Edition Announcement #199 - Jorge Colombo

Tuesday greetings, collectors! It's finally me again, reporting live from mi casa, the very same casa that was featured yesterday on one of my favorite shelter blogs, design*sponge. I've been spending quite a bit of time in trains, planes and automobiles lately, so it's a delicious luxury to be typing this dispatch from the comfort of my couch with The Otter napping nearby. I'm also glad that I've been home long enough to enjoy our transition into my favorite season of the year, in my favorite city, surrounded by my favorite people. The team 20x200 Shake Shack field trip Sara referenced in yesterday's newsletter is a prime example of the season's bounty.

With today's editions—iSketch802 and iSketch837—we get to pay tribute to my other favorite city, San Francisco. Jorge Colombo's New York love letters are among my favorite 20x200 editions, capturing as they do the New York of my day-to-day and my daydreams. I was utterly thrilled to discover that we had a love of the City by the Bay in common as well, and had the good fortune of getting to spend time with him while he was developing these new sketches there. (Over delicious buttery things at Tartine no less, joined by his wonderful and talented wife, Amy Yoes. Are you jealous? You should be!)

It was really hard to choose just two, since Jorge managed to do something I'd imagined to be utterly impossible: faithfully evoke one of the most magical things about San Francisco, its spectacular light. This brings me to another thing I love about Jorge's iSketch series, which he creates using the Brushes app on his iPhone. He's taken his skill—which is formidable, as evidenced by his many years of working as a successful artist and designer—and put it to work using the most contemporary of tools.

I know for certain that a few people think it's the app that makes Jorge's sketches the little slices of genius that they are, and was incredibly relieved when my friend Anil pointed out that it's the artist, not the application, that should be the focus of our admiration and support. (And I chuckled the other day when a friend, who'd bought one of Jorge's prints, subsequently failed miserably in his attempt to put his own artistic sensibilities to work with the very same app.)

Ultimately, it's not completely one or the other. I am relieved that I don't have to choose between San Francisco and New York, and feel similarly fortunate that I don't have to choose between art and technology. An interesting conversation has been ricocheting around the blogosphere, discussing why it is that NYC doesn't have the same tech community that SF does. Kicked off by Chris Dixon, who posited that NY is poised for a tech revival, Caterina, Anil and yours truly have all chimed in. My point of view in that conversation echoes how I feel about Jorge's work—I'll always be a believer in the medium AND the message.

And with that, I'll take my leave till tomorrow. In the meanwhile, I suggest you occupy yourselves with another marriage of art and technology. The What print should I buy on 20x200.com? topic on Hunch is proving to be fun AND useful, thanks to help from the Hunch crew and Kika Gilbert's patient care and feeding. I've been spreading the link far and wide, via Tumblr and Twitter and Facebook (you know how I am!) and have gotten back glowing, somewhat incredulous reports about how well it works. It'll only get better as more people use it, so please check it out.

I'll be back in tomorrow's early afternoon with a couple of photos from another denizen from one of my favorite cities—look for me then!

Previous Newsletter : Edition Announcement #198 - Joseph O. Holmes