Happy Labor Day!

Editor’s Note: In case you missed it (ICYMI), here is the story of Gary Martin who labors every week for our entertainment and enlightenment.

Gary B. Martin is an illustrator and animator who has lived on the Upper West Side for more than three decades.

“After studying filmmaking and animation at NYU, I went on to work in digital media (sometimes called ‘new media’),” Martin wrote to the Rag in an email. “I contributed to the creation of some exciting online and offline multimedia design and productions, 2-D animation and motion graphics, interface design, desktop sound, and even some video editing for clients ranging from The New York Public Library to Ernst & Young, and every kind of nonprofit and for-profit client in between.

“But now in my semi-retirement I’m choosing to go back to my simpler passion of illustration, in which I am self-taught,” Martin continued. “Just me and my pen (or computer, more often), trying to focus on more character-driven images. Much of my work published elsewhere is (often angry) political/social commentary, railing against what’s going on in the world. For WSR, I’m trying to keep my angst local to what’s going on in my head. I’d like to be considered as a ‘late bloomer,’ who is just now trying to make a name for himself doing the thing I love most.”

Watch for Gary’s illustrations on Sundays in the Rag and see his previous illustrations here. To see more of Gary’s work, including animations and other motion graphics, please visit www.martoons.com

P.S. We know it isn’t Labor Day yet, but Sunday is Gary’s day!

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