Art Brokerage: Joel Iskowitz (born August 15, 1946) is an American designer, book illustrator, print artist and stamp, coin and medal designer. From an initial interest in medical illustration, this graphic artist has branched to other fields. He specializes in highly realistic art resulting from extensive research to make his designs as accurate as possible. His philatelic (stamp) designs, he once said, "must be super accurate and well documented, for if you get so much as an animal's tuft of fur out of place on a philatelic design you will hear from someone critical of your design." Among his coin designs are the reverse of the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial penny (3rd of 4: Professional Life in Illinois), 2008 Arizona State Quarter and 2009 District of Columbia Quarter. Iskowitz graduated from New York's High School of Music and Art in 1964. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Hunter College in 1968, and attended a summer session on a scholarship at Yale his junior year. He enrolled in several other fine arts courses, but found the instructors were more interested in abstract art rather that the traditional, realistic art he wanted to pursue. He eventually took a teaching course, allowing him to teach in New York City schools as a substitute teacher in math and art from 1970 to 1977. After a year on the West Coast as a portrait artist in San Francisco, he returned to New York City to work in the music industry designing album covers. He found illustration work submitting freelance line drawings which were visual reviews of new albums to the rock music publication, Changes. This led to book and cover illustrations for young adult and romance books; though highly realistic, he called these historical romances "glorified Hollywood clinch scenes." Iskowitz's work has been featured in many international journals; including profiles of his numismatic and philatelic art in COINage Magazine; Watercolor Magazine American, American Artist Magazine, Smithsonian Profiles; and his murals have been featured in Exhibit Builder Magazine. He has been awarded both bronze and silver medals for his corporate illustrations and grand-scale public art in Portfolios.com international competitions. Most recently his design for the American Numismatic Association’s Presidential Award won the 2008 silver medal in corporate illustration in the International Creative Shake competition. Iskowitz also creates artwork commemorating significant historical events. His most recent effort, published in lithograph by Signature Art Medals, depicts the 1908 sitting of Theodore Roosevelt for his obverse portrait on the Panama Canal Service Medal. Medalist Victor David Brenner is shown sketching the president in preparation for his models. It is widely believed that while sitting for Brenner, Roosevelt saw one of Brenner's Lincoln plaques and was inspired to have Brenner design the new Lincoln Cent, first released in 1909.