WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.680 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.680 --> 00:00:03.540 align:middle line:84% So this is how the process worked. 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:08.640 align:middle line:84% You can see the pencil sketches underneath, on the light table. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:10.890 align:middle line:90% And then I would ink it in. 00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:12.930 align:middle line:90% And there's the final. 00:00:12.930 --> 00:00:16.260 align:middle line:84% This is kind of like my little nod to Walton Ford. 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:19.320 align:middle line:84% I don't know if you guys are Walton Ford fans or anything. 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:22.650 align:middle line:84% But he's just magnificent, unbelievable artist. 00:00:22.650 --> 00:00:24.600 align:middle line:84% But he kind of goes for these perverse sort 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:27.450 align:middle line:90% of images with natural history. 00:00:27.450 --> 00:00:30.030 align:middle line:90% And I also love box turtles. 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:34.860 align:middle line:84% This is-- What I did is I based, just like Whitman, I 00:00:34.860 --> 00:00:39.840 align:middle line:84% tried to bring aspects of my own life into the work 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:43.890 align:middle line:84% in order to follow Emerson's mandate that one's words 00:00:43.890 --> 00:00:45.660 align:middle line:90% and art should smell of pine. 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:48.300 align:middle line:84% And what he meant by that is that you're bringing 00:00:48.300 --> 00:00:50.220 align:middle line:90% the everyday life into-- 00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:52.620 align:middle line:84% You're not drawing so much from other art. 00:00:52.620 --> 00:00:55.360 align:middle line:84% You're drawing from lived experience as you know it. 00:00:55.360 --> 00:01:01.320 align:middle line:84% And that's how this post-revolutionary generation 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:06.300 align:middle line:84% had come to grips with how to make uniquely American art. 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:08.643 align:middle line:84% We have to get away from the European mode. 00:01:08.643 --> 00:01:10.560 align:middle line:84% Well what does it mean to be an American poet? 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:12.690 align:middle line:84% What does it mean to be an American artist? 00:01:12.690 --> 00:01:15.720 align:middle line:84% And what you have to do is get back to the first poem. 00:01:15.720 --> 00:01:19.410 align:middle line:84% You have to go the elemental route, as it were. 00:01:19.410 --> 00:01:21.030 align:middle line:90% And this was my bid to do this. 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:25.920 align:middle line:84% Now this is a fishing shack on the East Coast of New Jersey 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:26.850 align:middle line:90% on a barrier island. 00:01:26.850 --> 00:01:29.700 align:middle line:84% It's about 300 yards from the water. 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:31.470 align:middle line:84% Hurricane Sandy almost knocked it out. 00:01:31.470 --> 00:01:33.180 align:middle line:84% We thought for sure it was going to. 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:34.888 align:middle line:84% It's been there for over a hundred years. 00:01:34.888 --> 00:01:38.280 align:middle line:84% This was a common building type in Northeast at one time. 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:39.750 align:middle line:90% But this is one of the last. 00:01:39.750 --> 00:01:40.950 align:middle line:90% My friend Bill-- 00:01:40.950 --> 00:01:42.750 align:middle line:84% This is a State Park property but it's 00:01:42.750 --> 00:01:45.960 align:middle line:84% leased out by the family who sold it to the state. 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:48.210 align:middle line:84% And my friend Bill, who you'll see later 00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:49.950 align:middle line:90% in full Whitman regalia. 00:01:49.950 --> 00:01:53.040 align:middle line:90% He's 6 foot 5, big burly guy. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.280 align:middle line:90% Think of like an uppercase me. 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:56.970 align:middle line:90% You get Bill. 00:01:56.970 --> 00:01:58.620 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:01.240 align:middle line:84% Anyway, so I put Bill in here as well. 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:04.185 align:middle line:90% So you can see I've tried to-- 00:02:04.185 --> 00:02:07.140 align:middle line:84% I do this time and again with the book. 00:02:07.140 --> 00:02:09.720 align:middle line:90% Any Sun Ra Arkestra fans? 00:02:09.720 --> 00:02:10.330 align:middle line:90% No. 00:02:10.330 --> 00:02:10.830 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:13.260 align:middle line:90% [ROARS] 00:02:13.260 --> 00:02:15.210 align:middle line:90% You must be from Philly too. 00:02:15.210 --> 00:02:18.210 align:middle line:84% They're a bit of a Philly institution at this point. 00:02:18.210 --> 00:02:22.170 align:middle line:84% Sun Ra has ascended to a higher plane, as we all know. 00:02:22.170 --> 00:02:24.930 align:middle line:84% And Marshall Allen has been the leader of the band. 00:02:24.930 --> 00:02:27.960 align:middle line:84% But in Western Philadelphia, these guys 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:28.950 align:middle line:90% are very much revered. 00:02:28.950 --> 00:02:31.950 align:middle line:84% They still live in a compound out in West Philly. 00:02:31.950 --> 00:02:36.450 align:middle line:84% And they've devoted their lives to the legacy of Sun Ra. 00:02:36.450 --> 00:02:39.138 align:middle line:84% So it only seems fair, as a Philadelphian or somebody 00:02:39.138 --> 00:02:40.680 align:middle line:84% who lives in the Philadelphia region, 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:43.410 align:middle line:90% to put in Marshall as well. 00:02:43.410 --> 00:02:47.100 align:middle line:90% Just turned 90, bless his heart. 00:02:47.100 --> 00:02:48.780 align:middle line:84% And all kinds of street scenes as well. 00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:50.580 align:middle line:90% You want to keep both feet. 00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:53.620 align:middle line:84% You want to put one foot in the urban and one in the rural. 00:02:53.620 --> 00:02:54.870 align:middle line:90% And that's what I tried to do. 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:56.790 align:middle line:90% I do this in my own daily life. 00:02:56.790 --> 00:02:59.010 align:middle line:84% I do conservation work out in the Pine Barrens. 00:02:59.010 --> 00:03:01.980 align:middle line:84% And I also spend an awful lot of time in New 00:03:01.980 --> 00:03:02.940 align:middle line:90% York and Philadelphia. 00:03:02.940 --> 00:03:07.980 align:middle line:84% So it's only right that we have street scenes and neighborhood 00:03:07.980 --> 00:03:11.160 align:middle line:84% scenes, with the obligatory South Philly 00:03:11.160 --> 00:03:15.280 align:middle line:84% fruit there in the form of Converse sneakers. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:15.780 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.420 align:middle line:84% We call those South Philly apples. 00:03:18.420 --> 00:03:19.350 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:19.350 --> 00:03:21.688 align:middle line:84% And every once in a while, you know, I find old 00:03:21.688 --> 00:03:22.980 align:middle line:90% wrecks on the side of the road. 00:03:22.980 --> 00:03:28.620 align:middle line:84% And then this is an example of where Whitman and I will 00:03:28.620 --> 00:03:33.300 align:middle line:84% diverge in our imagery and our attack on a certain subject. 00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:35.760 align:middle line:84% With this one, you know, this is his account 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:38.610 align:middle line:84% of the Alamo, the entire account of the Alamo. 00:03:38.610 --> 00:03:41.610 align:middle line:84% And instead of showing a dead soldier or something 00:03:41.610 --> 00:03:45.060 align:middle line:84% hackneyed or obvious like that, I went with a mood piece, 00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:49.950 align:middle line:84% almost like an illustration version of B-roll. 00:03:49.950 --> 00:03:53.745 align:middle line:84% You're trying to evoke a mood not necessarily a subject. 00:03:53.745 --> 00:03:55.245 align:middle line:84% You're trying to evoke not describe. 00:03:55.245 --> 00:03:57.810 align:middle line:90% 00:03:57.810 --> 00:04:01.590 align:middle line:84% This is me doing some reconnaissance 00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:03.870 align:middle line:84% in the middle of the winter in the Pine Barrens. 00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:06.690 align:middle line:84% I'll talk about the Pine Barrens ad nauseam but I'll keep it-- 00:04:06.690 --> 00:04:12.000 align:middle line:84% It's the last remaining piece of wilderness between-- 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.732 align:middle line:84% on the Eastern seaboard, between Boston and Washington DC. 00:04:14.732 --> 00:04:16.649 align:middle line:84% And we're fighting like hell to keep it alive. 00:04:16.649 --> 00:04:17.640 align:middle line:90% There's orchids in there. 00:04:17.640 --> 00:04:18.765 align:middle line:90% There's carnivorous plants. 00:04:18.765 --> 00:04:21.810 align:middle line:84% There's tree frogs that live nowhere else on Earth. 00:04:21.810 --> 00:04:22.950 align:middle line:90% It's a very special place. 00:04:22.950 --> 00:04:24.783 align:middle line:84% But our beloved governor is really giving us 00:04:24.783 --> 00:04:27.090 align:middle line:90% a hard time right now. 00:04:27.090 --> 00:04:29.050 align:middle line:90% So I threw myself in here. 00:04:29.050 --> 00:04:33.360 align:middle line:84% There's my little bid for immortality. 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:35.340 align:middle line:84% And by immortality, I mean five years. 00:04:35.340 --> 00:04:36.630 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:36.630 --> 00:04:39.390 align:middle line:84% But this is one of my favorite passages in the book. 00:04:39.390 --> 00:04:43.650 align:middle line:84% So it just seemed appropriate, just kind of clicked. 00:04:43.650 --> 00:04:47.963 align:middle line:84% This is again-- you see the rough sketch and the inking. 00:04:47.963 --> 00:04:49.380 align:middle line:84% And I'm trying to figure out where 00:04:49.380 --> 00:04:52.080 align:middle line:90% the spots are going to go. 00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:52.620 align:middle line:90% You know. 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:57.703 align:middle line:90% And this is a poster by the way. 00:04:57.703 --> 00:04:58.620 align:middle line:90% This is the other one. 00:04:58.620 --> 00:04:59.578 align:middle line:90% There's the grass baby. 00:04:59.578 --> 00:05:03.240 align:middle line:90% 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:04.170 align:middle line:90% You can see. 00:05:04.170 --> 00:05:07.920 align:middle line:84% Now you know, this is one of the few points where Whitman 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:09.510 align:middle line:90% will actually employ metaphor. 00:05:09.510 --> 00:05:11.760 align:middle line:84% And in fact, it's the only example of metaphor 00:05:11.760 --> 00:05:16.920 align:middle line:84% I could find in the entire poem really. 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:18.720 align:middle line:84% Whitman wanted to get away from metaphor. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:20.340 align:middle line:84% He felt that it was an affectation. 00:05:20.340 --> 00:05:22.630 align:middle line:84% It was a very eurocentric sort of thing to do. 00:05:22.630 --> 00:05:25.650 align:middle line:84% So you know, he went in for his cataloging. 00:05:25.650 --> 00:05:28.680 align:middle line:84% He's using the Bible and that sort of thing, 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:29.880 align:middle line:90% and the, and the, and the. 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:31.050 align:middle line:90% You know. 00:05:31.050 --> 00:05:35.460 align:middle line:84% But yeah, this is a child, the produced babe 00:05:35.460 --> 00:05:37.290 align:middle line:90% of the vegetation. 00:05:37.290 --> 00:05:40.660 align:middle line:84% I actually had to do a talk at the Montessori school 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:41.160 align:middle line:90% this week. 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:43.920 align:middle line:84% I have a stack of incredible cards 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:45.355 align:middle line:84% that they made me and everything. 00:05:45.355 --> 00:05:46.980 align:middle line:84% And one of the girls wanted to know why 00:05:46.980 --> 00:05:49.200 align:middle line:90% I had a dead baby in the book. 00:05:49.200 --> 00:05:53.730 align:middle line:90% I just-- Oh kid. 00:05:53.730 --> 00:05:55.590 align:middle line:90% That made me feel terrible. 00:05:55.590 --> 00:05:58.030 align:middle line:90% It really did. 00:05:58.030 --> 00:05:58.530 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:05:58.530 --> 00:06:05.130 align:middle line:84% And here, I'm trying to be relatively 00:06:05.130 --> 00:06:08.490 align:middle line:90% oblique about the sexual parts. 00:06:08.490 --> 00:06:11.400 align:middle line:84% In the 1855, there's a lot of frankness. 00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:13.170 align:middle line:84% There's physical frankness but there 00:06:13.170 --> 00:06:15.030 align:middle line:90% isn't that much explicitness. 00:06:15.030 --> 00:06:18.750 align:middle line:84% That comes in the later editions with Children 00:06:18.750 --> 00:06:20.730 align:middle line:90% of Adam and the Calamus poems. 00:06:20.730 --> 00:06:24.930 align:middle line:84% It does-- it isn't really that explicit in the 1855 edition. 00:06:24.930 --> 00:06:26.890 align:middle line:90% That comes later. 00:06:26.890 --> 00:06:28.950 align:middle line:84% So we have a flaming snail vulva in there, 00:06:28.950 --> 00:06:30.280 align:middle line:90% if you want to see it that way. 00:06:30.280 --> 00:06:32.490 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, you could just think that they're 00:06:32.490 --> 00:06:34.500 align:middle line:90% a couple of snails wrestling. 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:36.060 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:06:36.060 --> 00:06:37.290 align:middle line:90% You know. 00:06:37.290 --> 00:06:38.040 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:44.670 align:middle line:84% And this is a cardinal sin in graphic design of any kind. 00:06:44.670 --> 00:06:46.770 align:middle line:84% I don't know how many are familiar with the term 00:06:46.770 --> 00:06:48.360 align:middle line:90% "gutter." 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:51.600 align:middle line:84% But I'm running really intricate designs across this thing 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:53.970 align:middle line:90% and just asking for trouble. 00:06:53.970 --> 00:06:56.850 align:middle line:84% Because if they don't join up, then it looks like hell. 00:06:56.850 --> 00:07:01.378 align:middle line:84% But the people that put this together did a beautiful job 00:07:01.378 --> 00:07:02.920 align:middle line:84% and it just came together seamlessly. 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:05.280 align:middle line:90% So the gamble paid off. 00:07:05.280 --> 00:07:09.660 align:middle line:84% And in some cases, the type is the image. 00:07:09.660 --> 00:07:13.600 align:middle line:90% This is one of those instances. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:16.420 align:middle line:84% And this is another one of my favorite passages 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:17.048 align:middle line:90% from the book. 00:07:17.048 --> 00:07:19.090 align:middle line:84% You don't really have to do much in some of these 00:07:19.090 --> 00:07:24.887 align:middle line:84% because Whitman, he wasn't entirely sure 00:07:24.887 --> 00:07:26.470 align:middle line:84% what he was going to be doing with all 00:07:26.470 --> 00:07:28.690 align:middle line:84% of these notes he was taking for the several years 00:07:28.690 --> 00:07:30.610 align:middle line:90% before Leaves of Grass. 00:07:30.610 --> 00:07:32.410 align:middle line:84% If you look at the original notes, 00:07:32.410 --> 00:07:35.800 align:middle line:84% they're all really jittery and very shaky. 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:39.700 align:middle line:84% And that's because he's one of the first writers 00:07:39.700 --> 00:07:42.160 align:middle line:84% in American letters to be one of these writers that's 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:43.300 align:middle line:90% on the move all the time. 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:44.440 align:middle line:90% He's on ferries. 00:07:44.440 --> 00:07:45.640 align:middle line:90% He's on omnibuses. 00:07:45.640 --> 00:07:47.200 align:middle line:90% He's walking all over the place. 00:07:47.200 --> 00:07:49.060 align:middle line:84% He's bumping into people and it's just-- 00:07:49.060 --> 00:07:51.400 align:middle line:90% all that agitation is in-- 00:07:51.400 --> 00:07:54.460 align:middle line:90% you can see it in the notebooks. 00:07:54.460 --> 00:07:58.540 align:middle line:84% And so, you know, he wasn't entirely sure 00:07:58.540 --> 00:08:00.400 align:middle line:90% if he was going to be-- 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:01.840 align:middle line:90% going on the lecture circuit. 00:08:01.840 --> 00:08:05.200 align:middle line:84% I mean, he didn't know if he was going to be making an opera. 00:08:05.200 --> 00:08:07.180 align:middle line:84% He was really into opera for some reason. 00:08:07.180 --> 00:08:08.260 align:middle line:90% It was interesting. 00:08:08.260 --> 00:08:09.670 align:middle line:90% Here's somebody who wanted to-- 00:08:09.670 --> 00:08:11.740 align:middle line:84% Such a weird contradiction, you know. 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:13.390 align:middle line:84% --somebody who was really into the idea 00:08:13.390 --> 00:08:16.450 align:middle line:84% of a purely American form of literature and he's 00:08:16.450 --> 00:08:19.450 align:middle line:90% really into Italian opera. 00:08:19.450 --> 00:08:20.890 align:middle line:90% He would be really-- 00:08:20.890 --> 00:08:23.110 align:middle line:84% he would just follow it constantly. 00:08:23.110 --> 00:08:25.150 align:middle line:84% But in any case, with something like this, 00:08:25.150 --> 00:08:27.280 align:middle line:90% what you're doing is you're-- 00:08:27.280 --> 00:08:29.800 align:middle line:84% Again, you-- just a very simple image. 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:33.490 align:middle line:84% And "I effuse my flesh in eddies and drifted in lacy jags." 00:08:33.490 --> 00:08:37.510 align:middle line:84% It's like you can hear that music on the page. 00:08:37.510 --> 00:08:40.659 align:middle line:84% And that's kind of unusual for a lot of 19th century writers. 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:43.270 align:middle line:84% Usually, it's in how they're speaking 00:08:43.270 --> 00:08:44.740 align:middle line:90% where you get the music. 00:08:44.740 --> 00:08:47.980 align:middle line:84% But the music is actually on the page with Whitman too. 00:08:47.980 --> 00:08:51.640 align:middle line:90% It's a kind of sheet music. 00:08:51.640 --> 00:08:55.360 align:middle line:84% Here's another one where I just kind of let Walt have his day. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:59.800 align:middle line:84% I just-- Now this was another failure. 00:08:59.800 --> 00:09:01.780 align:middle line:84% I was kind of playing around the idea of using 00:09:01.780 --> 00:09:03.700 align:middle line:90% like a graffiti sort of mode. 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:06.880 align:middle line:84% Because the one element that I had going for me 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:10.330 align:middle line:84% that Whitman couldn't add to this particular book 00:09:10.330 --> 00:09:13.150 align:middle line:84% was the element of time, the passage of time 00:09:13.150 --> 00:09:18.380 align:middle line:84% and bringing these words into our world, our time. 00:09:18.380 --> 00:09:24.520 align:middle line:84% And so I was trying to use idioms that would denote that. 00:09:24.520 --> 00:09:26.750 align:middle line:84% And of course, you know it just didn't work. 00:09:26.750 --> 00:09:29.410 align:middle line:84% So I went with a much simpler solution. 00:09:29.410 --> 00:09:32.020 align:middle line:84% I'm very-- This is one of my favorite spreads in the book 00:09:32.020 --> 00:09:32.980 align:middle line:90% actually. 00:09:32.980 --> 00:09:36.610 align:middle line:84% Because it is such a very well-known passage. 00:09:36.610 --> 00:09:42.530 align:middle line:84% And I felt like I had to give it the respect it deserved. 00:09:42.530 --> 00:09:44.830 align:middle line:84% Now I also kind of played with scale as well. 00:09:44.830 --> 00:09:48.040 align:middle line:84% There are moments in the book where 00:09:48.040 --> 00:09:51.910 align:middle line:84% you think you're looking at a regular magnolia or something. 00:09:51.910 --> 00:09:53.060 align:middle line:90% But it's not. 00:09:53.060 --> 00:09:55.840 align:middle line:90% It's actually a cosmic magnolia. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:57.790 align:middle line:84% Because if you look, you see-- sometimes 00:09:57.790 --> 00:09:59.740 align:middle line:84% I'll put a Where's Walter in here. 00:09:59.740 --> 00:10:02.620 align:middle line:84% Just-- I got a little punchy down in the basement, 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:03.250 align:middle line:90% I have to say. 00:10:03.250 --> 00:10:05.560 align:middle line:84% I was there like, I'm going to put a little Walt there. 00:10:05.560 --> 00:10:08.890 align:middle line:90% 00:10:08.890 --> 00:10:11.950 align:middle line:84% And like I said last night, this is me in 20 years 00:10:11.950 --> 00:10:13.675 align:middle line:84% because I chose to go into publishing. 00:10:13.675 --> 00:10:16.190 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:10:16.190 --> 00:10:17.650 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:10:17.650 --> 00:10:20.350 align:middle line:90% Warn the kids. 00:10:20.350 --> 00:10:26.410 align:middle line:84% Now this is another moment where I've kind of taken Walt's words 00:10:26.410 --> 00:10:30.080 align:middle line:84% and kind of run with it, try to bring him into our world, 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:34.030 align:middle line:84% but also kind of keep one foot in the gist of what 00:10:34.030 --> 00:10:36.880 align:middle line:84% he was trying to get at where he's saying, 00:10:36.880 --> 00:10:38.560 align:middle line:84% "And I say there is nothing greater 00:10:38.560 --> 00:10:39.970 align:middle line:90% than the mother of men." 00:10:39.970 --> 00:10:42.520 align:middle line:84% You see obviously that a spacesuit kind of 00:10:42.520 --> 00:10:45.250 align:middle line:84% has the same proportions, bodily, 00:10:45.250 --> 00:10:48.920 align:middle line:84% as an infant with the umbilical cord. 00:10:48.920 --> 00:10:51.430 align:middle line:84% So I try to put Easter eggs like this throughout the book. 00:10:51.430 --> 00:10:53.630 align:middle line:90% I mean that's why-- 00:10:53.630 --> 00:10:56.500 align:middle line:90% obviously that's why I did it. 00:10:56.500 --> 00:10:57.000 align:middle line:90%