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
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
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
ARTe: Digital and Art, is a half hour documentary produced by Sooyoen Lee of Arizona Public Media, a PBS station associated with the University of Arizona. The video interviews photographer Jack Dykinga, illustrator Paul Mirocha, two filmmakers, and a poet, asking them how the digital revolution has changed their approach to their chosen media. Sooyeon, … Read More
A slide talk presented to the annual meeting of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators in Fort Kent, Maine, July 7, 2009. This is part of an ongoing series on business development for artists and illustrators. My premise in this series of slide talks is: 1. that an artist can design a business based … Read More
IT WAS ONE HOT DAY IN 1928 at San Francisco’s Playland-at-the-Beach, and ice cream seller George Whitney had an idea. He put a scoop of vanilla ice cream between two oatmeal cookies, squashed it down, and dipped it all in dark chocolate. He didn’t know what to call it, so he just said “It’s it”. … Read More
Reality is in the eye of the beholder. It’s whatever you see out there. That subtle subjective factor is what makes drawing and sketching from life both profound and pleasurable. And it can be subtly tweaked in a painting, while maintaining the illusion of objectivity.Realism in art is not just a matter of technical skill, … Read More
Everybody has them. Don’t be afraid to ask. And you won’t have to ask if you just get this new book, appropriately titled, Frequently Asked Questions About Coyotes. It’s published by the Western National Parks Association and Illustrated by Paul Mirocha. FAQ Coyotes won a 2009 media award for publications by the Association for Partner in Public Lands. … Read More
ONE OF THE LESSER-KNOWN MYSTERIES OF SCIENCE is Cocinella psychoanalytica, order Coleoptera, family Coccinellidae, commonly called the rorschach ladybug. Why would such a common insect be absent from the entomological literature until recently. It is impossible that no one had noticed it before now since it is actually quite common in it’s range–all of temperate North America east of the Mississippi River. This attractive beetle … Read More
What could be more all-American than the hot dog? The Mexican hot dog? This recent import from south of the border may have improved upon that icon of American cuisine. There’s even a new Spanish word for a street-vendor of the Mexican hot dog: hotdoguero. Hot dog historians argue, local chefs dispute how to … Read More
Hi-tech follows nature in ad series For this series of ads for Trimble Navigation, the art director wanted to create a 19th century science illustration feel in comparing these talented animals to these hi-tech global positioning devises.
It was a privelidge to collaborate directly with Barbara, the author, to create this cover image for the first hard-cover edition of her book, Small Wonder. It was also unusual for an author to be involved as, almost, an art director for her own book, but that’s how involved she liked to be. I met with her … Read More