This week, Lapid wrote about the evasive nature of ideas.
He is describing the phenomena of the discovery of new ideas as a process in which timing is a crucial component.
Later in the article he refers to the obvious merit of the idea of peace, and to the inevitable implementation of peace. The only thing is the price that people will pay with their lives and pain as time passes by until that day.
This illustration was published in Globes alongside an article which laid-out the introduction of new laws of copyrights.
As I have been beaten more than once by unethical conduit on the part of client, I found this article as an opportunity to express my contentment with these new laws.
Two weeks ago, Israel survived the final episode of the Israeli version of the television blockbuster reality series Survivor, in Hebrew: Hisardut. Lapid described the fracture that accrued in the family around the discussion over the values the program communicates. On this front, his arguments seem to have lost and he found him self exiled.
The etymological meaning of the word exile, apart from its old English meaning of banishment, is due to the ancient Greeks method of punishment of deporting a member of the community out of the island:
ex– out of ile-island
The smaller drawing relates to a theme in the column following comments Lapid had received from readers of his piece which evolved around the responsibility leaders are taking, or not, over their deeds.
On their way to the Knesset, The Israeli Green Party, for the first time through its existence is standing a serious chance to be elected.
Nevertheless, Human nature, as green as it can be – sees red when the weight of one’s ego casts a shadow over another. So, on their way in, we witness a spectacle of proverbial fist-fighting between the candidates.
This was the brief of G magazine’s cover this week, and here was my reply to it:
These two served as reminder of the cover theme through the article’s pages inside.
That was Harford’s theme last week, so here is the illustration that accompanied the article.
This one accompanied the ‘Dear Economist’ bit of the column. The writer was seeking advice regarding his Presentation tactics and skills.
Last week saw the continuation of the political saga, headed by the police investigation into Olmert’s campaign funding and other residual affairs that raised more than one eyebrow within the police quarters. Lapid wrote a piece which evolved around the difficulty in running a country, let a long, a country in the
particular circumstances Israel finds itself these days. While under multiple police investigation a head of state is quit restricted in his action. He later on describe the nearly saintly qualities a candidate to the premiership should posses.
Here’s a cover I was commissioned to illustrate for the Guardian’s literary review.
The brief consisted of a the way an Israeli original literature was born
Although at times hidden, the clash between the two narratives of the creation of the state of Israel: the Zionist on the one hand and the Palestinian one on the other, are at the end of the day the engine of it all.
It has been so long that I have been contemplating this move: having my own blog that is. More than a year a go I have launched my site izharcohen.com which serves me as a good showcase of most of what I have done thus far. I have conceived it and designed it with the brilliant animator Yoni Goodman. As time passes by, I have found the need to have a more dynamic shop window to the world. So, while maintaining my site as the more ‘institutional’ representative of my art, I will here try and feed my blog in a more ‘hands-on’ approach and will attempt a weekly update (crazy as it seems to me) So, here we go. Every week I have two regular engagement; the one, dated since fifteen years a go, is Yair Lapid‘s weekly column. Initially published in Maariv and later moved to Yedioth Achronot. This weekly illustration is for me the fruit of a correspondence with a good friend who provides me with a continuous string of witty and intelligent writing. His writing never failed to provokes me into a visual expression of my own thought and emotions. The format in which the column is designed allows for a main illustration and an additional small vignette. The second Regular weekly interaction i have, is much ‘younger’. It is with the syndicated weekly column from the Financial Times written by Tim Harford, published weekly in the Israeli equivalent of the FT Globe’s G magazine: here, the theme and the content are entirely different. The challenge here for me is to deal with topics that will always relate to economic issues, which to say the least, are not my first choice for a playing field. Nevertheless, this is one of the joys in being an illustrator: being constantly challenged to find your own original angle and express it in your own handwriting and your own metaphors. As with the Lapid’s column, also here there are two illustration. The difference here is that there are two separate themes: one is the main article and the second is a ‘hit the expert’ style piece where readers are addressing Harford with questions of all natures while expecting him to apply his economical faculties to provide them with appropriate replies.
These illustrations accompanied Lapid‘s last week’s column As events in the Political arena in Israel were very much dominated by the police investigation into PM Olmert’s alleged bribery suspicions. Lapid is raising the question whether resignation is a wise thing to resort to when you are down.
These illustrations accompanied Tim Harford column concerning the costs and benefits of local exchange trading schemes (LETS), which are alternative currencies that circulate around a small community.
The smaller illustration relates to a letter written by a reader concerned with what he suspected to be a raw deal of parenting he got from his parents, in comparison with the one his naughty younger sister got form the same set of parents.
My Window - Izhar Cohen 