Audubon Jesus

All of the pieces in this series were completed during the 2005-06 school year [I was an Associate Professor in the Illustration Department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit].  I began by working on a  large crow drawing/painting [since destroyed] because the class was interpreting the Raven by E. A. Poe. I wanted the students to move beyond the tiny sphere of their immediate desktops, so I got some rolls of paper, tacked them up and let it rip right there in front of them. Then, I started a series of small, fictional portraits of my paternal grandmother, Louisa Wolf, as a classroom demonstration .  I thought that if I followed through on some of the general principles that I had discussed in class with the actual creation of work [right there] that it might be perhaps more didactic.  Sometimes it’s difficult to verbally explain certain aspects of painting, at least it is for me.

I began the series of six small images [ from the same source, a photocopy of an Ellis Island immigrant that I’d found in an old book ] in a step-by-step fashion.  Contextually, my grandmother had immigrated from what was then Hungary in 1902.  I thought of her when I saw the photo and so concocted the notion that it in fact was her and  called the project “Lies About My Grandmother; Louisa Wolf 1902”, the lie of course being that it really was NOT her, but linguistically it also alludes to some sort of disingenuousness or intrigue, which I felt might be engaging.  I expanded the size to two 30”X40” [the crow was about six or seven feet across] canvases in the hope that the students might see how liberating and fun it is to work large.  I think that my little experiment was a pretty big success because lots of folks [even from other departments] started stopping by to watch AND the students started to work larger themselves, slowly at first and then it became almost like a wildfire.  I had fun too! It’s pretty thrilling to see your influence have such an impact so quickly and you get to build a body of work by integrating your day job with your ”art”. 

Once, I actually did a job right in class. I had three classes back to back, 9 am straight through till 10 pm.  In the am class I got a call from the Wall Street Journal [Can I do a piece for tomorrow?]! I brainstormed with the students and made sketches during class one.  I sent a fax at lunch and got approval during class two.  I made the painting in class three and emailed it the next morning.  I hope that they remember that for awhile.  I will.