The current Monday Artday challenge is “mystic”.
“I am a mystic who is trying to convey the mysteries that have become available to me.
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
IF: renewal
The first Illustration Friday challenge of 2010 is “renewal”.
“Lover’s quarrels are the renewal of love.”
Terence, Roman playwright (185159 BC)
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from my sketchbook: roy kinnear
Roy Kinnear began his career in repertory theatre before making his film debut in the early 1960s. He worked mostly in his native Great Britain appearing in popular sitcoms and variety shows. He was most successful in films directed by his good friend Richard Lester, including Help! with The Beatles, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum, How I Won the War and the Three Musketeers series of the late 1970s and 1980s. He is most recognized as Veruca Salt’s exasperated father in 1971’s Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
In addition to film roles, Roy lent his voice to several cartoons including Watership Down, The Princess and The Goblin and the British favorite Super Ted.
In September 1988, while filming The Return of the Musketeers in Spain, Roy fell from a horse and sustained a broken pelvis. He was taken to hospital in Madrid, and died from a heart attack the following day. He was 54 years old.
The film’s director, Roy’s longtime friend Richard Lester, was so distraught over the incident that he never directed another film.
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from my sketchbook: martha mansfield
Martha Mansfield was an active and popular actress in silent movies.
On November 30, 1923, while working on location in San Antonio, on the film The Warrens of Virginia a Civil War costume epic. Martha was playing the role of Agatha Warren and had just finished her scenes and retired to a car when a crew member accidentally tossed a lit match. The flame ignited Martha’s hoopskirt costume. Her leading man, Wilfred Lytell, threw his heavy overcoat on Martha’s face to protect her from the quickly spreading fire. She was rushed to a hospital in San Antonio, where she died in less than twenty-four hours. Martha was 24 years old.
Although she made over twenty-five films in her short career, few of them survive.
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from my sketchbook: j.g. parry-thomas
J. G. Parry-Thomas was a race car driver who at one time held the Land Speed Record.
On April 27, 1926 at Pendine Sands Beach in Wales, Parry-Thomas took his car to over 170 miles per hour, despite poor conditions and soft, wet sand. The record would stand for almost a year until it was broken by rival driver Malcolm Campbell on the same beach.
Parry-Thomas was anxious to recapture the record and the glory that came with it. His modified car used exposed chains to connect the engine to the drive wheels and the way that the high engine was situated required him to drive with his head tilted to the right. On his attempt at regaining the Land Speed Record, the right-hand drive chain broke at a speed of 170 miles per hour. The chain whipped up and Parry-Thomas was decapitated.
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from my sketchbook: teresa graves
The neighbors in Hyde Park knew her as “Tootie”, the devoted daughter who came to take care of her ailing mother. She had the back porch enclosed and turned into a bedroom so she could stay with her mother full time. She was a devout Jevhovah’s Witness and was active in raising awareness of the persecution of fellow Jehovah’s Witness in Malawi. On October 10, 2002, Tootie was asleep in her bedroom when a space heater malfunctioned and burst into flames. Tootie’s mother managed to escape, but emergency workers removed an unconscious Tootie from the home. She died from burns and smoke inhalation. Her neighbors never knew of Tootie’s prior life of fame.
Tootie was Teresa Graves, the iconic star of the 1974 police action series Get Christie Love! Patterned after 70s blaxploitation films, Get Christie Love! was very popular, despite only lasting one season. Teresa had worked her way up in show business, first starting as a member of the easy listening group The Doodletown Pipers, then becoming a regular on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In in its third season. But, it was Get Christie Love! that made Teresa a household name. She retired from acting in 1983.
When she died in that house fire in 2002, she was just “Tootie” to those closest to her.
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IF: pioneer part 2
This week’s challenge word on Illustration Friday is “pioneer”. This is my second illustration for this topic. HERE is the first.
John Lautner was an architect and student of Frank Lloyd Wright. He was a pioneer and the originator of “Googie” architecture. “Googie” architecture was a somewhat derogatory term for the futuristic building design popularized in Southern California in the late 1940s into the 1950s. It was named for Lautner’s design for Googie’s Coffee House in Los Angeles.
Lautner designed many residences and commercial properties in Southern California, each unique, but each featuring the same space-age flair. One of the most famous of Lautner’s creations was the Chemosphere, which is situated on the San Fernando Valley side of the Hollywood Hills, just off of Mulholland Drive. It is a one story octagon with around 2200 square feet of living space. Most distinctively, the house is perched atop a concrete pole nearly thirty feet high. This innovative design was Lautner’s solution to a site that, with a slope of 45 degrees, was thought to be practically unbuildable.
The Chemosphere overlooks the original home of Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Studios. It is believed, although unsubstantiated, that The Chemosphere was the model for the Jetsons’ home, as frustrated animators, seeking inspiration for their new cartoon, glanced out the window at the Hollywood Hills.
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IF: pioneer
This week’s challenge word on the Illustration Friday website is “pioneer”.
Louis Jordan, a pioneer in jazz, blues and rhythm & blues, was the link between big band swing and rock and roll. He was a prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was known as “The King of the Jukebox” and was very popular with both black and white audiences in the days of segregation. Jordan fronted his own band for over twenty years. He was as popular as contemporaries Count Basie and Duke Ellington. His comedic flair was a major part of his popularity. This also helped him as a sought-after star of “race” films in the 1940s.
In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging “Saturday Night Fish Fry”, “Blue Light Boogie”, the comic classic “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens”, the multi-million seller “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” and his biggest hit “Caldonia”. “Saturday Night Fish Fry” featured a distorted electric guitar and one of the first uses of the term “rocking”. It also included a rapid-fire narration that was evolutionary basis for today’s rap. Jordan also popularized the slang term “chick”.
Louis Jordan and his band The Tympany Five dominated the 1940s R&B charts. In this period Jordan scored fifty-four Top Ten recordings, eighteen of them rising to number one. To this day, Louis Jordan ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at number one – an incredible total of 113 weeks. From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan scored five consecutive number one songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks.
Jordan switched his sound to full-on rock & roll in the mid-1950s, but his popularity waned. He seldom recorded at all after the early 1960s. Jordan died in Los Angeles, California, from a heart attack on February 4, 1975.
Louis Jordan was a major, and often cited, influence on rock pioneers Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown and Bill Haley and The Comets. Blues legend B.B. King and British singer Joe Jackson have each recorded tribute albums to Louis Jordan.
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Monday Artday: horse
This week’s challenge on the Monday Artday website is “horse“.
According to legend, Catherine the Great of Russia really loved horses.
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from my sketchbook: michael johnson
On September 10, 1995, two men robbed a convenience store in Lorena, Texas. 27 year-old Jeff Wetterman was shot and killed during the robbery. The two men, David Vest and Michael Johnson, each named the other as the gunman. Vest pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and, in exchange for an eight-year sentence, testified against Johnson. Despite his unrelenting denials, Johnson was found guilty and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
As per prison policy, guards check every fifteen minutes on inmates facing imminent execution. On October 19, 2006, Johnson spoke briefly with guards at 2:30 AM. When the guards returned for their 2:45 AM check, they discovered Johnson unresponsive and lying in a pool of blood. He had fashioned a metal blade attached to a stick and slit his jugular vein. He had enough time, before he died, to write “I didn’t do it” on his cell wall in his own blood.