Alex (Brad) Shapiro

I live in NYC where I work as a cartoonist and illustrator.

I've worked doing illustration over the years for clients large and small and I have exhibited my work in New York, Pennsylvania, and California.

I also teach cartooning and animation part-time as a residency artist throughout the five boroughs of NYC. I teach a great range of students from children to adults, but most enjoy teaching elementary and middle school age kids. I often find myself in some of the roughest neighborhoods of the city teaching drawing to kids who are very poor and who come from some difficult situations. I like teaching these students best because I feel like I make the most difference to them.

I am very fond of the San Francisco Bay area, where I lived for several years from 2002-2006 and worked as a curator for The Junior Center of Art and Science. I still return each summer to Oakland, a city for which I have great affection and which I will always consider to be my second home. When in Oakland during the summer I teach cartooning and animation at the California College of the Arts Young Artist's Studio Program for middle school age students. These students are different from the NYC kids because they come from very affluent families and they are very advanced artists for their age. They are fun to teach because they are capable of such great work, but they are a little spoiled compared to the NYC kids.

Lately, I have been spending less time teaching and less time working as an illustrator so I can focus more on my own work. I still have a lot I would like to accomplish as an artist and, well....I'm not getting any younger.

I have very happy memories from Maple Point and if I could do anything over it would be to have gotten to know more of you better.

Grandchildren?????? Holy shit. I never even had children, and now some of you have grandchildren.

Though I have spent a great deal of time around kids teaching them to draw, not having kids of my own is probably my biggest regret.