Glynis Sweeny (born 1962) is an American

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

who is known for lampooning political and business figures in newspapers, newsweeklies, and consumer magazines. Sweeny graduated with a degree in graphic design from

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

. She later honed her illustrating skills under the direction of the iconic Alan E. Cober at

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. Soon after, Sweeny became a staff designer and illustrator for ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the '' Detroit Tribune'' on Februa ...

'', working alongside other notable illustrators like

Don Asmussen Donald Asmussen (October 31, 1962 – December 9, 2021) was an American cartoonist working for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and Universal Press Syndicate. Career Asmussen was born in Rhode Island. Early in his career, he published collages a ...

. During this time, Sweeny developed as a caricaturist, and received national recognition; an original illustration of musician

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

is now part of a

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

collection. While at the News, Sweeny began to attract a long roster of clients, including ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', '' GQ'' and ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

''. In 1995, Sweeny left the paper and moved to New York City to focus on her publishing clients in the area. Her client roster also includes ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'',

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

, ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''Fortune'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', and ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. She also illustrated the cover for the book, "The Hammer Comes Down," a biography of

Tom DeLay Thomas Dale DeLay (; born April 8, 1947) is an American author and retired politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1985 until 2006. He was Republic ...

. Wax-based colored pencil is Sweeny's medium of choice and she uses a unique burnishing technique for her illustrations to create color depth. Increasingly her works contain a mixture of pencil illustration and computer-based illustration. Sweeny's more recent work is notably less commercial and more introspective, esoteric and sublime. She has two recurrent themes that now dominate their work: windows into her subjects' torso that can reveal various types of hardware, and complex doodles, called "Brain Clouds," that reveal patchworks of seemingly random thoughts and images hovering above human busts. Sweeny has appeared in the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. History Founding The Society of Illustrators was founded on ...

, RSVP, American Illustration, and Communication Arts juried annuals and has won illustration awards from the Society of Newspaper Design and the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

. In 2008, she appeared in a group gallery show at the Rockland Center for the Arts called "Seven: Out of This World." In 2011, Sweeny was among several artists chosen to reinterpret the art of

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

for a gallery show at the Edward Hopper House Art Center in celebration of the museum's 40th anniversary. Her illustration, entitled ''Blue'', recast the famous Parisian bistro scene in Hopper's ''Soir Bleu.'' Sweeny resides in

Nyack, NY Nyack () is a village located primarily in the town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, it retains a very small western section in Clarkstown. It is a suburb of New York City lying approximately ...

External links

Glynis Sweeny's Official Site

Essay: "Eight Again," ''Time,'' April 23, 2007.

Public Affairs Books: The Hammer Comes Down

A Year of Edward Hopper

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Collection

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeny, Glynis American caricaturists American women illustrators American women cartoonists Rochester Institute of Technology alumni 1962 births Living people People from Nyack, New York American cartoonists 21st-century American women