This week’s cover, “The Swamp,” is by the artist John Cuneo. Cuneo’s work employs a scraggly line and dense, precise compositions, a style that, on past covers, has been used to depict subjects as diverse as Anthony Weiner atop the Empire State Building and a simple winter scene. We recently sat down with the artist to discuss his art and influences.
You live in the Catskills. Does nature imagery come easily for you?
Nothing comes easily. My address is in the Catskills, but I live in a small room with a drawing table. There is a window, and I will occasionally look outside. It does look nice out there. But I am not the type to hike out, set up an easel, and paint waterfalls on the weekends. I work internally mostly, from the inside out. If I need a waterfall, I’ll Google it.
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Animals are also big in your work. When did that start?
As a kid, I was allergic to everything with fur, but I drew animals out of books. Pen-and-ink stuff like E. H. Shepard’s drawings for “The Wind in the Willows” and A. B. Frost’s work for “Uncle Remus” were a huge influence. There were no museums in my youth, so those perfect little black-and-white drawings—I grew up thinking that’s what art was.
Any favorite animal to draw?
I’d enjoy drawing alligators more if Heinrich Kley hadn’t picked up a pen and ruined it for everybody. Lately, I’ve been drawing frogs in my sketchbooks—anthropomorphic frogs standing on their hind legs, nattily dressed and doing human things like riding a bike. I’ll enjoy that until I recall Shepard’s magnificent Mr. Toad, and then I’ll just get sad.
What’s your approach with a political cover?
I try to block out the noise—I can easily get discouraged by assuming there are fifteen better options before I even throw my hat in the ring. Another ridiculous thing I'll do is work up an idea that’s far too profane and inappropriate for the magazine to actually publish. By sending something filthy, I’m able to say I made the effort, and at the same time remove myself from any actual competition. For me, it’s a win-win.
You’ve noted free association as a useful tool. Is that a common part of your process?
I use “free association” because it sounds more cerebral than “just screwing around.” I do it a lot in my sketchbooks—start drawing random elements and see if they coalesce into something coherent. And I try to apply that idea, with just a little more discipline, to covers. Draw an animal or character, maybe suggest an environment, and work from there. Once in a while you stumble across something interesting; often you just stumble. This week, I drew a bunch of cold-blooded creatures in a swamp, and then drew one of them golfing.
For more of Cuneo’s cover stories, read:
• “Carlos Danger”
• “Winter Delight”
