Happy New Year!

J.C Leyendecker

The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire, and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows.Milton Glaser

Many feel that 2011 was  a rough year and for a lot of artists (and regular folks too) it was. For me it had its challenges but for the most part I am grateful that things went as well as they did. Despite some bumps along the way, I ended the year in the black with some work on the table as well as a teaching contract that will carry through August. I have a lot to be grateful for and one of those things is that 2011 was a little better than 2010. I see signs of the economy and the markets coming back and I am hopeful for an even more productive and lucrative 2012. The above illustration by one of my favorite Golden Age illustrators J.C. Leyendecker says a little about how I feel going into the New Year. It doesn't matter how many times you get knocked off the horse, anyone who is successful has learned to get back on and continue riding into battle.Whatever your goals for this year are, hard work and persistence will be the beasts of burden that carry you there. Good luck and stay on that horse! 

I Made the Recycling Bin!

The highlight of my walk the other day (other than chatting with my dear wife) was to come upon a piece of my art in the recycling bin. Some might think this strange, but I was excited to see my painting poking out of the blue can waiting to be dumped and eventually shredded into oblivion. I rescued the box so that I could reenact the moment for this post. So this begs the question-  is Illustration precious? My answer would be NO, nor do I think it should be considered as such. Don't get me wrong, I love having a painting framed and hanging on my wall after the fact , but the nature of illustration creates art that is transitory and temporary. Magazines are read and discarded, newspapers even more quickly than magazines. Paperback novels are rarely read more than once by the same person before being passed along or discarded. Packaging is torn open and tossed, posters and playbills serve their purpose and go the way of everything else in our disposable society. So, to find my art in the recycling bin got me a little giddy. First of all, I had never seen how the box art turned out and second, I was surprised to see that the client was still using my art  ten years after the fact. I admit, that I did not always feel this way about my illustration. I had the mindset that my art WAS precious, that heaven forbid anyone should ever alter or crop my work to fit their needs and worse yet, That someone should create a new piece of art by cobbling together parts of different paintings in some demented artistic Frankenstein experiment.

Part of this painting filled the bottom of the box design

But this is exactly what happened on this project. I had a client in California contact me with a rush job that did not allow time to create new art, but the client loved a mock up that combined the fields of one painting and the lake and mountains of another. Would I be willing to allow use of my work in this altered state? I admit I had a moment of horror followed by a moment of hesitation. How dare anyone ask me to compromise my artistic integrity this way? How could I allow the monstrous grafting together of two of my favorite children's book illustrations? Then I had a pause. The money being offered was decent. More than decent considering that there was no work to be done on my part. I said yes and sent off the scan and the invoice.  I have since decided that this was exactly the sort of thing that illustration should be used for- to decorate or illuminate a moment in our lives. I am proud to know that so many of my pieces of art have served their purpose and, like that yam box, have made their way into a recycling bin. I'd love to see even more of my art poking out of those blue cans on my walk.

The Messenger

The Messenger- acrylic 5.5" x 8"

I found this while rummaging around the studio and it fits this week's Illustration Friday theme perfectly. It was for a story about a man who received a message from an angel while sleeping. Sometimes, I think we can all use a little inspiration from above.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Following the Star- Arnold Friberg

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude

of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:13-14

Merry Christmas everyone and may God bless you and yours this year.

These paintings come from a little book by the late great Arnold Friberg called, appropriately enough, Arnold Fribergs's Little Christmas book. 

I picked it up a few years ago when all of Arnold's Ten Commandments paintings were on display here in Salt Lake City. It is signed by him and every time I look at it, I fondly remember the time I met Friberg at our local art supply store. You can read more about that encounter in this previous post.

Santa Claus Comes Tonight!

The Discovery- Norman Rockwell

Hope everyone is ready for Christmas! Everything is wrapped and waiting. If your kids are not teenagers like mine, I hope the secret is still alive and well. Nothing like the magic of a jolly fat man bringing you presents in the middle of the night. Now to get onto food preparation for tonight's Christmas Eve festivities with the family. Have a great one!

Sketches from a Maui Christmas

As I look forward to a chilly Christmas again this year, I remember with fondness the two Christmases our clan spent on the Hawaiian paradise island of Maui. See more great photos of our trip here. Memories have a way of being distorted in our minds sometimes and as I looked back at my sketchbook from that trip, I decided to see how closely, my sketched impressions matched the photos that I shot.

We trekked the infamous Hana Highway, a winding sometimes one lane road that is not for the faint of heart  (or stomach for that matter). I was driving, and you could not stop at many places along the road so the sketches were done after we reached our destination at the state park. My photos somehow did not include the above scene, so I found this one online.

There were little villages scattered along the coast that could be seen from the highway above. It is interesting to note how my eye edited the scene to include much more than the camera lens captured, including adjacent fields and the curve of the shoreline. I think my sketch more effectively captures what I felt in that moment.

The most interesting contrast came from comparison of my sketch from the Black Sand Beach at Wainapanapa State Park. I got up before sunrise and tried to capture the essence of the place in photos and with a sketch. I noted my thoughts in the sketchbook as well:

The Drive to Hana was amazing, nothing short of spectacular. To think of the variety of terrain and plants on this one island is mind boggling. The Lord certainly created a masterpiece here. The Black sand beach was very cool. When the waves rushed out, the tiny black rocks in one section would clatter along the shore toward the water only to be pushed back in with the next rush of sea. When a big wave hit,the force could be felt through the sand like thunder.

Black Sand Sunrise- Wainapanapa State Park, Maui

I think as an artist it is essential to not only observe and photograph what we see but that making location sketches and studies cement our reactions to a scene more effectively and accurately in our minds.

See a more in depth account of Christmas on Maui at Artwife Needs a Life

Enjoy Free Christmas Music - On Me!

My friend Shane Jackman has released a great new Christmas CD entitled Peace for which I had the pleasure of creating the cover art. As my gift to all my blog readers and friends, click on the link below to download the entire CD for free.

Download Peace by Shane Jackman here

I hope you will enjoy sinking into this musical treat! One week until Christmas and I am looking forward to a little family time. I still have final grading, sketches for a new project, gift wrapping and cookie baking, so, it will be busy (with a little work- hopefully not too much though), but no commuting to school for a couple of weeks- hooray! Have a great Holiday season everyone!