Tag Archives: verolawlor

MATERIAL MEMORY: exhibition at Emerge Gallery by Veronica Lawlor

The Machine Age, acrylic on canvas, 54″ x 30″

Material Memory

Veronica Lawlor’s solo exhibition with Emerge Gallery in Saugerties, NY, from July 15 – August 27, 2023

View the exhibit on Artsy HERE

The show features her on-site reportage drawings of abandoned brickyards of the Hudson Valley and the paintings they inspired, as well as her reportage of the 2017 deconstruction of hte 1930s era Kosciuszko steel truss bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens, and the paintings inspired by that.

Additional work from the bridge series can be viewed in an Emerge Artsy exclusive companion exhibit HERE.

Thank you to Robert Langdon of Emerge Gallery as well as the Woodstock-Byrdcliffe Guild, the artist residency where Veronica did much of this work in 2022.

 

 

Studio 1482 Drawing Event

Studio 1482 was proud to host our inaugural zoom drawing night on October 30th, as a way to say thank you to our clients and stay connected during these trying times.

Drawing from the model is close to our hearts, and we had a great time that evening working with our long-time collaborator, the performance artist Kika. She modeled for us in an dizzying array of stripes; closing out the 3 hour session by wearing a traditional Spanish mantilla.

Below are some drawings created that evening by our Studio members, with a few words about what drawing means to them:

GREG BETZA: Drawing is my way to confidently communicate, artistically. It allows me to share what I see, feel and think freely without hesitation.

SEE MORE OF GREG’S ILLUSTRATION WORK HERE

MARGARET HURST: Drawing is the visual communication of my feelings and thoughts.

SEE MORE OF MARGARET’S ILLUSTRATION WORK HERE

VERONICA LAWLOR: Drawing is my way to connect with others, tell a story, and hopefully bring a little beauty to the world. It’s an instinctive response to a moment, almost like breathing.

SEE MORE OF VERONICA’S ILLUSTRATION WORK HERE

DOMINICK SANTISE: Drawing is my constant. No matter what comes next, it starts with a drawing.

SEE MORE OF DOMINICK’S ILLUSTRATION WORK HERE

——

To find out more about future events, email us at info@studio1482.com

Formed in 2005, Studio 1482 is an illustration cooperative. Each illustrator works independently to bring their unique point of view and personal style to an assignment, or collaboratively to create a larger vision for our clients.

Our specialty is reportage and reportage-inspired illustration. We work traditionally and digitally to create unique and aesthetic visual solutions.

Together, Studio 1482 members have more than 25 years of collective professional experience in the areas of editorial, publishing, advertising, concept development, reportage, fine art, graphic design, and arts education. Awards and honors include American Illustration, Communication Arts, Latin American Ilustración, the Society of Illustrators, the Society of Illustrators of LA, the Rx Club, and the World Illustration Awards.

IMMERSIVE SPACES WITH HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

Just completed another interesting project with the Mental Canvas dimensional drawing app: an interactive illustration of Young Huh’s interior design, for House Beautiful. (Above is a view of the kitchen.)

I had such fun translating Young Huh’s beautiful designs, color, patterns, and textures into digital illustrations, and it’s always a pleasure to work with the team at Mental Canvas.

ARMCHAIR TRAVELS – THE HOLIDAY SEASON IN NYC

Welcome to Armchair Travels, an invitation to travel around the world through the reportage illustration of Studio 1482We have gathered art from our travels to share with you in the hopes that, while you can’t get out and see these places (yet), our experiences may bring some happiness and light to your day. Please check back often as we will be posting new adventures weekly. Enjoy the holidays in New York City…by Veronica Lawlor.

As a life-long resident of New York City, it is hard for me to separate the idea of the holiday season from the city that does it up right every year. This year, due to Covid19, many of these revered NYC holiday traditions will be cancelled, or presented in digital form. So I thought it might be nice to time-travel for this edition of Armchair Travels, and visit the ghost of NYC holidays past…

For me, the holiday season kicks off with Halloween, and if you’ve never attended (or marched in!) the Greenwich Village Halloween parade, I definitely recommend you check it out. These drawings were made one year when fellow Studio 1482 illustrator Margaret Hurst and I decided that it was just balmy enough to head down to 6th Avenue and capture the goings-on. (That’s her at right in the drawing below, sporting that snazzy headgear.)

The scene above pretty much sums up the energy of the parade – frenetic!

Really it’s a fun time, and the spectators are usually in costume as well as those walking in the parade.

It’s kind of like going to a Halloween party that just happens to be in the middle of NYC, with about 1,000 of your closest friends. :)

Oh and a parade happens too.

After Halloween, the holiday season in New York starts to pick up steam. Every year since 1924, Macy’s hosts a Thanksgiving Day parade which starts in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and ends at their flagship store on 34th St. and Broadway. According to the Museum of the City of New York, that first parade in 1924 featured three balloons, four bands, and animals from the Central Park Zoo (which scared the kiddies.) The first helium balloons debuted in 1927, and the rest, as they say, is history. The scene above is on 79th St. outside the Museum of Natural History, the staging area for the parade.

For years it has been a personal tradition to visit the streets surrounding the Museum of Natural History on the night before the parade to see the balloons being inflated. It’s quite the “Gulliver’s Travels” moment to see these giant denizens of pop culture laying on 79th St, tethered by the many ropes that will be used by the handlers to control them as they fly down Broadway the following day. Kids come looking for their favorites to squeal at –

“SPIDERMAN!”

“MICKEY MOUSE!”

“SPONGE BOB!”

“PAPA SMURF!”

I always liked the Snoopy balloon the best, and Felix the Cat was pretty cool too. Growing up as a kid in New York, we felt like the parade was ours, and we each had our favorite balloons. My Mom loved Bullwinkle, and when we were watching the parade on television we would call her out of the kitchen to come watch him float down the street with his big floppy antlers.

When I first started going to see the balloon inflation the night before Thanksgiving, it was more like a neighborhood block party, with mainly New York locals and kids who lived nearby selling hot chocolate off of card tables for 10¢ a cup. Now it’s become a major tourist event, complete with police barricades and throngs of visitors from countries as near as Nassau County and as far away as China. The guy in the drawing above was just one of many tourists taking a selfie with the Ronald McDonald balloon.

The last time that I went, the crowds were so large that it took us an hour just to get around the corner. Wow. I guess the locals will have their streets to themselves this year, wonder what kind of pre-parade event there will be, if any.

And then of course, there is the parade itself. These two illustrations were made years ago when I lived on the Upper East side of  Manhattan, near Central Park.  I had plans for later that day, but just could not resist running over to sit behind the park wall and make a few drawings of my favorite parade, on my favorite holiday, in my favorite city. I remember how warm the day was, and the brilliantly colored the leaves on the Central Park trees were. Plus there was a Kermit balloon that year – what could be bad?

Of course, if Halloween is the kick-off to the Thanksgiving holiday, then Thanksgiving is the official kick off to the holiday season of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa in NYC. The yearly Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center is a beacon for all New Yorkers, as well as a reminder to the locals that it is again, time to stay out of midtown. Ha ha. The tourists are usually so thick this time of year that you have to swim upstream on 6th Avenue, and you can only cross 5th on certain corners at certain times.

Seriously, it’s serious.

But even though it can be difficult to move through the crowds, I find that it isn’t the holidays for me without a few trips to Rock Center to see the tree and all the beautiful decorations around the skating rink. I think I did skate there one year as a child, but I’m not sure if it really happened or if it’s just a dream.

And of course, it would not be the holiday season without the holiday shopping in the city! I really hate shopping, but once a year at Christmas-time I actually enjoy it. There’s hot chocolate at the holiday market in Union Square or Grand Central, the shops on 5th Avenue decked out in ribbons and tinsel, a huge crystal snowflake hanging at 59th St., it’s cold but not super February-frigid, and there are white lights and beautiful decorations on every building and in every lobby. Including the Penn Plaza lobby that I drew, below, for an AMC holiday card one year. It’s such a special time in the city, I do understand why the tourists like to be here – I like being here too!

The Thanksgiving Parade will be virtual this year, I don’t know if there will be a tree at Rockefeller Center, and the holiday markets will probably not go up. But no matter, the holidays are always a special time in New York City.

It may be quieter this year, but my city always shines brightly. NY Strong! And happy holidays!

To see more Armchair Travels from the reportage artists of Studio 1482, please click HERE.

THE NEWBURY IN BOSTON

My illustration of Acorn Street hangs over the fireplace in a Newbury suite.

A little over a year ago, I spent several wonderful weeks making reportage illustrations of the loveliest parts of Boston. The reportage was commissioned by The Newbury Hotel, a renewed vision of the classic Ritz, due to open to the public in April.

Of course, the pandemic delayed that, but The Newbury will open soon, and you will be able to see my reportage featured in the hotel, as well as on a limited edition series of postcards. The Newbury interviewed me about the experience, and that interview is featured on their blog, HERE.

I can’t wait to visit the hotel soon, and see all of this in person!

ARMCHAIR TRAVELS – ESSEX MARKET, NYC

Welcome to Armchair Travels, an invitation to travel around the world through the reportage illustration of Studio 1482We have gathered art from our travels to share with you in the hopes that, while you can’t get out and see these places (yet), our experiences may bring some happiness and light to your day. Please check back often as we will be posting new adventures weekly. Enjoy The Essex Market in NYC, circa spring 2019…

If you never went to the original Essex Street market on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, you might not have noticed it was there. Opened in an unassuming little building on the corner of Delancey and Essex Street in 1940, the Essex Market was the outgrowth of the original pushcart street market of the Lower East Side.

A pushcart, if you don’t know, is a moveable vehicle used to push and sell goods in the street – basically a platform on wheels, piled high with all kinds of stuff to sell, that can be pushed by a vendor. For the many immigrants who settled in the lower east side during the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe, the pushcart became a way of life. Need some fresh fruit or vegetables? Need your knives sharpened? Need fabric? How about a nice pickle? The pushcart sellers had it all. Eventually the downtown streets became so congested with carts that Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia declared ‘war’ on them in the 1930s.

And so, the Essex Market was born – essentially, it was a large indoor space set up for the vendors to bring their pushcarts inside. Nothing fancy about it, just sheer utilitarian design. Throughout the 20th and early 21st century, the market kept that casual pushcart feel, growing with the neighborhood, serving each new generation of immigrants who came to call the Lower East Side home. After the Immigration Act of 1965 lifted quotas, that included a large number of those who came from Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, as well as Europe. The Essex Market was a place for the people of the neighborhood: A place not only to shop for fresh produce, meat and fish, but also a place to meet with others and form community. Besides the grocery and food stands, there were coffee shops, bakeries, a few small restaurants – even a botanica and a tiny barber shop.

Recently, in the name of progress, the old market has been closed, and many of the vendors have moved across Delancey to the brand new “Essex Crossings” market. That one has more space and more chi-chi restaurants, but it’s lost that neighborhood soul. In the early spring of 2019, I had a chance to make a few drawings of the old place just before it shut down, preserving the memory of one of the last old school places of the city.

I love the body language of the older couple in the drawing above. They moved through the stands like one unit. You would see a lot of old-timers shopping for essentials at the Essex.

Another thing I loved about the old Essex Market was how tightly PACKED everything and everybody was. The groceries were stacked from floor to ceiling, and you’d see a hand pop out from the stack to weigh your produce, take your money, or give you change.

The people who worked there seemed to know just how to fit into every nook and cranny, and the patrons had figured out a way to weave in and out of the stacks of goods, and each other, without major collision.

When making the drawing above, I found it hard to see where the produce stopped and the vendor began. Many of the shopkeepers at the Essex had been there for 30 or 40 years and had become part of the fabric of the neighborhood. You would hear so many languages flying around as people greeted each other while they shopped.

I love the body language of the fish seller in the center of the drawing above, and the customer at left. He is leaning forward so strongly – saying “LOOK HOW FRESH THE FISH IS!” And she has her chin tilted up and her eyes slightly narrowed, saying “OH YEAH, LET ME SEE THAT FOR MYSELF!” No one is going to push either one of them around! Classic old-school New Yorkers, I love them. So direct, to the point, and no-nonsense. And just in case you think that means that they are rude or uncaring, New Yorkers are the first ones to ask if you need help, if you find yourself lost or in trouble on the street. By the way, notice the woman at right, how she is surveying the interaction between the other two – keeping an eye on the whole proceedings. That’s the New York City way – never let your guard down for a minute! Ha ha. I love it.

This Nordic Fish and Wildlife shop was really just fun to draw: Crammed with taxidermy deer and bear heads, little tchatchkes (Yiddish for knick-knacks), as well as good smoked salmon and other Scandinavian delicacies.

The shop has moved to the new Essex Crossing on Delancey, and they took some of their cramped decor style with them, so definitely check it out if you go.

At one point in the day I found a table and chairs along the side of the market to sit and draw from, and this lady above, Magnolia, sat across from me. An immigrant from Colombia, she was a sweet lady with such a sweet smile, who was resting while her daughter did the shopping for the family. I had to draw her – she didn’t mind. We spoke a bit in Spanish about how good the coffee from the nearby kiosk smelled. It really did.

I’m not normally into drawing still life pieces on location, but really, I had to do at least one drawing of the stacks and stacks of stuff that was squeezed into the alleyways of the market. With so much stuff piled together, it’s hard to really call it a ‘still’ life. It’s more like a crowd scene.

These dudes at the fish market didn’t mind me drawing them, but they were keeping an eye on me, just in case!

This is the last drawing I made in the old Essex Market. It really sums things up – an old school bucket and mop (and man using them to clean the floor) a woman buying a coffee from a vendor crammed into a shop the size of a telephone booth, and a guy hanging out, not really doing anything but people watching. I’ll miss people watching at the original Essex Market too. But really, I miss people watching anywhere, in these anti-gathering days of the coronavirus. Stay safe everyone, and let’s all give a big THANK YOU to the essential workers out there, in whatever market they may be employed at.

To see more Armchair Travels from the reportage artists of Studio 1482, please click HERE.

ARMCHAIR TRAVELS – CUBA

Welcome to Armchair Travels, an invitation to travel around the world through the reportage illustration of Studio 1482We have gathered art from our travels to share with you in the hopes that, while you can’t get out and see these places (yet), our experiences may bring some happiness and light to your day. Please check back often as we will be posting new adventures weekly. Enjoy Cuba…by Veronica Lawlor.

Cuba is one of the most alive places I’ve ever been to in my life. When I say alive, I mean that for the brief time I spent there in the summer of 2015, I was surrounded at all times by nothing but people. Look up: people. Look down: people. Check your side: people. People, everywhere. The island of Cuba is bursting to the seams with them. And the people are vibrant!

I was visiting Cuba with a group on a cultural visa, so grabbed time for reportage in between events. These drawings were made during a day spent with my good friends Margaret and Julia in the Old City of Havana, a colorful explosion of street life. Vendors, musicians, kids, stray dogs, artists, old ladies, taxi drivers – you name it, they are out in force. People are popping out of every balcony, in groups of twos and threes, laughing, singing, and smoking the ubiquitous cigars that the island is famous for. Unlike Manhattan, where I almost never see anyone out on their terraces, the people of Havana use theirs quite a lot. It’s almost theatrical the way they call out to each other from the balconies to the street. And of course, you hear music all day long.

This dude was hanging out on a side street smoking a cigar when his friend strolled up; pretty soon, they were playing together busking for coins. There is music everywhere in Havana, no joke. But lest this sound like a Disney movie, there were also beggars all over the streets – people asking you for basic items of life such as soap and toothpaste. I’ve never experienced that kind of panhandling in my life. It made me so sad to think about someone begging for a bar of soap. Still does.

I sat across from this corner to draw, and one of the boys selling fruit came over to me with a pear as a gift. He refused to take any money for it, so I gave him the portrait I drew of him in exchange. You’ll have to imagine what he looked like: Almond shaped dark eyes, jet black short hair, wiry body, expressive hands. As he was refusing to accept any money for the fruit, his friends were calling out to him (in Spanish): “Ask for her American passport!”

It seemed to be a theme. In 2015, the US had been softening its hard stance against Cuba, and there was a lot of hope that American dollars would soon be flooding into the economy. Communist Cuba, long supported by the USSR, fell on hard, hard times during the 1990s with the fall of the Soviet Union. While things have become better since then, the country is still struggling, and many saw the promise of American tourism just over the horizon. Who knows what is happening now, since the current US administration has tightened its stance again.

This scarcity can really be felt in the small government stores along the streets of Havana. It is illegal to photograph these basic grocery stores, but I was able to make a few drawings before the police began to arrive on the scene, curious about my intent.

The first thing you’ll notice in the stores, besides the ever-present poster of Castro, is the lack of merchandise. The shelves are sparsely populated with a few cans of something here, a couple of tubes of toothpaste there, a few bananas; a few bags of rice. People make do in Cuba, and it seems, sadly, that they have become used to the lack. The store proprietors liked that I was documenting the situation, and when the police started to show up, they pulled down the front gates so I could quickly catch one more drawing of the interior, below.

“Post this illustration,” they said, “to show everyone what is happening here.”

I was starting to feel a little heat from the local authorities (walkie talkies were out) – “What is she doing? Why is she drawing?” – so I finished and exited quickly

It began to drizzle, and people were walking in every direction to find cover. Margaret and Julia and I stood in a doorway hoping the rain would subside, but when we saw that even the pedicab drivers were packing it in, we decided to seek shelter. Good thing, because soon after the sprinkles of rain turned into a torrential downpour.

Best to get back to our rooms anyway, because the next day were were leaving our spot at the Hotel Nacional to travel with the group to Viñales, to visit a tobacco farm.

Ahhh, the mountains and tobacco fields of Cuba! The countryside in the Pinar del Rio Province is truly glorious, and the soil is a rich, rich red. No wonder the tobacco makes such fine cigars. (Which yes, by the way, of course I smoked while there.) It was really something to eat breakfast and look out over this view one morning.

The town of Viñales was just as lively and bustling as Havana, but without the Spanish colonial architecture and classic 1950s cars. The primary modes of transportation here seem to be bicycles and ox-drawn carts. Occasional donkeys too. Yes, this place is rural.

Our stop in this town was brief, but the impression has been long-lasting. The people are like family with each other in this place, everyone talking and calling out to each other in the streets, smiling and laughing. The hang-out vibe is real, and you can feel the affection. You can also feel the struggle of life underneath it all. Recently I saw a film about the Cuban countryside, and the farmers were locking up their oxen well at night, so bandits could not steal them to eat. That’s some serious survival mode.

I loved these dudes hanging out together, watching the parade of donkeys, oxen, carts, and people carrying goods go by them on the dirt road. As I was working, one of them, a man in his 60s, came over to watch me draw. I’m going to generalize here, but one thing I noticed in Cuba was that the younger generation was fairly pro-American; the older folks were most decidedly not. This man was kind of quiet as he stood and watched what I was doing. Then he asked me in Spanish, speaking slowly for my benefit, where I was from. “Nueva York,” I answered. Then he asked, was I from the Bronx? That stopped me – how the heck did this guy in Viñales know about the Bronx, and how did he know that’s where I’m originally from? So I told him yes, and in response, received a lecture about the time Hugo Chavez paid the heating bills for Bronx residents. (This is true.) The great Americans needed Chavez to pay!

The guy really loved Chavez, and continued to sing his praises to me as I drew. Chavez was a great leader, and so politically savvy. Saving Venezuela! Saving the Bronx! And then he told me what a fabulous ladies man Chavez was. The women just love him! Then the guy went even further, and told me that he, too, was a fabulous ladies man….hmm. I looked up and said, “Sorry Papi, tengo que dibujar.” (I have to draw.) That got a big laugh out of him, and he went back to the porch. ha ha. Love that guy – I would have drawn his portrait, but didn’t want him to think his charms had won me over. What a character.

After our brief stopover in the town, we continued on to the tobacco farm. Sigh. So beautiful.

The tobacco is hung and dried in these barns, where people work hard to hang the leaves from wooden rafters, amidst the sounds of clucking chickens.

The richness of the soil in tobacco country is a good metaphor for the richness of life that I witnessed during my brief time in Cuba. I hope to return there one day.

To see more Armchair Travels from the reportage artists of Studio 1482, please click HERE.

ARMCHAIR TRAVELS – BALI

In 2015 I had the most amazing opportunity to spend time in Bali, one of the Indonesian islands.

One way in which Bali is set apart from the rest of Indonesia, which is composed of mostly Muslim countries, is that the dominant religion of Bali is Hinduism.

Balinese Hinduism is unique, and includes the influence of Buddhism, Shivaism, animism and ancestor worship. Families usually live in compounds with a central family shrine, and offerings to the gods are made several times daily.

A family compound in Ubud.

Everywhere in Bali are reminders of the spiritual realm, from the statues of deities nestled in the forest to the offerings of rice on hand-crafted palm or bamboo plates set out on every crosswalk. Even the taxi drivers put rice offerings on their dashboards – it is a constant reminder that there is a force greater than us in the universe, there to be accessed if we can only listen. Bali is the only country in the world that I know of that observes a national day of silence, called Nyepi, for the New Year. What a beautiful thought.

Offerings to the gods are everywhere in Bali.

We spent our first week up in the mountains near Ubud, the area of Bali made famous in the USA by the book Eat, Pray, Love. Miles and miles of rice paddies surround this ancient city of stone and wood. Carved deities peek out at you from every corner, and even the local Starbucks (yes, they have it there too) has that pervasive feeling of being lost in history. Every morning as we sipped our coffee on the little patio behind our hotel bungalow we saw people working in the rice fields, just as they must have done for hundreds of years. And in the evenings we would watch the sun set slowly over this same field. It was serene, to say the least, and I don’t think that this New Yorker has ever experienced such a sense of calm as I did while there.

We were fortunate to be in Ubud during the Purmnama Sasih Karo, or the Full Moon Ceremony. Full moon ceremonies in Bali are celebrated in temples where Balinese Hindus come together to pray, be blessed, and offer fruits, flowers, and food to the gods.

Musgi, the young English-speaking rock-and-roll loving man who worked at our hotel, kindly invited my husband Neil and I to join him at his family temple outside of Ubud, so that we could witness the ceremony, and I could draw it.

That evening, we put on the sarongs we had purchased earlier in the day, and joined Musgi in following the procession to his temple. (You are not permitted to wear anything but a sarong in the temple for the festival, fyi.)

The temple is mostly open air, with pagoda like structures to give shelter in the rain. Lined up along the entrance to the temple are these kinds of tall curved bamboo poles with coconut leaves, flowers, coins and fruits hanging down from them, called penjor. They are all over the streets of Ubud during the religious holiday, and make the place feel very festive.

It was late evening as we approached, and the sun was setting. Bats were beginning to circle in the air above us. As we entered the temple, Neil felt something wet hit the back of his neck – as a native New Yorker, his first thought was how the pigeons in NYC will often ‘bless’ us as they fly over head and he yelled out, “I just got peed on by a bat!” We both had to laugh at ourselves once we realized that it was only a Hindu priest, kindly sprinkling us with holy water as we entered the sacred grounds.

Inside the temple area it was a bustle of activity. People from the villages all around had been assembling – usually, men arriving on mopeds with women on the back (and sometimes children pile on too.) Everyone is wearing beautifully decorated sarongs, and the women have these stacks of goodies to offer to the gods piled high in a golden tower on their heads: fruits, cakes, rice, incense, flowers – so beautiful!

The families stack up their offerings on different covered platforms of the temple, around a large open common area. Then everyone gets on their knees to pray. There are a lot of rituals involving holding flowers up in between folded hands, interspersed with blessings from the priests, with incense and holy water. During new moon festivals, the essence of the sweet stacked golden offerings is to be enjoyed by the gods, while the people purify themselves in preparation for the new cycle that is beginning. Neil participated in the prayers while I drew from the sidelines.

And of course there was chanting by the temple patriarchs, who all sat together on a dais, and music. It was quite a celebration of the ever-changing cycles of life, represented by the miracle of the new moon.

Musgi told us that over the next few days, the families enjoyed eating all of the cakes and fruits that had been blessed, continuing the celebration. We felt so welcomed, and honored to have been a part of it.

After a week in Ubud, we ventured down from the mountains to spend time on the coast of Bali, in the beach village of Sanur. Although the Fairmont hotel we stayed in had more of a western luxury vibe to it, there was still plenty of traditional Balinese culture surrounding us, from the musicians playing in the hotel lobby to the small shrines and offerings of gratitude scattered around the hotel grounds.

As a westerner, I’m not used to seeing shrines and places to leave offerings to the gods in the gardens around a hotel pool, but the suite we stayed in and the pool at the Fairmont were so nice that I definitely felt the gratitude!

The boardwalk along the beach in Sanur was full of bustling activity and plenty of thick vegetation to find shade under. People were sweeping the sand from the boardwalk continuously, and in the drawing above, you can also see them up in the trees doing some pruning. A lot of the activity, though, was spurred by the upkeep of the traditionally colorful boats called jukung. They looked so pretty, lined up along the shore. The jukung are essentially fishing boats, and the men who steer them wait along the shoreline for tourists who want to hire them for a day out on the ocean. They must require a lot of maintenance; as it seemed like the boats were constantly being worked on between trips.

As well as taking the jukung out, many men fish close to the shoreline, in special gear. The large hats they wear not only protect them from the sun, but they also have little bait boxes on them for quick access. Although this may be a traditional way of fishing, I learned that most of the men we saw out every morning were tourists from the city, finding ways to decompress. Just as we were; although traveling there from New York City took quite a bit longer.

I loved drawing the fishermen, and did many studies of them during our stay in Sanur. I wondered if women fish this way too, but I didn’t see any during our time there.

The culture and history of Bali is so rich, I could have stayed there for another year and still discovered something new every day. I haven’t even discussed the richness of the Balinese visual arts, dense and packed with narrative – an illustrator’s dream. While we were visiting Ubud I took the opportunity to have a lesson in the traditional art of Batik. It’s a way of decorating fabric by drawing a line of resist with hot wax, and filling the spaces in between with different colored dyes. I’ll end this post with my batik efforts, and the hope that I will be able to some day return to

BALI, THAT PLACE OF GRATITUDE.

To see more Armchair Travels from the reportage artists of Studio 1482, please click HERE.

ARMCHAIR TRAVELS – BOSTON

Welcome to Armchair Travels, an invitation to travel around the world through the reportage illustration of Studio 1482.We have gathered art from our travels to share with you in the hopes that, while you can’t get out and see these places (yet), our experiences may bring some happiness and light to your day. Please check back often as we will be posting new adventures weekly.

Enjoy Boston…by Veronica Lawlor

It seems like eons ago, but this past Fall I was commissioned to create on-site illustrations of Boston, Massachusetts, to celebrate the opening of The Newbury hotel, near the entrance to the Public Gardens. The hotel is the featured building in the image above; it sits on the corner of Newbury Street and Commonwealth Avenue, overlooking the park.

It was such a pleasure to document the history and elegance of one of America’s oldest cities.

For four delightful days, I focused on Newbury Street, the Beacon Hill area, and of course, the Public Garden itself.

Founded in 1837, the Boston Public Garden is the first public botanical garden in America. According to the sign at the garden’s Commonwealth Ave. entrance, the park was founded in 1837. Many iconic fountains and statues – including Thomas Ball’s monument of George Washington in the drawing above – were erected in the 1860s. The  landscape design of the park was created by George F. Meacham, and the plants, flowers and trees were laid out by James Slade and John Galvin.  You can read more about the history of the park HERE.

For my part, I enjoyed the quiet, personal feeling of the park, and I probably spent more time than I needed to drawing the large pond by the Commonwealth Avenue entrance. The Public Garden really made me feel the notion that public spaces are for the community. Little kids and their grandparents feeding the birds, local residents jogging, happy couples getting married, young girls in their Quinceañera dresses – the overall feeling was very intimate.

And of course, those swan boats drifting amongst the willow trees added a sense of romance…

The park also has amusement for the children – the carousel is, appropriately, Revolutionary era-themed.

One of the hot spots for the kids is the statue dedicated to the children’s book, Make Way for Ducklings, written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. The statue is the cutest; a row of little brass ducklings led by their Momma, whom the little ones love to climb on. I dare you not to smile when you see that – I certainly was smiling when I drew it. Speaking of hot spots, early September still holds plenty of heat in the city, and so I was also able to draw many of the local children enjoying the fountain and wading pool of the Frog Pond, below.

Overlooking the Frog Pond is the entrance to the Boston neighborhood known as Beacon Hill. Wow, what an elegant place. I felt a bit underdressed in the company of all of the grand architecture and tree-lined cobblestone streets. Standing in front of one of the most famous, Acorn Street, I could feel myself transported to the late 18th Century (drawing below.)

There are and have been many famous residents of Beacon Hill, including Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, whose home is on the left in the drawing above. (Drawing her home was kind of a fan-girl moment for me.)

Strolling back down from Beacon Hill, I then took a tour of Newbury Street, to draw some more lovely architecture and fashionable shops. There are many small restaurants and cafes along Newbury Street as well, so I would usually end my day of drawing here, to relax, have a little late supper, and review my work for the day. At times like these, I feel so lucky to be a reportage illustrator. My work combines all of the things I love to do – drawing, traveling, meeting people, and spending time in beautiful places. What could be bad?

This last drawing is of the entrance to The Newbury hotel, which those of you familiar with Boston may recognize as the old Ritz-Carlton, reborn.

The nicest part of this whole story is how The Newbury hosted me during my stay in Boston. What a beautiful room, what a lovely view, what a delicious breakfast buffet every morning! I still think about that breakfast, served on bone china in an expansive dining room with damask tablecloths. The service was exquisite, too: I felt quite pampered.

My first night back home, I was looking for the slippers waiting next to my bed. ;)

I highly recommend a stay at The Newbury, and if you go, you just might see one of my drawings on the walls.

To see more Armchair Travels from the reportage artists of Studio 1482, please click HERE.

ARMCHAIR TRAVELS – VATICAN CITY

I’m excited to introduce Armchair Travels, an invitation to travel around the world through the reportage illustration of Studio 1482. We have gathered art from our travels to share with you, in the hopes that while you can’t get out and see these places (yet), our experiences may bring some happiness and light to your day. Please check back often as we will be posting new adventures weekly.

Enjoy Vatican City…by Veronica Lawlor

Here I post some memories from an afternoon in Vatican City and an audience with Pope John Paul II…

Looking at the current images of Rome under lockdown: empty streets, deserted piazzas; I can’t help but contrast them to the Rome I found back in 1998, when I spent a week drawing the scene in Vatican City. PEOPLE make the heart of any city, and in a place that is sacred to so many of the Catholic faith, that rule applies even more, despite the gorgeous architecture. The crowds were immense, almost as immense as the heat that August.

While I definitely felt it was important to capture the majesty and the sheer crowd size of the square, what intrigued me the most about Vatican City was how everyday it was for the people who lived there – not only the priests and nuns, but also, the vendors who made a living from the hordes of tourists coming to visit the shrine and perhaps catch a glimpse of the Pope. To help me feel immersed in this world, I decided to stay at a convent while visiting. When the nuns found out that I was busily drawing their city, they arranged for me to have an audience with the Pope to complete my story. And so, one morning after our communal breakfast, I headed into town for my day’s work.

Vatican City is a bustling little metropolis in it’s own right, and actually, it’s an official country within Rome. There is no difference between commuting here and in any other urban center, except in Vatican City, many of your fellow commuters are wearing the garb of the clergy, and saying the rosary is a common commuting past time. Above, a group of nuns wait for the bus to take them down the mountain to St. Peter’s Square.

Vatican City is also a place where many secular Romans make their living. Here, two vendors argue on the outskirts of the Piazza, exhibiting the famous Italian body language and hand gestures as they emphasize their points.

Not far from them, a group of nuns and priests take their lunch break. Different suits, but in many ways, the same activity as the folks on Wall Street.

I soon arrived at St. Peter’s for my audience with the Pope. That sounds so intimate, but actually, you need a ticket to get in, and when I arrived to the entrance of the smallish theater where the audience is held, there was a line complete with vendors hawking umbrellas and water to protect us from the August heat while we waited to get in. Most of the people on line were from the clergy, taking their vacation to visit the holy site. There were nuns and priests visiting from all over the world, and as Pope John Paul II walked on to the stage, there were nationalistic cheers from the various factions of religious folks. It was quite a rally! He waved to the crowd as he slowly made his way to the chair set up at the center of the small stage.

 

Pope John Paul II was very old and frail by 1998, but his aura was still quite strong. He was multi-lingual, and people were in tears when he spoke to them in their own language. Everyone lined up and walked across the stage for a personal blessing. It was kind of like a graduation of sorts. The Pope was surrounded by many bishops and the Swiss Guards at all times. It was quite regal.

It was also quite moving to see how the people responded to him. After the audience ended, we all went through St. Peter’s Basilica, where the tradition is to kiss the feet of the statue of St. Peter, which at this point are nothing more than thin worn down slabs at the end of his marble legs.

On my way out, I stopped to make some drawings of the Swiss Guards.

I was quite enamored of the Swiss Guards – after all, when you are a young Italian man wearing a uniform designed by Michelangelo, it’s hard to go wrong. I can’t say that my motivation was entirely religious here, but I think they were good with it. Even in Vatican City, that holiest of places in Rome, bella figura rules the day!

To see more Armchair Travels from the reportage artists of Studio 1482, please click HERE.

Thank You Card to Our Heroes

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well in this time of crisis.

Here at Studio 1482, we want to thank the medical professionals, first responders, and essential workers who are out there working for us every day. So we each created an illustrated thank you card for them.

To give to the heroes in your life, click the links below each illustration to download the images as either shareable digital files or for print on Avery 5315 note cards:

Dominick Santise: Prevailing Spring
Link to HiRes Digital File
Link to LoRes Digital File
Link to Print-Ready Avery 5315 File


Greg Betza: Stay Home
Link to HiRes Digital File
Link to LoRes Digital File
Link to Print-Ready Avery 5315 File


Margaret Hurst: Heart Angels
Link to HiRes Digital File
Link to LoRes Digital File
Link to Print-Ready Avery 5315 File


Veronica Lawlor: Love Has No Boundaries
Link to HiRes Digital File
Link to LoRes Digital File
Link to Print-Ready Avery 5315 File


Be safe, be well.

Kind Regards,
Studio 1482 Illustration
Dominick Santise • Greg Betza • Margaret Hurst • Veronica Lawlor