The Bookshelf Conversation: Mark Ulriksen

As the saying goes, I don’t know art, but I know what I like, and I like Mark Ulriksen‘s work. The California-based artist has a unique style which has earned him a number of covers for publications like The New Yorker. His approach is entertaining and humorous while being reverential at the same time.

Ulriksen’s website is similarly enjoyable and makes him quite accessible (and you can even pick up a few tchockes there). Of course, he does a lot more than just sports: portraits, music (, and dogs, lots of dogs.

From the website:

Mark’s varied interests are often the subjects of his acrylic paintings, be they politics or dogs, people or sports. He covered the 2008 Masters for Golf Digest and has created murals for United Airlines and the Chicago Bears that grace the walls of the United Club at Soldier Field. His dog prints adorn the halls of Kaiser Permanente hospitals throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the regular illustrator for the San Francisco Jazz Festival, as well as a children’s book illustrator, and the recipient of numerous awards, including Gold and Silver medals from the NY Society of Illustrators. His 2006 New Yorker cover parody of the film Brokeback Mountain was named the year’s top magazine news cover by the Magazine Publishers of America. Ulriksen’s work is in the permanent collection of The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress.

But he’s on the Bookshelf for the baseball. I had the opportunity to talk to Ulriksen recently about his work. Enjoy.