His ruse was an apparent success, as Spielberg illustrates … 

Dave Warshaw   San Diego, California

Andrey Poletaev   Lugansk, Ukraine

PICKS PAGE ARCHIVES2016:  Read about these artworks in the artists' own words in The Ballpointer PICKPIECE archives. Click on the artwork to see their PICKPIECES.

PICKS PAGE ARCHIVES 2015:

Shirish Deshpande   Belgaum, India

Peter Ross   Hong Kong

Guy Woodard   New York, New York

Lennie Mace, 1984   New York, New York

Chen Zhen   Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Gareth Edwards   Stourbridge, England

All but the keenest viewers may have missed the many ballpoint pen cameos on screens big and small over the years. Ballpoints are regulars in Hollywood productions, and not just as set dressing... 

Forged in Ink

・Catch Me If You Can  2002・Director Steven Spielberg 
Kind of a true story : Mixed-up suburban teen Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) turns to a life of deception after his parents' divorce. Before long he's passing bad checks and enjoying the life. Bank fraud becomes a specialty, but early attempts are decidedly simplistic: Abagnale is shown soaking souvenir airplanes to peel their decals for illicit use ...​

''This piece was selected for exhibition in consideration for the HK Human Rights Art Prize. The exhibition took place at Blindspot Gallery, December of 2017, and was sponsored by the Hong Kong Justice Centre. The prize was open to all artists tackling human rights, and the exhibition displayed artwork shortlisted for a prize. 

Fall  highlights the human right to adequate housing. I wanted to focus on Hong Kong's expensive and speculative property market combined with its lack of development control versus a massive public housing crisis and some of the worst living conditions in the world. 

There were various awards over the evening as well as a silent auction with the proceeds going towards the Hong Kong Justice Centre. The Justice Centre provides aid and legal assistance to migrants, human traffic victims and victims of forced labor amongst others. The exhibition was also aimed at bringing more attention to the Justice Centre's work and generating a larger conversation on the topic of Human Rights. 

Since then I've been focusing largely on commissions and corporate work, while also experimenting a bit more to build towards some new work by the end of this year / beginning of next''・     

Visit  peteross.hk  for more art & information・

Artwork © Peter Ross

Read  The Ballpointer's fully archived  August 2015 PenName Feature  article introducing Peter Ross' ballpoint artwork. 

​

Read the archived  April 2016  PICK  article in which  Ross explains the creation of  Fade. 

* Fall  has been cropped vertically at the bottom to show more of  Ross' ballpoint details at top. 

Spielberg's depiction shows poor forging skills, but, if he made it look too  good, we viewers wouldn't notice anything had been altered. Abagnale himself might even forgive the necessities of cinematic storytelling.

     When dad presented young Abagnale with the checkbook, he said it made him 'a member of their club'. If, in fact, the real Abagnale had used ballpoint pens for his forgeries, as depicted in this movie, does that make him a kind of honorary member of the  ballpoint  club? ・

＊Read more K. RieSTARPOINTS on the CULTUREDpage

Outright forgery was also an early part of Abagnale's modus operandi. He is shown scraping away numbers printed on bank checks and rewriting them using a ballpoint pen ... 

Eric Seaholm   Tokyo, Japan

2015  PICKS  page archive MENU

FEB2015~NOV2015 ​click the BALLPOINTER graphic (left) to access the full 2015 menu

MalOjo   Basque Country

Pepe Lozano   Cordoba, Spain

Andrey Poletaev   Lugansk, Ukraine

Matt Rota   Brooklyn, New York

Holly Cappello   Portland, Oregon

Pepe Lozano   Cordoba, Spain

​​​    PICK PIECES   The Ballpointer staff choose the artwork and let the artist explain it in their own words   Vol 5 No 1  posted February 8, 2018

Peter Ross・Hong Kong

Fall   2017 ・ 32 x 65cm (12 x 26'') ・ 

ballpoint pen & ink on archival acid-free watercolor paper

SLIDESHOW

last revised Feb. 19, 2018

NEWDE FACED  ​​

James Mylne, 1999   London, England

Shane McAdams   Wisconsin / Brooklyn

Lennie Mace   Tokyo, Japan

No, the drawings presented here have NOT been ''defaced'' or altered in any way. The title of this new section, DE FACED, simply describes the fact that the artworks presented here have been pulled from social media posts such as  facebook and, as such, therefore  ''de''-faced, as it were. Some of the artists may be familiar to readers, but new faces will also be introduced here. These artists have not been notified of inclusion here, but every effort will be made to credit the artwork as they did in their original posts. 

The content of this slideshow presentation will be revised regularly & randomly.

Listed by date, from most recently posted.

・

All artwork ©

respective artists

    Since 2014

A Year in The Pen  The Ballpointer  Nov 2014 - Nov 2015   PICKS  of the Litter 2015

M.I. Shaikh   Mumbai, India

Ler Huang   Kaohsiung, Taiwan