"some like it hot"

Illostribute.com is a new, collaborative illustration blog, conceived and edited by illustrator & artist Toby Thane Neighbors. The idea is to pay tribute to the “masters”  by seriously investigating their work, through interpretation. "Why?" you might ask. Neighbors replies, "Copying the work of master artists, in order to more fully comprehend the decision-making process by which they navigated from blank canvas to masterpiece, is an ancient and valuable exercise."

The site's Hirschfeld tribute is a wonderful biographical overview with a number of nice images from mid-career. But the real thrill is to see a bevy of young artists explore their own interpretations of Hirschfeld's work. Artists such as Steffi Schuetze (above) reinterpet Some Like It Hot through a lens that brings to mind Robert Risko.

Joanthan Boam takes on Twentieth Century, but in his John Held-like version, Gloria Swanson ends up looking a bit more like Sophie Tucker, but the end result is all Boam.

In the Foundation's collection, we have a siginficant holdings of Hirschfeld portraits by other aritsts from many different periods. some are well known, while others deserve to be. Seeing these homages is touching and it proves to be a springboard for some of these artists to further explore the possibliites of line and caricature, then all the better. Now matter whether you are looking for inspiration or informaion, the Illostribute post is worth a look.