Figure 1: Everything Is Its Own Reward by Paul Madonna
Working in monotone Paul Madonna captures the essence of San Francisco’s urban landscape but it looks so different because he doesn’t show any humans and this is interesting as San Francisco is a densely populated city.
To me it feels like the buildings and the landscape are talking to each other and the words he adds to the illustrations tell incomplete stories. Somehow my mind completes the story and a narrative is born in my imagination which is why I feel this work is so engaging.
These illustrations are part of a larger project called All Over Coffee which is a comic strip without the comic. The series is about storytelling using image and text in nontraditional ways. The relationship between story and drawing is tonal and not literal. This is something I think I will pursue in my project.
I also found some more of his work on this site:
http://paulmadonna.com/all_over_coffee/AOC2.htm