Joseph McDermott: Of Deception and Desire

Joseph McDermott is USA based Digital media illustrator with an art history background. He works mainly in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. He is one of my favorite groups of artists, those inspired and paying their respects to art history. His work is inspired by pop artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz (whose work is very vectory) and Jasper Johns. McDermott’s is a commercial artist whose work is often commissioned for advertisements and holiday cards in addition to his work for Be magazine.

Like Lichtenstein, McDermott uses a comic book style and often he uses Benday dots in his work. McDermott also has Lichtenstein’s sense of the absurdity and yet of deep meaning in dramatic moments taken out of context. In these paired images (McDermott on the left, Lichtenstein on the right) we see a similarity between both artistic techniques and source material. Both artists challenge the gender norms of their era but, where Lichtenstein parodies the gender expectations, McDermott directly challenges them as we see in the next two images. The one on the left is from a series of Valentines Day cards and the one on the right is from his portfolio on illustration.com. In the image on the left he challenges the very idea of a heteronormative relationship, showing two men in a romantic relationship together in a serious relationship. The image on the right is contrary to the idea of men being the only ones who cheat, and also adds depth to both relationships. I like the artist’s sense of humor, which you can see in his works like “Kickbackman” and the linked poster at the end of his post.

  
These following two images are Perrier advertisements; the left is the more contemporary McDermott commission for the Perrier , while the right is Warhol’s advertisement. I included these images to show the combination of McDermott’s influences and how another artist approached the same commission.

Lichtenstien image courtesy of MutualArt.com, Andy Warhol image courtesy of Design Party, Other images courtesy of Illustrator

Also by Joeseph McDermott

Viral Velocity (https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/quarterly/speed/viral-velocity-youtube-babies.html)

“Kickbackman”

Download a poster of one of his works at -> http://www.illustrationweb.com/PortfolioScrapbook.aspx?artist_id=3484

Benday dots: a printing technique in which many small primary color dots were used to create secondary colors and shading in a cheaper manner

Sources

"Joe Mcdermott ." LUMAS. http://www.lumas.com/artist/joe_mcdermott/ (accessed October 10, 2013).




"Joseph McDermott." Illustrator Artists, Illustration Agency, Art Illustrators and Agents. http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/JosephMcDermott/view (accessed October 12, 2013).

Dubrow, Marsha. "Pop's Roy Lichtenstein parodied but adored women, widow says at National Gallery." Examiner.com. http://www.examiner.com/article/pop-artist-roy-lichtenstein-parodied-women-but-put-them-on-a-pedestal (accessed October 14, 2013).

McDermott, Joe. "Joe McDermott Illustration." Joe McDermott Illustration. http://www.joemcdermottillo.com (accessed October 15, 2013).