I love Andy Warhol. He was a business genius with his art and created a wildly successfully financial empire that exists yet today.
Andy was the youngest of three brothers. His father died when he was only 14 years old. His father stipulated that the money he left was to be used to put one of his sons through college. The family decided that Andy would benefit the most from a college education. What an incredibly timely decision it was that sent Andy to The Carnegie Institute of Technology (presently known as Carnegie-Mellon University). He was the first of his family to ever go beyond high school. He almost failed his first year, but a sympathetic professor provided him with another chance by allowing him to enroll in a summer class. During that time, Andy helped his oldest brother, Paul, huckster fruit and vegetables from a truck. Every opportunity Andy had he would do quick, on-the-spot sketches of the customers. These sketches not only helped him to be readmitted but they also won him a small scholarship. How many of us as art students can say that we have been that blessed financially? Or that one professor was especially kind to us? Or that we would hustle some sketches to people who were buying vegetables off a truck?
He had the desire and the skill. He was an incredible graphic artist before he became the Pop Art icon that the world has come to know. He worked for Doubleday on some children's books and in them you can see his delicate, balanced, illustrative style. Beautiful. I was actually one of the fortunate children of that era who was able to see that series (Best in Children's Books) when it was first released. I think that Doubleday series was like a book-of-the-month club when it started. I am sure my mom bought them after they started appearing at yard sales and thrift stores, and we didn't have very many out of the 40plus books that were released, but I remember them well and am not surprised at all to hear some of the names associated with those books Leonard Weisgard, Feodor Rojankovsky, Ezra Jack Keats, Paul Galdone, Adrienne Adams, Peter Spier, Richard Scarry, Barbara Cooney, Ruth Ives, Don Freeman, Garth Williams ( I do have the entire Little House on the Prairie series illustrated by Williams - bought for me and my sister by our godmother, one book at a time on birthdays and other gift-giving holidays) to name a few.
I have nostalgically become a children's book saver, inspired by some of the amazingly illustrated books I read as a child. I have always been a reader, but the drawings and paintings - oh my! I am sure the colorful designs that filled those books fueled my desire to be an artist. It began a life-long love affair with bibliographica. Over the years of raising eight kids there have been numerous times that I have bought books simply for the illustrations. Some were never given to my children. Some had such an incredible story and art to go with it that I had to share it reverently with my kids. How could I not expose them to the same delights that I had when I was young?
My all time favorite is Animalia by Graeme Base. He created more books after this one, but none have quite the magic as the first one. They are obsessive and compulsive in a good way. Incredibly detailed and fine. Although the word "whimsical" is used way too often when discussing kids' books, his work is really whimsical. I was excited to hear that it had been animated into a TV show and was eagerly looking forward to seeing it. Technology had finally caught up with the skill that would be needed to move his intricate designs across the screen. I could just imagine those illustrations coming to life! I couldn't have been more disappointed. It is totally bland and benign. The book, however, is exquisite - buy it now!
A close second for me is Monster MaMa, written by Liz Rosenberg and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. If you ever moved paint around a surface by blowing through a straw, you will cheer when you see this book. Some of the illustrations appear to be just drippy and runny, but the use of a straw is clearly evident. Should be inspiration for any budding young artist reading that book. Take a happy paint accident and "breathe" onto it to create art. Simply stunning.
As I consider my artistic future and how I can make my own mark in the art world, I am sure it will show evidence of Warhol as a strong influence. It would be implausible for me to escape the influence of the many children's books I devoured as a child. I have some ideas bouncing around on the inside of my head - they've been there since I was 7 years old.
Andy Warhol was the cat's meow in the graphic design world at the time he illustrated for Doubleday. He went on to become almost unspeakably famous for far more than 15 minutes. He turned the art world on its head and forced us to look at ourselves through the window of PopArt. I only hope that my art will be able to speak to my generation, but in more than a Facebook kind of way. When they see my art, I want them to stop in the way they would stop when they see one of their childhood books in an antique store. I want them to catch their breath. I want my art to reach in and grab their hearts and guts and twist their emotions like a wet rag. But in a good way.
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