Final Piece

My client is one Eric Posman, a producer for ESPN and a sports writer.  Posman [...]]]> I just finished a commission that pushed and challenged my creative and technical skill set, and I outwitted my inner critic!  Here is the piece.  Keep reading to see how and why I created this piece.

Final Piece

The Client

My client is one Eric Posman, a producer for ESPN and a sports writer.  Posman came to me with a photograph of his children looking out a window of a high rise hotel in NYC.  His request?  He wanted a piece of work showing his children looking out into a fantastic world that reflects today’s culture with a twist towards the children and the incredible possibilities of their futures.  Sounds fun!  Sounds hard…

The Process

Brainstorming

I started this project with my trusty mind-mapping technique (fig A).  I fist made a list of nouns that refer to New York, today’s children, movies, books, and cultural icons.  I then did a free drawing that I am, quite honestly a little embarrassed to post here as it is very infantile, but it was so much fun to draw!  It also allowed my mind a chance to think visually. I really enjoyed it as a brainstorming activity, and I think I will incorporate it more often into my planning stages (fig B).

fig. A The Mindmap for Posman Project

Reference Collecting

From there, I began to collect references of New York and other characters and images that crept into my brainstorming sessions.  All-in-all, I collected over 60 different photo references some of which added to the ideas already conceived and some of them changed my ideas completely.

Thumbnails

My next step was to devise a composition or layout plan for the piece (figs C, D, E, F).  I completed several different thumbnail sketches that would have made my grad school professors cringe…  Thank goodness I wasn’t graded

Fig C

Fig D

Fig E

Fig F

Preliminary Drawing

After choosing the thumbnail I liked the best, I began my preliminary drawing incorporating the thumbnail, the references, and the results from the brainstorming sessions.  I drafted the drawing to size at 20″ x 16″.  I then made a few modifications with overlapping tracing paper.  It was at the point I was ready to meet with Posman again.  I wanted to get his take on the direction I was heading.  I also wanted to pick his brain about his children’s likes and dislikes.  Eric Posman was able to help draft the drawing in it’s final stages.

Preliminary Dawing

The Final Piece

Finally I was able to mock up the final piece in a digital collage combining my drawings, my references, and digital painting with my Wacom tablet.  This step is not one that I often use, but it made sense with the amount of information and imagery going on within this one piece.  I used this step as well to prepare a color plan for the final painting.

Color Planning Digitally painted

NOw for the final Art!!  Wooo Hooo!

After all of these steps, I finally get to paint the picture.  I first redraw the entire scene on Clayboard in pencil and then I inked the board.  After allowing the ink to dry, I sprayed the board with a healthy dose of Krylon Crystal Clear to seal the ink.  I painted the images with many different painting techniques, including wet-on-wet, glazing and dry brush.  After the paint dried, I reinked some of the areas.  The piece was finished with a protective coating.

Drum roll please….

Final Piece

I think I would have gotten an A+ on this guy!  Thank you for the challenge, Mr Posman.  Let’s do it again sometime!

As a small child, I remember fondly the trips to the library. My mother and grandmother both held a tremendous love of books and reading, and our community library was only [...]]]> I was honored to have my work used to help promote the Fall Literature and Arts Festival in Columbia, South Carolina.

As a small child, I remember fondly the trips to the library. My mother and grandmother both held a tremendous love of books and reading, and our community library was only a few blocks from home. I loved to go into the children’s section and look through all of the books. I was held entranced by the pictures and the words. They each opened up a whole new world of possibilities to my child mind. It is a love that I still hold dear to my heart. I have an entire shelf in my studio dedicated to my ever growing collection of children’s books. I suppose this may have been the driving factor behind my choice to get a Master’s Degree in Illustration.

It is hard for me to imagine not having books in my life. So much joy has been brought into my life by reading and illustrating, but illiteracy is a serious problem in our country and around the world.  Literacy issues can have a lasting impact on income levels and future generations. In order to promote community wide literacy, Richland School District Two Education Foundation successfully inaugurated the first annual Fall Literature and Arts Festival in Columbia, South Carolina. The event was held on October 17, 2009 at Dent Middle School in Columbia.  The following description was written by James Manning on the Facebook event Page:

The Richland Two Foundation has partnered with the City of Forest Acres and Books-A-Million to bring in over 25 authors for book signings, reading time, and speaking events.

Acclaimed Authors Hill Harper (from CSI New York), Edie Hand (Elvis’s Cousin), Rose Rock (Mother of legendary comedian Chris Rock), and Anton Gunn (House Representative 79) along with many other authors will be there to sign books, provide speaking sessions, and to take pictures. Cocky and Clifford the Big Red Dog will be making appearances for the kids. There will also be performances by Richland 2 Students, reading time for kids, food from local vendors, and many other events.

For More on Literacy Statistics and Concerns in the US, please check out the following sites:

http://www.eurekawebs.com/humlit/fast_facts.htm
http://nces.ed.gov/naal/
http://www.begintoread.com/research/literacystatistics.html

Consider helping out with literacy initiatives in your area, or contact the Richland Two Foundation to offer your help for next year’s festival!

Pat's New Artwork

Pat’s Rooster is a heavily textured acrylic painting with decorative sides measuring 12 in. x 12 in.  The texture is built from magazine pages, paper pulp, and Light Modeling Paste.  This piece was commissioned by Pat Turner in Americus, Georgia.

I can honestly say that I have painted more roosters this [...]]]>

Pat's New Artwork

Pat’s Rooster is a heavily textured acrylic painting with decorative sides measuring 12 in. x 12 in.  The texture is built from magazine pages, paper pulp, and Light Modeling Paste.  This piece was commissioned by Pat Turner in Americus, Georgia.

I can honestly say that I have painted more roosters this year than I thought was possible!  SO me being me, I had to push the envelope with this guy.  Pat Turner has been one of the most inspiring and loving mentors in my life. She has always kept her inner child very happy while teaching and influencing countless students, family friends, and foster children.  She loves all things authentic and infused with love, so that is how I created Pat’s Rooster.

I infused this piece with all of the fun and love I possibly could reminding myself constantly not to take myself too seriously and to explore as much as I could.  I built up the texture on the bottom half of the piece with black and white photographs of women and their daughters embracing.  As I ripped the pages out and shredded them, I thought of Pat’s daughter Mattie and the love they shared.  I added paper pulp as the texture for the top portion of the background.  Playing with paper pulp reminds me of being a little kid and making homemade paper in arts & crafts class, so including it in this piece was a way to invite my inner child to play as well. I used bright vivid colors as is often characteristic of my work, and I also added playful decorative details on the edges of the 2″ gallery canvas.

Playful Decorative Sides

As with every piece of artwork I create for someone, I took into consideration Pat’s likes and her personality to create a piece specifically for her.  In the great scheme of things, Pat was again a mentor to me just by asking me to do a piece for her.  I was able to channel the “Patness” which has influenced my work in a very real and wonderful way.

The Portrait of 230 Horne Street

This piece measures 20 in x 18 in.  It is drawn with archival sepia ink on a natural 80lb Strathmore paper.  Their are subtle highlights added with white Prismacolor pencils.

This original drawing was commissioned by Charlotte Cotton, who also happens to be my mother   This [...]]]>

The Portrait of 230 Horne Street

This piece measures 20 in x 18 in.  It is drawn with archival sepia ink on a natural 80lb Strathmore paper.  Their are subtle highlights added with white Prismacolor pencils.

This original drawing was commissioned by Charlotte Cotton, who also happens to be my mother   This is the house I was raised in.  This is the house that my single mother bought by herself.  This is the house that is tied to all of my childhood memories, and this is the house that will soon be sold to some other family.  It is enough to make my heart ache with sweet nostalgia. Gone are the days when my only responsibilities were washing the dishes or cooking dinner for our hard-working Mama. The days of birthday sleepovers of 15 girls and Jeff (my poor male cousin), the days of after school porch parties, the days of laying out in our bathing suits in the front yard – they are all merely memories now.

It was an awesome party with a great deal of artistic display and support, and of course ample amounts of Jack.  On September 23rd, The Rail in Savannah hosted a party in honor of the 100th anniversary of the quality Tennessee whiskey from the old registered distillery in the US – Jack [...]]]>

The Event

It was an awesome party with a great deal of artistic display and support, and of course ample amounts of Jack.  On September 23rd, The Rail in Savannah hosted a party in honor of the 100th anniversary of the quality Tennessee whiskey from the old registered distillery in the US – Jack Daniels.  The Rail offered 20 artists the opportunity to decorate and make into art blank white Styrofoam statues of the fella I have since been referring to as Jackie Boy.

The artists picked up our statues in late August and had to turn them in a few weeks prior to the party.  The judging method was pure marketing genius.  Patrons had to order a drink made using Jack Daniel’s Whiskey at which time they would be given a token.  You cast your vote by placing the token in the jar in front of your favorite piece of art.  Although the judging was purely a popularity contest among the whiskey drinkers, it was a wonderful night full of prizes, fun, taunting and playful competition.

Artistic Preparation

As is my nature, I got really into this project and wanted it to serve a deeper purpose, so I began by researching Jack Daniel and his distillery.  I found a very rich history intertwined with the history of the National Prohibition, also known as the Volstead Act, in the early part of last century.  I felt very strongly that I should remind today’s society of the pitfalls and negative consequences of Prohibition. Are there similarities between what happened in the 20s and 30s and the Drug Wars of today?  Could this be an instance of history repeating? Below is a brief explanation of the piece with notes:

This piece is an ode to the establishment that is Tennessee’s Finest Distillery.  Although Jack died before the National Prohibition was passed in 1919.  His home of Moore County, Tennessee was among the first places to be voted dry in 1909.  Jack Daniel died two years later in 1911 of an infection. On a particularly hard day for poor Jack, he was frustrated and kicked the vault after forgetting the combo.

Long before he died, Jack Daniel the-ever-popular never-married ladies man took his nephew Lem Motlow as his apprentice. After the distillery closed and Jack died, Motlow wouldn’t let the dream die.  He worked to become a Senator in Tennessee in order to help overturn the bill that would allow the distillery to return to Lynchburg.  I couldn’t find if or where the distillery operated during Prohibition, but I did find some bottle labels that showed that it was indeed one of the whiskey’s prescribed by doctors during this time.  Whether the distillery operated illegally or not, was never mentioned in my research.

In 1933, the 21st Amendment was responsible for putting an end to the National Prohibition, but individual states were allowed to make their own laws regarding alcohol manufacture and distribution.  It wasn’t until 1937 that Lem Motlow was successful in returning the distillery to Lynchburg, but from 1942 to 1947, all whiskey making was again banned by the US Government for the duration of World War II.  IN 1947, the Lynchburg distillery was passed to Lem Motlow’s sons.  Moore County remains a dry county to this day, but you can purchase Jack Daniel’s whiskey in the gift shop or in neighboring counties.

Facts about the National Prohibition:

• Began Jan. 16th, 1920 – The 18th Amendment as a way to reduce crime and corruption, to solve social issues, reduce the tax burden caused by prisons and poor houses, and to improve overall health and hygiene in America.
• The crime rate doubled as a result of the National Prohibition Act, also called the Volstead Act because the bill was written by Andrew J Volstead, because the law was unenforceable.
• Prohibition destroyed legal jobs, created black-market violence, diverted resources from enforcement of other laws and increased the amount people had to pay for alcohol.
• Bootleggers secured their businesses by bribing authorities, Federal Agents, and other high politically ranking officials, thus Gangsters grew in strength and number.
• There were no standards in making alcohol, and the poison death rates from tainted alcohol rose 400%.
• Whiskey could be obtained from Doctors, and over a million gallons were consumed by prescription.
• President Harding stocked the White House with bootlegged liquor even though he had voted as a senator for the 18th Amendment.
• After the 21st Amendment, 38% of Americans still lived in areas with prohibition. By 1966, all states had fully repealed state level prohibitions.

The Artwork

Enduring "Progress"

Named Enduring “Progress” because the Jack Daniel’s Distillery endured some of the most challenging times in it’s earliest years by remaining open and profitable in an age where its product was illegal to produce and is now a highly recognized name brand 100 years later.  I use the word progress in quotations to indicate that Prohibition ended up being more detrimental to the nation’s history and economic welfare than ever anticipated.

The mixed media piece measures 36″ x 16″.  I used articles and images taken from the papers during the early 1900s, printing them and aging them, and then affixing them to a stained 1/2″ wood panel.  The Styrofoam Jack Daniels Statue was painting, newsprint collaged on the his vest, and then sealed and affixed to the right side of the board.  For a further aged affect, the entire piece is laced in twine.  Below are some detail pictures showing close ups of the articles.

Detail

Detail

LCS, the Illustration News Portal, publishes a short article about The Heirloom Jewel Series. Check it out!