A tribute to my three art “parents:”
My birth into the arts began at The Burnley School of Professional Art—a three-year-private art school in an ancient stucco building. It was located at the top of Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Since Burnley’s curriculum was commercial design and illustration, the presence of a ghost was good for at least one illustration assignment per year. (The Burnley Ghost was considered a friendly presence and had been included in a book on paranormal presences: Prominent American Ghosts by Suzy Smith, published by World Publishing Company, Cleveland, USA. The book’s author, a former reporter, had been present at a research seance held in our basement.) That basement was a dusty dirty storage area–a place with dirt walls, where you might suspect a ghost lived.
The only entry was through an old trap door with a huge metal ring. And the route to that storage area was down a long dark staircase at the back of the building. An occasional light bulb lit the way. As a student, I maintained one of several studios in the upper part of the building. Once, while working in the building alone, I did hear a scary wooooooo sound, but I tracked it down to be wind in a blocked chimney. I was always a skeptic, although others were true believers.
In this great old building, my “artistic childhood” was nurtured by the influence of three artists: (1) The director/owner of The Burnley School, Jess Cauthorn, a master of sarcastic wit–a thoroughly practical advertising artist and combat veteran–and watercolorist extraordinaire; (2) Bill Cumming, a fine artist (a successful gallery painter in disguise of a commercial artist), a mellow, one-time Stalinist, he aspired to be a southern gentleman, before the Civil War; and, (3) Fred Griffin, the principal design instructor who was developing an original system of guidelines for composition, eventually named The Design Code ®. Griffin was intense in his commitment to this exploration, and brought us a sense of intimacy with heroes in the design field. These three shaped my introduction to fine art and commercial art. I will be forever grateful for their friendship. (After several years of professional experience I had the honor of teaching with them. The three of them were rare treasures–in my experience–and in the lives of many others.) Burnley was one of life’s true gems.
I was just thinking about what artistic influences have crept into my creations, since then. They are mainly from the past, but no less influential today than when they were at the peak of recognition. Not in any particular order, these names have influenced my artwork: Saul Steinberg, Graciela Rodo Boulanger, Leo Lionni, Milton Glaser, Andre Francois, Saul Bass, Fernando Botero, R.O. Blechman, Andrew Wyeth, Pablo Picasso, Seymour Chwast, Grant Wood, Paul Klee, Sergio Bustamante; Japanese artists and architecture; animation festival films in the collection of the National Film Board of Canada; as well as many others, current and past. in my design sensitivities, I would say that I lean more towards Bauhaus (basic design analysis) than towards David Carson (total free expression). But I am closer to the center, than the far left or far right of either. So, thank you all!