Author: jeremysutton

Interview with Alexander Edwards, December 2nd, 2014 (22 minutes 11 seconds)

See press reports in the Washington Post, Honoring the heroic ‘Montford Pointers,’ the African American Marines the corps didn’t want, and on the 6WECT station, Montford Point Marines to be honored with memorial Friday.

Alexander Edwards:
An America Hero and Friend of Lindy Hop Legend Frankie Manning

I had the great pleasure and honor of meeting Alexander Edwards at the Frankie Manning Centennial in New York City in May earlier this year. Al, as he likes to be called, was one of the first black Marines to serve in World War II. The service and sacrifice of the Montford Point Marines (Montford Point was the segregated location where they trained) was belatedly recognized in 2012, nearly 60 years later, by the Congress presenting surviving Montford Point Marines with the Congressional Gold Medal. After the War Al went to work at the US Postal Service, first in Florida and then in New York City, where he became Frankie’s manager. He and Frankie remained close friends for the rest of Frankie’s life.

As a wonderfully unexpected post-Thanksgiving surprise, Al rang my studio doorbell yesterday out of the blue. I was delighted to welcome him and his lovely wife Janice into my studio. He very graciously agreed on the spot to be both interviewed and drawn! In this interview Al shares not only stories about him and Frankie, but also gives us a glimpse into the struggles of being black in America in the pre-civil rights era, in particular the institutionalized segregation and discrimination he experienced in both the United States Marine Corp and in the United States Postal Service. Thank you, Al, for your service, for sharing your stories and giving us an insight into the Frankie you knew.

During this interview I sketched a pastel portrait of Al. You can even hear my Caran D’Ashe crayons on my canvas board if you listen carefully! You can see the end result below.

Click here to download this video interview for offline viewing.
Please note that this is a large file, approximately 280 MB.

To learn more about Frankie I recommend viewing the wonderful video documentary “Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging”, produced and directed by Julie Cohen.

The portrait of Frankie referred to in this interview can be seen by clicking here. Other portraits in my series of Lindy Hop Legends include one of Frankie’s son, Chazz Young; one of Norma Miller, one of the only remaining members of the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers; and one of Dawn Hampton.

Live painting at SEMA 2014, Las Vegas Convention Center, November 4th – 7th, 2014

SEMA 2014 – Portraits of Legends

SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, the main trade organization of the car customization industry, organizes the world’s largest custom car and hot rod trade show in the world in Las Vegas each year. It is also one of the largest annual events that takes place in Las Vegas. This year I was invited by SEMA to paint live iPad portraits of the icons and legends of the industry at their main booth in the SEMA 2014 grand lobby. It was a wonderful experience on all levels: artistically, technically and personally. Using the iPad with the Sketch Club app and a Pencil by 53 stylus was the perfect tool for the job – my paintings could be seen developing in real time on a 40 inch LED display mounted on my artist’s easel. Each portrait subject who kindly sat for me was immensely gracious, friendly and passionate about the industry. Plus they were a pleasure to talk with and all had fascinating stories to share. They each received a digital JPEG file of their completed portrait plus a short QuickTime movie of the entire process, brush stroke by brush stroke. The portraits were printed onto 4’x 8′ mounted boards that were then displayed at the entrance way to the SEMA Hall of Fame Gala. They looked amazing!

My iPad Portraits on display at the SEMA 2014 Hall of Fame (HOF) Gala

Big thanks to all at SEMA, to Rick and his fabulous team at lucid and, of course, to all my wonderful and inspiring portrait subjects!

To give you a taste of the experience I’ve divided my images (below) into a selection of the live portraits I created and scenes of me painting, and a few of the phenomenal customized cars that were on display, some of which had to be seen to be believed!!

Some of the Portraits

Jeremy with Jimmy Shine and his iPad portrait

Jeremy with Billy Gibbons and his iPad portrait

Camee Edelbrock portrait

Leo Kagan portrait

Linda Vaughn portrait

“Gentleman” Joe Schubeck portrait

Nile Cornelison portrait

Boyd Coddington portrait

John Waraniak portrait

John Waraniak and I with his portrait

Nate Sheldon portrait

Pete Chapouris portrait

Alex Xydias portrait

My iPad Portraits on display at the SEMA 2014 Hall of Fame (HOF) Gala

Painting Nandini at the SEMA 2014 HOF Gala

Painting Von Hot Rod on his birthday at the SEMA 2014 HOF Gala

A few of the Cars

The original Batmobile!

Pointed nose..

Two low riders.

Shiny red Chevy.

Big tires.

3D printed car.

Chevy x2.

With Elvis’ last car…this car wasn’t actually in the SEMA show, just on display at the Westgate Hotel next door, but being an Elvis fan I couldn’t resist including it:-)

The Pitch, 2014
36″ x 20″, pigment print and acrylic media on canvas

This painting depicts the winning baseball pitch in the 2014 World Series delivered by the games’ Most Valuable Player, Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants, in the 9th innings with the Kansas City Royals’ Alex Gordon on third base and ready to equalize the score. It was a tense moment for fans on both sides. I can only imagine the intense pressure on Bumgarner at that moment.

Erv, 2014

This is a portrait of saxophonist Jeff “Erv” Ervin playing with swing band Stompy Jones at Union Square, San Francisco. You’ll find a detailed explanation of how I painted this in the PainterClinic 24 recording on PaintboxTV.com. Thanks for all your great playing over the years, Erv!

Permanent installation of a series of eight custom-made site-specific artworks on the topic of Silicon Valley. Each artwork is a 60″ x 60″ Océ VariaDot UV inkjet print on .125″ 6061 Aluminum plate with random orbit finish and UV protective matte clear coat finish, held up by 1″ stainless steel support posts.

Below is a list of the eight artworks. The title and icon of each listed here links to a dedicated artwork page where you’ll find a higher resolution image of the artwork and more detailed description.

#1 Land & Transformation

Land & Transformation looks back at the lost orchards of Silicon Valley and a time when the land of the Santa Clara Valley was the fruit basket of the world before being transformed into the center of innovative high technology that we know as Silicon Valley today.

#2 Humans & Machines

Humans & Machines reflects on the long history of humans and their invention of and interaction with machines that ultimately led to the birth of what we know as Silicon Valley.

#3 Founders & Visionaries

Founders & Visionaries is a tribute to the insights, vision and leadership of the key people behind the foundation and growth of Silicon Valley and whose genius has paved the way for generation after generation of risk-taking entrepreneurial Silicon Valley leaders and visionaries.

#4 Circuits & Structure

Circuits & Structure reflects the architecture and design of integrated circuits or microchips, and the resulting physical structure and look of the devices and components they are used in.

#5 Bits & Bytes

Bits & Bytes is a visual nod to the programmers who generate the machine code, the zeroes and ones, and write the programming code that underlies the digital revolution pioneered in Silicon Valley and is used in computers and the vast array of devices, internet-based industries and apps.

#6 People & Work

People & Work represents the people who work in Silicon Valley, many coming from all over the world to fill the need for tech workers as well as for workers in the vast infrastructure that supports Silicon Valley companies.

#7 Products & Consumers

Products & Consumers reflects the diverse range of products produced in, emanating from and impacted by Silicon Valley. These products positively impact the lives of millions of consumers across every corner of the globe.

#8 Growth & Value

Growth & Value is an artistic allegory about how small Silicon Valley beginnings end up generating massive companies with huge international impact, an innovative and entrepreneurial growth pattern repeated again and again in Silicon Valley.

If you’re interested to learn more about the fascinating history of Silicon Valley and how an agricultural paradise transformed into a fountain of high tech innovation and enterprise, then here are some links to check out:
“Why Does Silicon Valley Exist?”, San Francisco Chronicle
“Silicon Valley: The Lure & the Legends”, Los Altos History Museum
Online Exhibits, Computer History Museum
“Silicon Valley: History & Future”, Gregory Gromov

The Scotiabank Nuit Blanche is an annual all night arts festival (7pm – 7am!) that attracts over one million attendees. Art installations of all kinds pop up for one night throughout downtown Toronto. I was invited to perform live digital painting by Nuit Blanche sponsor Scotiabank at this year’s Nuit Blanche. Scotiabank had an art installation,”1nspired Night”, set up on a main street called Spandina Avenue. There were two banks of seven 8’ x 8’ LED screens spread over 100’ length.

Photo by Elan Eisen

I created a live digital painting using Corel Painter 2015 and a Wacom Intuos Pro pen tablet that was displayed in real time over the seven screens (my artwork had a 7:1 aspect ratio). I continuously worked on a single canvas, taking it through many many stages. I painted themes and motifs connected with Toronto, including the iconic skyline, the neighborhoods, the bluffs, the street cars, the new and old City Hall, the city logo, and so on. I worked with a mix of pure paint, photographs, patterns and textures. My ever-transforming canvas and mixing of images paralleled the music mixing of the DJ.

The audience reaction was great. Here are a couple of the notes I received afterwards:

“Hello Jeremy,