Brush with Peril, page 00b – Back Cover – Commentary

From Wikipedia:

“Wayne Thiebaud (/ˈtiːboʊ/ TEE-boh; born November 15, 1920) is an American painter known for his colorful works depicting commonplace objects—pies, lipsticks, paint cans, ice cream cones, pastries, and hot dogs—as well as for his landscapes and figure paintings. Thiebaud is associated with the pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his early works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work.”

His works are“in permanent collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; Phoenix Art Museum.^[18] Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; and many other institutions. “

(With an extra special thanks to my local art gallery, the John Natsoulas Gallery – My best friend John Natsoulas forwarded contact information to me for the famous Mr. Thiebaud, who was at the time 95 years old. Why am I telling you all this, you ask? Please read the next entry this letter I sent him on March 13, 2016…)

3/13/16

Esteemed Mr. Thiebaud, sir,

I’m a comic book artist who got an art degree from UC Davis back in 1995, and I was privileged to take two classes from you. I now continue to live in Davis with my wife and two sons.  I am writing to see if you might be willing to take time to flip through my current comic book project and consider letting me pay you to write an introduction or blurb of endorsement that I might use for promotion.

The comic, “A Brush with Peril,” is a James Bond style spy story in which high brow art meets low brow intrigue, in that the characters and settings are “swipes” of museum masterworks.

As I look back, I realize how instrumental you were in the formulation of so many of my ideas and themes that have culminated in this project.  At the least, I wanted to express to you my sincere thanks for the importance you played in making me into the artist I have become today.

Looking over this comic, I realized how many comments you made in classes that, at the time, felt insignificant, but in funny ways, returned to shape all my work profoundly, and this work in particular. 

First of all, you showed slides of comic art alongside “artists.”  You mixed Little Nemo and Crazy Cat with Robert Ryman and Berthe Morisot (all whom I discovered through you).  Although I believe college educations have changed now, back then, comics artists weren’t discussed in any of my art classes – except by you. It was another step in helping me feel comics could aspire to be art and not just an entertaining throw-away distraction.

You also talked about an agent who saw your portfolio and didn’t like it, but weeks later he called you and decided he needed to represent you, because he couldn’t shake your work from his mind.  It made me realize how many of my favorite films and songs are this way.  They may be disturbing or unsettling, or they just don’t rub me the right way, but I can’t stop thinking about them and processing them.  And investing all that thought and visceral contemplation causes you to respect and love the work even more.  They summon something, and I realized I wanted to aspire to create art like that. 

You also said that to become a great artist, you should copy great artists, to try and understand how they do what they do, why they make the choices they made.  You said if you’re concerned about having your own style, you need to look at many artists, and copy many artists’ styles, and you will pull from each of them what works for you, and pulling from all these sources will create your own style.

You talked about how each work of art creates a story.  Where is this place and what is happening there?  Who is this person?  The image tells us so much, and makes us create so much in our heads.  Seeing all this fantastic art made me wonder if I could string them all together and make one enormous story out of so much art history, and that is the genesis of this comics project.

You said when we look at a work of art, it causes us to see the world differently, through the eyes of that artist.  After we’ve looked at a Van Gogh painting, we begin to see those swirls in the sky.  When we see bottles lying about, Morandi’s compositions and colors jump out at us.

You gave a list of books to write a report on, and I read “Ways of Seeing.” I believe we also watched the documentary of it in class.  And I learned how context changes the art’s meaning.  If a Rothko piece is ten feet tall on a museum wall, you will read and experience it differently than if it is two inches tall on your bathroom mirror next to a can of deodorant.  I would be delighted if reading my comics causes fans to see Van Gogh portraits and think, “Name the bean!” or see Monet hay stacks and point and shout “Hay!”  Or from the opposite side, enthuse them to want to learn more about the original works of art I reference.

All these lessons and ideas culminated in my current work and how I chose to tell it. 

I hope if you read through some of this comic, my intent will be clear to you – especially in including YOUR work – that it was as an act of love and respect and gratefulness and appreciation and awe, and wanting to give readers a sense of excitement and fun – for artwork, and YOUR works, and for YOU and for how much you taught me.  So I chose to kick off my story with the artist who in my opinion I was fortunate enough to have to ignite and nurture my understanding of art and art concepts.

Please find included the first four chapters of my story, “A Brush with Peril,” in varying degrees of completion.  The first chapter is colored and includes a careful art referenced index (although I apologize that I was unable to find complete information in particular with the locations of some of your paintings).  The later chapters still need to be colored, and I have not yet had a chance to compile as complete an index of art references.  The book will culminate in ten chapters with the lead characters meta-commenting on the meaning of art and many of these topics I’ve just mentioned here.

 I will be releasing this project through Fantagraphics.  In addition, I will be launching a web comic version of it, in which mousing over the comics panels will summon up thumbnails of the original works of art and name of artist, title, and link to museum location, as well as some commentary.  I hope for it to be an entertaining and educational way to see and learn about art, as well as to enjoy unique ways the comic book ties all this art into one hopefully thought-provoking and entertaining story.

At the time I was at UC Davis, I was still figuring out what art was, and I didn’t realize how important and precious to me the education was that you bestowed on me.  But so many of your eloquent lessons remain with me, scratching at my brain and invigorating this particular comic of mine.  I thank you genuinely, and hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,
Your fan and former student,
Chris Wisnia
[name, address, phone number, and website included]

Within a couple weeks, I received a phone call from Wayne Thiebaud. He said he had received my package, and he looked over the comic book I’d sent him, and he could see I’d spent a lot of time working at it, and he felt it had merit. And then he asked, “How can I help?” And that led to the quote of endorsement, which he sent me in the mail shortly after. It came in a small envelope decorated with white flowers, and he included a card of his pie images, and then hand wrote his quote for my use, on yellow lined legal pad paper. He hen affixed a post-it note that read, “Dear Chris, Hope this will do – Good luck, Wayne Thiebaud.” (And he didn’t ask for any payment.)

(A few years ago, after receiving this letter, and when I thought I was getting ready to begin publishing this web comic, I posted a sort of little teaser about this quote of endorsement, HERE.)

Classes with Wayne Thiebaud
(Two Takes!)