Corkscrew Print

I did this corkscrew for Gourmet Magazine's wine column, a regular gig of mine for many years. Due diligence required that I taste the wines that Gerald Asher was writing about, which was an education in itself. Much of my work for Gourmet involved illustrated maps of wine regions, but there were usually small drawings like this "for after the turn" where the reader is instructed to turn to page 123. I've always enjoyed drawing tools and devices. My sketchbooks are full of them. Drawing this kind of thing is like the five finger exercises of a pianist, warming up the equipment. But each of these drawings has a special whats-it, a "thingness", the beauty that comes of reducing complexity to essential form. Which is just an art critic's way of saying "It's nice to look at." Which I hope it is. Function described by simple line. It's why we draw pictures.