"Back when I was illustrating for the likes of the Playboy company my fine art took on a more cosmopolitan hue in the mid-1970s. Now Johnson Publishing Co. sold its building to Columbia College. Playboy is leaving Chicago. What will happen to their art collections? I used to be a free lance illustrator for both. Now that type of professional work is gone, leaving a gap in the beginnings of so many folks' visual careers. I used to roll up & down Michigan Ave. Gigging. Partying. Playing. Working and learning my trade with the best in the biz.
Not like being a fan-boy at a convention. But real work being published on an international level. Jet setting even. Now we surf the web for work. Publish online and hope to get paid. Both Johnson and Playboy paid well and quickly.
Those were great times to be an illustrator."
The late Lucille Ellis, of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, was the main person , along with her friend Kittie, to suggest I go to Paris to reach my potential in 1977. BTW: Kittie turned out to be Eartha Kitt.
This is a Rhythmistic '80s portrait I did of a chilkdhood friend, Thea Barnes. She was with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and Martha Graham before being with the Dance Adminstrator with the British edition of the "Lion King". We met in 7th grade and were buddies in high school.
I checked out the Chagall Musee' in Southern France when I first got to France in '77.
No comments:
Post a Comment