Wedding Portrait by Jorge Colombo

Hi collectors! It's Sara this Tuesday morning, writing to introduce you to our newest edition from Jorge Colombo. The season of matrimony is in full-swing, making Wedding Portrait an appropriate image for all of you who are out and about celebrating the love of friends and family over long weekends (need I remind you that art makes a great gift for such occasions!?). But, I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about a different sort of happy union—that between Jorge and all of 20x200. By all of 20x200, I mean Jen, and the rest of us here at HQ, and all of you, collectors out there, and the infinite web that connects us and works in mysterious but lovely ways.

While one of our greatest pleasures is bringing you new artists every week—we've now worked with close to two hundred—there are a few that we continue to bring back into the fold. This is the eleventh (!) edition we've put together with Jorge. Jen and Jorge met a few years ago, at a party and would run into each other at openings and at the JB Gallery. Some time passed and Jorge painted, photographed and drew and Jen hatched 20x200. Eventually, Jen, being the omnivorous consumer of art and technology that she is, spotted some drawings Jorge created on his iPhone, using the Brushes app, over on Design Observer. Smitten, she asked Jorge if he'd be interested in making editions. He was.

From the hyper-extended-walls of 20x200, Jorge's drawings won over one legendary art editor—Françoise Mouly, of The New Yorker (yes, The New Yorker!)—among many other fans. The venerable Ms. Mouly saw Jorge's work here and inquired about putting one of his sketches on a cover. From there sprang not one but several Colombo covers and a video series on The New Yorker blog.

And now, we're pleased to announce that we're partnering with our friends at Chronicle Books to publish a book: a collection of close to one hundred of Jorge's iPhone sketches of New York City. It's no wonder they were receptive when we first pitched the idea: Jorge's work has sparked discussions about artists and their role in contemporary culture; it's been featured in the press and interviews and made a cameo during the highly-anticipated iPad introduction. It's brought artists, technology and popular culture together in a whole new (back-lit) light.

That his work will now be the subject of a beautiful hardcover tome is a fairytale ending that's really just another beginning—it speaks to the highest possible ideal that we're striving for in terms of the opportunities we hope to provide for artists—prints leading to magazine covers, leading to a published book, leading to... Who knows what's next? We're a pretty idealistic bunch, but our optimism isn't unfounded and it doesn't end with Jorge. What we're doing is working. Turns out even postmen in Portland have been bitten by the collecting bug. Matt Niebuhr's story is the latest anecdote to make us melt.

While I can share these links with you, they certainly don't cover all of the stories we hear from artists and collectors the world over. Ever jump out of bed in the morning because you know what you're going to do that day will be ridiculously rewarding and incredibly inspiring? I do.