One Step Ahead

Today the opposite of tomato 'looks like Ed Ruscha'...

Wouldn't you know it, but the day after The Opposite of Tomato references the work of Ed Ruscha, the Guardian features an article on the man himself, with images from his exhibition at the Gagosian gallery here.

To honour this coincidence, it seemed appropriate to listen to Lambchop's magnificent 'How I Quit Smoking' album, whose 'The Scary Caroler' namechecks Ruscha too.

Pop Goes the Would-be President

Whilst currently studying Mark Francis & Hal Foster's 'Pop' from Phaidon's 'Themes & Movements' series, containing as it does Ed Ruscha's 'Standard Station' & numerous of his & others' photos of gas station signs & other such advertising signage, I coincidentally noticed this photograph, featuring as a major element of its composition a Texaco sign, accompanying a Times article on the US presidential candidates' race: thus it proved too enticing not to use as source material. Spread across two pages in the newspaper, divided down the centre, it also seemed to demand being drawn in similar fashion, as a diptych.


graphite/40x30cm
original source: 'The Times' 29/01/08