy Kehoe. Awesome work as always!

Joe Wos featured in the Village Voice!

Our very own local ToonSeum curator/founder Joe Wos is featured (briefly) in a brand new article in the Village Voice, mentioned in the same article as Jules Feiffer, Jim Woodring, Tony Millionaire, David Delmar, and Jason Yungbluth! That's some pretty strong company to be mentioned with. The article is interesting in exposing the lives of several cartoonists and how they are able to translate their drawings into cold hard cash, using Joe as a prime example of being able to realize his strong-points and plugging that into the art community while opening one of only three cartoon museums in the United States. From VV:

Joe Wos got comic-strip assignments in school, but was fired from all of them, including one on the college paper he co-founded. "I think I knew then," he says, "that I just wasn't a good fit for the funny pages." So Wos started doing what he calls "performance cartooning."

Read the rest of the article here...

(Illustration at top by Chicago-based Mitch O'Connell for Village Voice!)

Warhol Using Photoshop

Well, not quite. But Warhol did take part in this promotional event by "paint"-ing Debbie Harry on an Amiga in 1985 with one of the earliest forms of a computer program of its kind preceding but likely inspiring Photoshop 1, which premiered just four years later.

Nice Article on Ready Made!

Here is a super cool short-but-sweet article from online magazine ReadyMade that discusses Pittsburgh's "sports fans who also dig art, culture, and chowing on a serious sandwich." Written by NYC-transplant from Pittsburgh Casey Barber, she gives nods to the Andy Warhol, SPACE , and Lawrenceville. From RM:

My Pittsburgh is a city of dive bars and cheap eats, but also a brilliant mix of museums, architecture, sports, and markets punctuating a patchwork quilt of (often hilly) neighborhoods nestled among the dramatic vistas of our famed three rivers and the Allegheny Mountains. Tradition is strong, but upstart ingenuity keeps the city alive. And though I’m an expat currently living near N.Y.C., I’m still stocking my fridge with Iron City beer and acting as a cheerleader for my hometown.

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(Illustration above by Pasadena,CA-based Andrew Holder for ReadyMade!)