Or is that Desert Terror? I didn’t know what a terroir was either, until I illustrated this book of food history and stories by Gary Paul Nabhan last winter. Desert Terroir will be published by The University of Texas Press in 2012. Terroir, of course, comes from the French word terre, meaning “land,” and refers … Read More
Do you have questions about bats? If not, you will after reading this new book by Rose Hauk, published by Western National Parks Association, illustrated by Paul Mirocha. Basic bat anatomy: so you know how to ask a good question. I have made a lot of scientific illustrations and I’m always looking for … Read More
Click image to enlarge Drucker labs use a lot of high-tech science to produce their organic nutritional supplements. But laboratory glassware is just not appealing to the customer thinking about what’s for dinner. They had the science down, now for the organic part. To begin the redesign of their branding, Drucker started with the … Read More
Singing Down Roots: Plant Folklore of the Sonoran Desertis a set of limited edition broadsides originally commissioned by the Arizona Humanities Council as part of a traveling exhibit on desert plants as characters in oral traditions of Southwestern Indian Tribes. Originally published in 1991, there are but a handful of these posters left.All are 22 … Read More
© Paul Mirocha This turmeric plant illustration is apparently so attractive that people regularly steal it and I have to write them about usage rights, etc. There is good reason for the popularity of this plant. It’s beautiful and delicious. Turmeric, a relative of the ginger plant, is the basic ingredient to curry sauce and gives it … Read More
Sabores Sin Fronteras/Flavors without Borders is a series of bilingual, multi-cultural events, sponsored by the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson. It’s aim is to educate and celebrate local foods of the Southwest, unimpeded by local political issues and surveyors markers. Even US border patrol agents can’t resist a good carne asada … Read More
This is more of a personal note, but it’s what I’ve been working on recently. On May 5, my son, Leonardo was born. Four days later my wife, Christina Robinson, while still in the hospital, had a serious hemorrhagic stroke that sent her into the ICU for 10 days. It was in her right brain, … Read More
POLINATORS are beautiful, cool, and important to all life on Earth–and now they are stressed out. Even if you don’t know exactly what a pollinator is, you need this poster. Pollinators are IN for interior decor. The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and Co-evolution Institute have been using my Pollinators painting in their campaign to raise awareness among humans about these … Read More
Any school kid can identify a monarch butterfly, even if they didn’t pay attention in biology class. They are part of normal life. The more adventurous grade-school kids have even caught, banded, and released these butterflies so scientists can track and understand their amazing migration pattern. Common as milkweeds, we all notice them, and take … Read More
Exhibit panel for the new Tuzigoot National Monument visitors Center. Last year I received a commission from the National Park Service to create an introduction panel to the new redesign of the Tuzigoot National Monument visitor’s center in northern Arizona. The exhibit panels may be in place by the end of this summer. The theme … Read More
A symbolic Zia New Mexico garden (click to enlarge) There is no mistaking this garden for big agribusiness. It is designed around the the shape of a traditional Zia Pueblo sun symbol, the same one that appears on the New Mexico flag. Actually, it only exists in the imagination. The garden is still a concept, … Read More
A Painting without a good drawing behind it is like a body without a skeleton, like a jellyfish of of water. Well, almost. We usually don’t look at each other’s bones, but they are there underneath, forming what we see about a person. They are the unseen essence that gives form to life. Same thing … Read More
Taken out of context, the slide of the coyote feces on my slide talk, The Art of Business Thinking 1, might seem like a random act of image-slinging for simple shock value. Well, maybe that slide was dog poop. But let me explain. The subject has to do with ridding ourselves of ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints–the ones … Read More
Outside us in space there spreads the immeasurable world. Inside us is our world of soul. We do not notice how what lives inside us flashes out and unites with what lives outside us. We are unaware of being the arena in which this union takes place. – Rudolph Steiner, from the lecture series, “The … Read More
I WAS SITTING AT MY COMPUTER a few days ago, as the machine rendered out a 3d scene. I was on a deadline–I’d be up most of the coming night– but I just sat, did nothing, and watched it create a “painting” pixel by pixel. It was a large scene and would take about an hour to … Read More
Long Beach, 1949 TAG MIX, the most recent group art exhibit by members of TAG, came down last week from the 801 Gallery in Tucson. (TAG stands for Tucson Artists Group, formerly the Thursday Artists Group, and originally named the Tuesday Artist’s Group.) I made a series of seven 8×10 digital prints last December for the show, … Read More
LAST WEEK, Tucson hosted an informal meeting of members of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (hereafter called SCBWI) at Borders coffeeshop. Several people drove the hundred miles form Phoenix to attend. When talk turned to the relationship between the words and illustrations in a picture book, I mentioned an interview with Maurice Sendak … Read More
Pak Teh relaxing after a honey hunt, 2004 I was saddened by the email I got from Professor Mardan this morning from Malaysia titled, “Pak Teh passes away!” I think Mardan’s note, quoted below, speak for many people who knew Salleh Bin Mohammend Noor, affectionately nicknamed “Pak Teh.” He was a grandfather, bee shaman, leader … Read More
Fire Ant by Paul Mirocha 2009 Are ants preparing for a war against humans? No. Not exactly. They are just doing what any other species would do: seek out new territory, exploit resources, reproduce, and defend their family. But we have got to stop them, and it’s all out chemical warfare! There are no arms … Read More
Gate at Goethe’s Gartenhaus, watercolor by Paul Mirocha, Weimar, 2002 I was going over my travel journals recently and found the one from the trip I made to Weimar, Germany in August 2002. I was there with author, Diana Cohn, to research the art for her picture book, Mr. Goethe’s Garden. This book tells the … Read More