[ April 15, 1999 ]
Joe Ciardiello was five years old when he made his "first feeble attempt" at copying Max Fleischer's Popeye. Forty years later, there's now a whole generation of illustrators trying to emulate Ciardiello's drawings, a style that has earned him two silver medals from the Society of Illustrators, and a list of clients that include American Express, The Atlantic Monthly, Capitol Records, Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and Time.
A graduate of the High School of Art & Design and Parsons School of Design, Ciardiello has been a freelance illustrator in New York City since 1974. His work has been featured in CA, HOW, Print, U&lc, Grafica, and Japan's Idea and Illustration. In 1995, Ciardiello received critical acclaim for a series of illustrations he did for the Capitol Records Blues collection.
More recently, his stunning depiction of William Burroughs won him his second silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, a drawing that just happens to be in the current edition of The Alternative Pick. In addition to his upcoming one-man show, "Joseph Ciardiello: Portraits in Blues and Other Images" (April 28-May 29 at the Society of Illustrators), he is currently developing an illustrated book based on the history of the Blues. More importantly, four decades later, Ciardiello can now draw a version of Popeye that would make Olive Oyl swoon. "I think I've got it down," he says. "The chin was the tough part."
Do you remember your first published work?
When I was a student at Parsons, I had a few things printed in their catalogue, and in a music magazine called Crawdaddy. Their offices were a block away from the college, and sometimes their art director would come to our classes to offer critiques and to give a class assignment. They had a really low budget and wound up using several students for the magazine because cheap labor was easy to come buy at the art college (laughs).
Do you remember what it was?
Oh yeah. It was a black and white caricature of Lenny Bruce. After that was published, I pounded the pavement and went to see as many people as I could, showing my portfolio or just dropping it off. I gradually started breaking into the magazines, doing mostly editorial stuff.
Name a few of those magazines.
Well, Penthouse was one of the earliest publications that used me on a regular basis. My parents had a little bit of tough time with that. (Laughs) As proud parents, they liked to show people what their son was doing, but they were too embarrassed to show my relatives Penthouse, which was actually one of the better ones. Back then, the skin magazines were a great opportunity for anyone starting out in illustration because they bought a lot of art. Someone that was more established might have had qualms about working with some of the sleazier magazines back then, but those of us who were just starting out gladly did it. My first opportunity to get a full-color, full-page illustration was in Genesis Magazine. I was doing work for scholastic magazines and nudie magazines at the same time.
Do you remember a turning point, maybe a particular project that opened doors for you?
Well, I went through a period where I was consistently getting work, which was fine with me, but I wasn't paying attention to the type of work I was getting. I wound up doing business-oriented concept pieces for financial magazines and corporate-type things. While the money got better and it kept me busy, I began hating the work I was doing. I got into a rut for about six years, doing the same type of imagery over and over. When I realized this, I began drawing for myself. I worked on a series of black and white drawings of some of my favorite jazz musicians, people like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Mingus, Monk, etc. Those drawings were eventually compiled into a black and white self-published book in 1992. That generated a lot of interest and led to more interesting jobs, such as the Blues collection that I did for Capitol Records.
Who are some of your influences?
One of my earliest influences was Leonard Baskin. Egon Schiele, the German expressionist, is really one of my favorite artists of all time. As a draftsman, his drawings are just incredibly expressive and interesting in their distortion. Back at Parsons, there was an instructor by the name of Jim Spanfeller, who was an illustrator working on this particular drawing style that just clicked with me. I've really been sort of honing and developing that.
How would you describe it?
He refers to it as sort of a "Zen approach," where you focus on the subject and follow the form with a very sensitive line without really looking at the paper. Some very interesting distortion-type things happen with that process.
Is there a way for someone to tell that they're looking at something you've drawn?
I'd like to think that the type of line that I use is easily identified. I always tend to use a lot of white space and focus on one area with color or pen work. I often incorporate some calligraphy and writing into the drawing as well.
What do you do when you're not working?
I play the drums. I've actually been playing since I was 14 years old. Every Saturday night I play with a guy named Jimmie Mack at a place called The Forest Gardens in Staten Island. We play stuff like Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Bros., etc.
Was there ever any thought of doing music for a living instead of illustration?
I was playing in a rock band during high school, but I was torn between the two. Deep down I knew I would have more success pursuing illustration. Looking back, I think I was probably right.
- By Michael Moses
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