PLAGUE YEAR (2)

By: Rick Pinchera
January 24, 2021

We are delighted to present PLAGUE YEAR, a curated selection of HILOBROW friend Rick Pinchera’s drawings — which were posted to Instagram over the course of 2020.


For a closer look, click on image.

WFH — March 17

It seems to be the consensus that March 13, 2020 was the day that shit got real. It also happened to be my wedding anniversary. (Awesome.) A few days later I posted this response to the new normal, at least for those of us lucky enough to be considered non-essential and who could work at home. I would riff on the Van Halen logo — something I drew on brown paper book covers hundreds of times as a teen. I had been doing some goofy mashups of ’80s metal band logos and Boston neighborhoods for a while at this point, starting with Rozzy (Roslindale) as the Ozzy logo, which proved to be amusing to a few people. I outran the suburban teen a long time ago, but classic rock bands like Van Halen beckon me back periodically. (Eddie’s death later in the year was a 2020 kick in the crotch that seemed especially cruel.)

WFH, of course, is the shorthand for Working From Home that you might see on a company calendar or shift schedule. It probably took me less than an hour to make — and, before you knew it, it was on a tshirt and I was making money off the pandemic. Hooray!

I knew I couldn’t keep the money, so this was the first of several projects that allowed me to make some donations to places that needed it. Institutions were struggling, livelihoods were disappearing and people were dying. Yet there was still some capacity to joke about it. Surely this wouldn’t last too long.

I wouldn’t make this shirt now. The pandemic was never really funny but back then but there was a genuine feeling of “we’re all in this together,” however fleeting. My WFH logo seemed to make people happy at the time — a simple idea from the beginning of a very complicated year.

***

CURATED SERIES at HILOBROW: LINOCUT 2020 by Lawry Hutcheson | CHALK.PRESS by Adam Netburn | PLAGUE YEAR by Rick Pinchera | NOOSFERA by Charles Glaubitz | CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE by Douglas Wolk | A SILENT HALLUCINATION by Alex Gerasev | BUNNY CITY by Gary Panter | HOP UP by Luc Sante | UNBORED CANON by Josh Glenn | CARPE PHALLUM by Patrick Cates | MS. K by Heather Kasunick | HERE BE MONSTERS by Mister Reusch | DOWNTOWNE by Bradley Peterson | #FX by Michael Lewy | PINNED PANELS by Zack Smith | TANK UP by Tony Leone | OUTBOUND TO MONTEVIDEO by Mimi Lipson | TAKING LIBERTIES by Douglas Wolk | STERANKOISMS by Douglas Wolk | MARVEL vs. MUSEUM by Douglas Wolk | NEVER BEGIN TO SING by Damon Krukowski | WTC WTF by Douglas Wolk | COOLING OFF THE COMMOTION by Chenjerai Kumanyika | THAT’S GREAT MARVEL by Douglas Wolk | LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE by Chris Spurgeon | IMAGINARY FRIENDS by Alexandra Molotkow | UNFLOWN by Jacob Covey | ADEQUATED by Franklin Bruno | QUALITY JOE by Joe Alterio | CHICKEN LIT by Lisa Jane Persky | PINAKOTHEK by Luc Sante | ALL MY STARS by Joanne McNeil | BIGFOOT ISLAND by Michael Lewy | NOT OF THIS EARTH by Michael Lewy | ANIMAL MAGNETISM by Colin Dickey | KEEPERS by Steph Burt | AMERICA OBSCURA by Andrew Hultkrans | HEATHCLIFF, FOR WHY? by Brandi Brown | DAILY DRUMPF by Rick Pinchera | BEDROOM AIRPORT by “Parson Edwards” | INTO THE VOID by Charlie Jane Anders | WE REABSORB & ENLIVEN by Matthew Battles | BRAINIAC by Joshua Glenn | COMICALLY VINTAGE by Comically Vintage | BLDGBLOG by Geoff Manaugh | WINDS OF MAGIC by James Parker | MUSEUM OF FEMORIBILIA by Lynn Peril | ROBOTS + MONSTERS by Joe Alterio | MONSTOBER by Rick Pinchera | POP WITH A SHOTGUN by Devin McKinney | FEEDBACK by Joshua Glenn | 4CP FTW by John Hilgart | ANNOTATED GIF by Kerry Callen | FANCHILD by Adam McGovern | BOOKFUTURISM by James Bridle | NOMADBROW by Erik Davis | SCREEN TIME by Jacob Mikanowski | FALSE MACHINE by Patrick Stuart | SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS (cross-posted from Significant Objects website) | UNBORED MANIFESTO by Joshua Glenn and Elizabeth Foy Larsen | H IS FOR HOBO by Joshua Glenn | 4CP FRIDAY by guest curators

Categories

Art, Comics