The Day of the Locust

I was asked to illustrate the artist's edition of The Day of the Locust for the venerable Arion Press. The story is set in 1930s Hollywood where being hungry and desire were two faces of one coin. I wanted us to feel the silence I imagined in the depression in a city full of people who'd never make it through the studio gates. The people who'd never be heard or remembered. They were the audience in the theaters.

The actors I chose to play the parts were mostly strangers to me. I met Faye Greener when Sarah Cabral sold me a dress. Jan Halpern was poised to steal a piece of vintage clothing (I thought) and I saw Homer Simpson in the flesh. I can't imagine I'd have found better players if I'd tried.

“How brilliant the staging of the completely artificial ‘natural light’ and the completely awkward ‘natural poses’ in Gray’s photographs. It’s a perfect equivalent for what’s so awful and heartbreaking and beautiful in West’s novel.”

 - Robert Hass, American Poet Laureate

“You don’t have to page back and forth between the text and the photographs; the pictures glow in the reader’s mind from first sight.”

- Greil Marcus, Cultural Critic, Rolling Stone Magazine, Village Voice