ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustrations are just as much art but a little less all me. Not always. While I'm still working for a "client", more often than not they are more reluctant to control me as much as when I'm working in graphic design. Over the last year or two I've done several small paintings/illustrations for a series of seasonal posters for The Rabun County Tourism Development Authority. You'll find those and other examples of illustration projects below.

THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION JUNE 17, 2017

In late 2014 Rabun County was named Georgia's Farm-To-Table Capital. Historically the area has been a successful and active farming center and a place where Appalachian customs and history have been actively maintained and celebrated. In the 1970's the wildly popular social documentation project known as "Firefox" was created  by Educator Elliot Wigginton. That publication fostered a rebirth of interest in he "old ways" of living and being connected to the earth. Books, movies, and legends have persisted and the popularity of the idea has begun to experience a resurgence. Rabun County's importance in the state has begun to blossom again and with a renewed vigor in it's agricultural success it proudly celebrates it's new farm-to-table leadership.

The 4 Seasonal Posters Below are 11" x 17" and if you're interested are available from The Rabun County Tourism Development Authority. They also have a series of three posters that were created for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse. To get more information go to - www.ExploreRabun.com

Below these seasonal posters are the three posters for the 2017 Total Eclipse Celebration in Rabun County also available from the the link above.

(The illustrations for the last two posters were not approved and were never printed)

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Dreams of Jam, The Real Thing • Season 1
This illustration of jelly makers in their kitchen, neighbors, perhaps sisters, represents the simple but tight human connection fostered by food and its preparation not to mention the eating of it. The illustration hearkens back to the time when in the 40's and 50's agriculture was the backbone of America and coming out of World War II, we made the most of the farming skills we had learned in feeding our armies. It was also the time however, when "the city" would begin to beckon Americans to new lives and new jobs in industry. But Rabun County held on and and continued to help feed the state of Georgia.

A Pie Out of Season • Granny's Canning
Season 2
Actually the first poster in the 2016 series was yet another shameless play on artist Grant Wood's 1930 painting entitled "American Gothic." In this image our rural couple dresses the same but has the altogether happier task of eating a pumpkin pie rather than just flinging hay with a pitchfork. They still take the task at hand with expressions that represent severity but inside they are giggling to get to the pumpkin custard. Their barn roof nods to another rural image, the ubiquitous "See Rock City" directive on so many Southern barn roofs.

The Last Big Push - Season 3
The end of the season and the final harvest - Fall 2016. The summer's work is over and the work on the farms begins to shift from harvesting and selling to the first preparations for next season. The farmers pick and prepare vegetables and fruits to put by for their own winter meals, fields are cleaned and prepped, and brain cells begin to plan for next years rotations and yields. The water in the streams begins to get crisper and cooler and ribbons of smoke curl up from warm chimneys and twist into the color of the sky. The work doesn't stop or even slow down, it simply changes.

A Rabun County Winter - Season 4
While the background photo is actually a native snow fall, it is made more romantic by virtue of the fact that they are fewer and father between these days. Whether the mountains are snow covered or not there can hardly be a more beautiful place on earth. Standing on one of our peaks, perhaps in Black Rock Mountain State Park, Georgia's highest, there is a profound and expansive sense of stillness. Seasonal leaves and foliage flutter in the quiet, sky high atmosphere and around you are the cyclical colors of time's passage.

These three posters for the 2017 Rabun County Eclipse Celebrtion are also available from The Rabun County Tourism Development Authority

The final two posters were proposed but not printed so they are not available at the present time.

Winter - Thinking Beyond Ourselves 
     Many people celebrate holidays in religious ways that embrace peace and the human need for togetherness and understanding. The overriding ideal is the sense that through respect and interacting we can learn to get along peacefully.
     It occurred to me that it might be a good seasonal thought to be aware of the smaller souls that surround us, often out of site, who depend on their own, sometimes less evolved society of getting along. Ours too, is often less evolved but our chance for learning new ways to live together are a constant possibility just waiting to be acknowledged. Human beings are responsible for their own spiritual progress and for being respectful for all forms of life on the planet. Enlightenment is a gift for everyone.

Illustration and Proposal for a Spring Poster
One of our local growers, year after year produces a sought after Spring crop - ripe, red, succulent strawberries. They burst on the scene in all their fabulous juiciness and folks travel for long distances to snap them up. What better subject for the first seasonal poster then those berries.
(This poster was not produced in the seasonal series.)