book jacket #1

Somehow it was easier for me to come up with a concept for a book jacket than for the posters. This is the full dust jacket; both front and back. I had been thinking about some of the very small, yet fun printed figures I had that were actually printed on individual matches, and I wanted to do something with them, so I came up with the idea of an industry with a community of in-the-closet illlustrators 'yearning-to-breathe-free' by subtly including aspects of their wish for general acceptance by portraying them on commercial matchbooks. This subject has been on my mind lately; I have friends who wish to legally marry, but simply can't because the law doesn't allow it. There was a woman in the midwest somewhere recently who had some sort of rapid and unexpected medical deterioration; the hospital would not allow her partner of 18 years (who a had a legal document giving her power of attorney) - and their 2 young children - to be with her in her final hours, so she died without any family members being able to be with her. The surviving partner filed a lawsuit, and a judge later upheld the hospital administration's policy.