Salem Sea Captain and Wife , 1830

A 4" x 6" pen and ink and watercolor of a couple of characters from a story idea I am working on.

Salem Halloween Mugboard Design

Several years ago, the owner of a local theater hired me to produce designs for a mugboard.
For those of you unfamiliar with what a mugboard is, it is usually a plywood board painted with lifesized images of figures with the faces cutout, so you can put your own face through the hole and look like you are dressed like that particular character, usually for a photograph. They are an old, old attraction and have been used at carnivals, circuses and other attractions for many years.
The client in question runs a witchcraft-themed Halloween attraction and thought it might be fun to have a mugboard outside the theater to attract attention and therefore customers. They wanted something light, humorous and possibly sexy. They definitely wanted it to contain a witch and a Puritan in some composition that would lend itself to a mugboard.
I worked up rough thumbnail sketches and then developed (3) different designs with a sexy witch and a hapless, bible-hugging Puritan.
A final design was selected and taken all the way up to a final, color study before the client pulled the plug on the whole idea. This is the first time I have shared the work.

Thumbnail Sketches

Mugboard Sketch-01

Mugboard Sketch -02

Witch figure

Sketch 03

Final selected b&w design

Final color-study

The Bunghole

Finally got around to finishing a painting of the well-known Salem landmark  "The Bunghole" liquor store on Derby Street, that I started 3 years ago as a companion piece to the "Steve's Market" painting I did almost 11 years ago. (I move pretty slow sometimes). They are both notable for their antique neon lighting. This is acrylic on a 12" x 16" x 1.5" wooden panel.

The Return of the Pioneer Village Map

Back in January of this year, i got an interesting e-mail from one Ian Cooper.
 " I was looking at your blog as it refers to Pioneer Village which I have visited and enjoyed thoroughly (more than Plimoth because of its intimacy and informal atmosphere). I am about to publish a new travel guide following the Pilgrim fathers from the UK to New England and I will include Pioneer Village as I believe that it's not to be missed if we want to gain a real picture of life when the 1630 ships arrived at Salem.
I am about to produce my own map of the village for inclusion in the guide - or I would happily include yours with appropriate attribution depending on your agreement and any conditions you might want to put forward". 

Ian wanted to use my map of Pioneer Village in a UK guidebook!

The guidebook is one of a series of travel guides following the lives of prominent Christians or places of Christian interest. (See www.dayone.co.uk/collections/books/travel-guides?page=1) They are unique in that they tell the story as well as provide travel information.
Here is the original map, created in Adobe Illustrator:

And here is how the map appears on the guidebook page.

Welcome to Salem:1630

Some of you may know that I am an avid history buff, and that I have on occasion, worked as an historical interpreter at Pioneer Village at Forest River Park in Salem. Pioneer Village is a recreation of what Salem would have looked like in 1630, shortly after it was settled. My wife Amy and I have been extras in several historical films that have been shot at this location over the years. I came across a photo of the two of us in early colonial costume and decided it would make a good illustration.
Here is the original photo.

First I did a pencil sketch of the scene using the above photo as reference.

As you can see, I have changed some of the details of the pose and of the outfits.
The scene looked a little empty to me though, and some details were either missing or incorrect. First off I decided the scene needed some animals. I considered adding goats, geese and cattle, but it seems that the animals most likely to be present and running loose would have been hogs and chickens. Both were allowed to run free to find their own forage. The hogs were particularly fond of raiding Native American stores of corn. Now not just any breed of hogs or chicken would do either. they needed to be contemporary to the Puritans of the early 17th century. After some research, I discovered that the breed of hogs that the New England colonials would have had were known as Tamworth Hogs.













The chickens were a breed known as Dorking Fowls. Luckily both of these breeds are still in existence today and there were photos.

I also added in a wooden barrel, some tree stumps and a man cutting a tree with an ax.

I also needed to make my footwear more period-correct. I actually really enjoy researching this kind of historical detail.

I transferred the sketch some Bristol-board and started to rough in the values using burnt umber and black. This work went very quickly. I showed this version to my illustration critique group, and they actually thought I should stop there. They liked the energy and the rough quality. So I did a scan of the piece at that point.

However...I really like color, and had intended to add color from the beginning, and so I moved on to adding in color. Using glazes of color over the monochromatic underpainting. Here I am after my second session of painting.

Here is the final piece. The original is about 8" x 10".

An Unkindness of Ravens

The Scarlet Letter Press in Salem, MA is sponsoring an art show inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. Called "Spirits of the Dead" the show is seeking Poe-inspired artwork, hand-made jewelry& crafts for an October 2014 Gallery Show. They are participating in a national month of recognition to support the City of Boston's installation of a life-sized Poe bronze, sculpted by Stefanie Rocknak. The sculpture is being installed around October 7th, the anniversary of Poe's death. Previews of the clay sculpt, can be seen at www.bostonpoe.org .
I want to enter the show, and have been kicking around an idea that I originally executed when I was attending MassArt, way back in the stone age. If I remember correctly, our illustration teacher, Tom O'Hara, gave us groupings of animals to illustrate, such as a gaggle of geese, a clique of owls, etc. Some of the names for groupings of animals were quite surprising, such as a "murder" of crows. The animals were assigned at random by drawing a slip of paper with the name of the animal on it, literally out of a hat.
My animal ended up being the raven, which are referred to in a group as an "unkindness". It was up to the individual student to decide how to visually represent the grouping. Most of these took the form of a visual pun. The more imaginative, the better.
At the time I had been reading a collection of Poe's short stories for one of my English classes, and of course "The Raven" sprang immediately to mind. I have always been a fan of Poe, partly because of his writing, but also because he seemed like such a glorious nut-job.
Now images of Poe with a raven are hardly original, so for my interpretation, I needed to up the anté. I wanted Poe, sitting at his writing desk, being menaced and annoyed by not just a single raven, but by a ridiculous number of ravens. I don't remember how many I had in the original, but I had them sitting on his desk, the back of his chair, pulling his hair, pecking at his pen, dipping their beak in his inkwell and flying around the room. Poe had a look of exasperation and distress on his face. The effect was more comical than horrific. I remember that people seemed to like it.
In the 30 years since I graduated, after several moves and a divorce, I lost almost all of my college work, including the original piece.
Recently I decided to try and "re-imagine" the original. The original piece was vertical in orientation, and Poe was dead center, surrounded by ravens as if in the center of a storm. It was also done in black and white. The new version was going to be a bit less symmetrical, a bit more historically accurate. The original had a very fanciful interpretation of Poe's chair, which looked more like a medieval throne, and his desk was very plain, and pretty much empty except for some books and papers. For the new version, I wanted something closer to what Poe may have actually used. I also wanted to include a bust of the Pallas Athena. I gathered my reference materials, photographs of Poe, period furniture, books, Athena, and lots and lots of raven pictures.
Here is what I came up with in the new sketch.

I scanned the sketch, cleaned it up, and then started a value study using Photoshop. I placed the linework on a separate layer, and then using that as a guide for selecting areas, began coloring in and shading the black and white drawing. I wanted to be able to play around with the lighting at the sketch stage in a way that would allow me to change things easily. I have three sources of light in the image, two candles and a fireplace. The lighting was going to be tricky to make look convincing.
The left foreground also seemed a bit empty, so I added another, larger raven into the foreground. This is where I am at now with the value sketch. The big question now is, what size to I make the finished piece, and do I keep it in black and white, or do I add color? if I add color, do I make it a spot color such as red? Should I add the title "An Unkindness of Ravens" to the picture? Stay tuned.

Here is day one results of the actual painting. It is on an 8" x 10" stretched canvas.

Here is the latest version of the painting after laying in the color over the monochromatic underpainting.

Here is the final piece I delivered to the Scarlet Letter Press this week. I refined the painting and highlights, and added a coat of gloss medium over the eyes of the birds and Poe, as well as the inkwell, the buttons on his waistcoat and the ring on his left hand. I then gave the entire piece a coat of spray varnish. It is mounted into a black wooden box frame. You can see it on display at the Scarlet Letter Press in Salem through the month of October.

Gallows Hill Theater Brochure

I was hired to do a Halloween-themed tri-fold brochure for the Gallows Hill Theater here in Salem, MA. The proprietor, Erik Rodenhiser, wanted a brochure that could be sent in a print as well as an online downloadable version, with a look that would be consistent with his existing branding and be appealing to school groups. It needed to be lively and convey the interactive and state-of-art special effects level of the show. It certainly stands out among racks full of tourist material!

The Scarlet Letter

I originally posted this artwork on Facebook back on May 24th, but I wanted to expand on the entry a bit. 

I am a big Nathaniel Hawthorne fan. I am a fan for a lot of reasons; he was from Salem, where I currently live. There are reminders and echoes of him everywhere throughout the town. 
He was a keen observer of people and everyday life. If you ever get the chance you should read his "Passages from the American Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne", in which he describes people, places, and events in and around Salem from 1835-1850 . The notebooks also include ideas for dozens of unwritten stories and themes that are incredibly tantalizing.  He was a bright, imaginative, and sensitive young man. He could also be moody and did not suffer fools gladly, irritating many a stuffed shirt in his day.
 He wrote stories about Puritan America that could almost be considered the spiritual forebear of the  morality plays that Rod Serling would dream up one hundred years later for the "Twilight Zone". 
Out of all this, my favorite Hawthorne book has always been "The Scarlet Letter". It touches me on a lot of different levels. I have an affinity for Salem history, especially that of the Puritans. 

This post is about the recreation of a poster that I originally designed for a production of the "Scarlet Letter" as a freelance project back in 1980.  The local production was performed at the Old Town Hall here in Salem. (It was not a great production). The original piece was most notable for having been done entirely in cut gray Pantone paper. (I must have been insane to try that) I believe I was paid a whopping $75. The printed version of the poster was sold in Salem shops for several years but the original was subsequently lost.  I always liked and  remembered the image.
I did the piece one year after my absolute favorite film adaptation of the book was produced by WGBH, and my design was heavily influenced by it .

You may vaguely remember this version. Shot in 1979, it starred Meg Foster as Hester Prynne and John Heard as Reverend Dimmesdale. Although the production values were television-level as opposed to movie-level (it was shot on video) the costumes, sets and acting were superb. It was shot locally, mostly on exterior sets built inside Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island. It is still available on DVD. Even with TV production values, it is still a million times better than the execrable 1995 movie version with Demi Moore (ugh). The less said about that, the better.

The WGBH version made quite an impression on me as a 19-year-old college student. The thing I liked best about it, besides it's authentic feel and faithfullness to the original text, was the sublime casting of the two leads; John Heard as Rev. Dimmesdale and Meg Foster as Hester Prynne.

John Heard is a somewhat obscure actor who had a moment in the eighties, starring in such films as "Chilly Scenes of Winter", "Cat People" and "After Hours". You may remember him best as the dad int he "Home Alone" movies, or as Tom Hanks' yuppy rival in "Big", but has since faded into background character roles.

Meg Foster besides her spooky-intense light-green eyes, was probably best known for her television roles, although she also did her share of movies in the 80's such as "They Live", "The Emerald Forest" and "Masters of the Universe". 

The thing that I loved about them, besides their onscreen chemistry, was the way their intensity. There isn't a lot of outward action in the Scarlet Letter . Most of the drama centers around what is happening inside of these people. All their feelings are repressed, and therefore intensified. These two actors did a fantastic job of capturing the intense, repressed, sexual tension between the two of them. Their affair is the epitome of the "slow burn". All of this tension builds and builds, culminating in a scene where after living in the same community, but being kept apart for years, they happen to meet in the forest. All the sexual energy starts to bubble to the surface, but instead of the usual bodice-ripping cheap-out you would find in any grade "Z" gothic romance, (or in the Demi Moore version) Hester expresses her sensuality, by simply removing her coif and letting down her hair, which given the circumstances is incredibly erotic. Then, upping the ante even further, she slowly unbuttons the scarlet "A" fastened to her breast. I may be weird, but to me this was more intense than any other "sexy" scene I have seen in a film before or since. If you want to see this same sort of thing done incredibly badly, watch the Demi Moore version, which has as much subtlety as a ham thrown through a window.

It was this powerful scene that inspired the original poster.
Here is a screen-shot of the scene in the forest.
It's the two of them momentarily alone, finally away from the restrictions imposed on them by their community. Hester's daughter Pearl plays in the woods nearby.
Dimmesdale is completely worn down by his guilt. Hester is bruised, but still strong, and tries to rally him to action. It is amazing that she still has such intense feeling for him after all that she has been through.

In trying to recreate the original poster, I first did a small thumbnail sketch, trying to capture the feeling of that scene.

Next, collecting as much visual reference as I could from the WGBH production, I did this revised sketch.

I was trying to make them resemble John Heard and Meg Foster as much as possible.
I then added in shading using Photoshop, doing a kind of value study in preparation for executing a painting.

Finally I experimented with the addition of type. The original poster had a large red sun in the background, visible through the tree branches. I may still add that in to the final piece.
Here is the re-constituted poster with type.

Artspeak AWAKEN Promo Piece

Our church, High Rock Northshore, holds a Performing and Visual Arts Show to Fight Human Trafficking in Salem, MA  every March to raise money and awareness for different organizations involved in fighting human trafficking. Last year the organization was iSanctuary, a California-based organization that helps women rescued from sex trafficking return to normal lives. Each year has a different theme that relates to the cause. 2013's theme was "Restore". This year's organization is Amirah House (www.amirahboston.org),  a "non-profit organization located in the Boston area dedicated providing “transformative whole-person care for survivors of commercial exploitation as we engage, educate and mobilize our communities and partners to respond to human trafficking.”

The theme this year is AWAKEN: "Art wakes us up. Just as we’re nodding off to the repetition of daily life, a picture or song or film or story rouses us, reminds us that the world is strange and beautiful, full of mysteries and wonders. Sometimes the awakening is pleasing to our senses, sometimes jarring. Either way, we feel more alive, more aware as a result." As part of the Arts group that helps plan, set-up and run the show, I was selected to produce the signature image for the event promotional materials. I kicked around several ideas for the piece. I knew I wanted something I could paint, that was different, impressive visually, and not cliché, (like a sunrise, sleeping beauty, Rip Van Winkle, etc.) or overtly religious in nature.

Then I happened across several images from the Hubble Space Telescope on a friend's FB post. 

 
They were beautiful and mysterious, like looking into creation itself. I felt that these images lent themselves perfectly to the "awaken" theme, on an almost cosmic level. The universe "waking up". 
There were many images to choose from, but I settled on one that seemed to draw the eye in a natural spiral, and also had a variety of colors in it, as well as some great contrast between the largely orange background and the intense blue of the stars.

 
Although the image was freely available on the internet, and I could have used the photograph itself, I felt strongly that I wanted to paint the image. I wanted it to feel more organic and personal. I gridded out an 8.5" x 11" color printout and created a scaled up corresponding grid on a 14" x 18" x.5" gessoed wooden panel. 

 


I started with a loose underpainting in orange and burnt umber. I quickly discovered that the image that at first appeared to be very simple, was in fact, incredibly complex and  unlike anything I had ever painted before. I render a lot of recognizable objects, in my paintings, people, buildings, vehicles. Things with recognizable scale, angles, orientation, and most importantly, edges.
This images was vast areas of space that were filled with nothing but dust, gas and stars.
Plus I was working in acrylic, and it was very hard to blend the colors for the soft look of gas clouds. I lamented the fact that I no longer own an airbrush. It was a lot harder than I had anticipated.

 
I started to add in the darker areas. If I had it to do again, I would paint the entire panel dark brown, and then add the clouds of gas over that as layers of semi-transparent washes, rather than adding in the darker areas over the orange. At one point I was so frustrated that I was ready to chuck the piece out, but I stepped away. When I came back to it, instead of feeling like I was fighting the medium, (drying too fast, not malleable enough)  it felt like it was starting to work for me. I was adding layer upon layer of thin washes, for the gas, punctuated by the opaque blue and white of the stars. It became more and more complex visually. After working on it for two days, I decided I had better stop, as the image is so complex, that I could literally spend another 20 hours adding in details.
This is what I ended up with. I fell it conveys the essence of the original image, but has some more personal touches, especially in the intensity of the colors and the brushwork.

    


I call the piece "cosmic awakening" 

ARTSPEAK: Restore Follow-Up

My wife Amy and I have been attending Highrock NorthShore regularly since the fall of 2012. We’ve lived in Salem for several years and we’re interested in both the visual and performing arts. So, when we first heard about ArtSpeak a few months ago at our Creative Arts Connection Group we knew we wanted to be involved. In preparation, we attended a planning meeting for the show and created pieces to donate.

 

My art piece was a mobile made of wooden spheres painted to look like the Earth in three stages of death, regrowth and restoration.















Amy’s piece was a cross-stitch embroidery sampler based on a design from the early 1800’s featuring a design which included 2 doves, bluebirds, and a basket of flowers.
We also helped with the load-in on Thursday night, and display set up on Friday.

This past Friday night was the main opening event for our Artspeak weekend, and I would say it was a great success. Starting after 6 pm dozens of art lovers from Highrock and the local area arrived. It was gratifying to see so many people enjoying and interacting with the art pieces we had helped create and set up.

For the first part of the evening, we adjourned to the upstairs of the Old Town Hall to hear more about iSanctuary, and to hear reflections from Pastors Brynn and Aaron, hear original songs, a poem, and even two rap songs that supported the theme of the art on display. The theme of the donated artworks was Restore, and was meant to express an unearthing and restoration of beauty, dignity and humanity in all its various forms. If you’re not aware, iSancutary is an organization committed to helping women who have been rescued from the sex-trafficking industry regain their sense of self through learning a useful trade and equipping them to support themselves through creating jewelry and stationary crafts.

Afterwards, we moved back downstairs to enjoy refreshments and to start the silent auction bidding. Over the next hour people looked at artwork, networked, ate cookies, hummus and cheese and drank sparkling lemonade from Trader Joe’s, all while checking in at the bidding table every few moments to see how their bids were performing.

Amy and I decided to bid on two pieces we especially liked. It was exciting to see if you would get the piece you hoped for or not. As the hour progressed, we found ourselves in a small bidding war over a painting titled “Evening Marsh” by Ben Ober, and took out our bid for the second piece we liked so we could focus on this one piece. It’s a lovely piece, and we anticipated that at least one other person might like it as well. However, our dollar limit was a little higher than our competitor’s and we won the bid. We are now the proud owners of an original work by Ben Ober, and are looking forward to giving it a home in our Salem condo.

Besides acquiring a new painting to put in our home, I also gained a new appreciation for how the arts can be used to bring justice and healing to our broken world. Before this event I’ve never used my creative abilities in a way that will so directly impact the lives of others in need. I was greatly encouraged by the enthusiastic turnout and reception of the event, and I believe that God is working and will continue to work in our lives and the lives of those we hope to touch through this and similar events.

Over the course of the evening we showcased 41 pieces of art and raised $3,000 dollars through the silent art auction and through selling jewelry created by iSanctuary artists.   Everyone deserves a big hand for helping to make this donation to iSanctuary possible.

STC RECKLESS POSTER

A poster for the STC production of "Reckless".
The original artwork was lost, so I had to
reconstruct the artwork from 6 different pieces of art.

Yes, I Do Maps

As you may know, if you follow my posts, I sometimes work for History Alive! a program run by the Gordon College Institute of Public History. One of the things that they run is Pioneer Village, located at Forest River Park in Salem, For years they have used this map of the village to guide tourists. Here is the old map:
 

Here is my take on the same map.

Although the old map is simple and gets the job done, I am trying to raise the bar by giving the map more detail and context, in a hope that it will entice prospective visitors by giving them a better idea of what to expect when they arrive there and to make it look like a more interesting and richer experience than the first map would indicate.