First of all, many thanks to all of you who posted warm words of welcome! Frequent references to "taking the plunge" I find particularly amusing, since I'm already 35 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean, stitching with the fishes!
Now to put my newest project into perspective....
The year was 1927. Calvin Coolidge was president of the U.S. Prohibition had been in place for eight years. Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. Commercial trans-Atlantic telephone service began between New York and London. The movie "The Jazz Singer" opened, ending the era of silent films, and "Showboat" debuted on Broadway. Ford replaced the Model T with the Model A, which sold for $385. Work on Mt. Rushmore began, and Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run.
A 20-year-old senior at New York University was named art editor of the campus magazine "The Medley." His pen-and-ink drawing of Central Park in New York City, pictured here, was used in the November 1927 issue, illustrating a rather lame joke alluding to the difficulties in finding a beverage to quench one's thirst at that time.
Flash to 2008: I'd been looking for some artwork to jazz up our newly remodeled powder room, which has accents of black and white, and remembered this drawing. The only problem was the original artwork was way too small for my purposes--approximately 4-1/2 inches by 5-1/2 inches. The only way I could see of getting the image I wanted in the size I needed was to adapt the original to needlepoint.
I took the original drawing to Staples, where a helpful clerk enlarged the piece by 210 percent. Perfect! Now the artwork measured 9-1/2 inches by 15 inches, ideal for what I had in mind. And each copy only cost 20 cents--even better!
In my next post, I'll describe how I went about transferring the design to needlepoint canvas.
And for those of you ready to scream "Copyright Infringement!" at the top of your lungs, not to worry: the young illustrator of this piece was my father, and I'm his only child.
7 comments:
What a piece of art! My mother was 7 years old in 1927, and swears her parents were making "bathtub gin" for parties. My grandmother hotly denied this when I asked. LOL I clicked to enlarge the picture, and could see great details.
I love it, how charming. I'm waiting with baited breath to see how this turns out.
Keep Stitching,
Janet
Thank you for giving us the background on this project before you show us the completed project. We learn so much this way. I'm studying how to adapt art to needlepoint, so this blog will be wonderful and beautiful to read!
How interesting, Anne, to get a bit of history surrounding that piece.
I think that you got all of us hooked and we will be eagerly following your progress.
By clicking on your photo, I was able to get a very nice view of the original art piece. Quite beautiful!
Pierrette =^..^=
Hi Anne,
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your father's art work.
I also enjoyed reading the humour on the page. :-)
Cynthia
Windy Meadow
How fun is that to enlarge on your dad's own work! I can't wait to see more of it.
brings back memories of my teens, I spent every Summer at our family's summer cottage on the island of South Harpswell Maine( It is now connected to the mainland by a clauseway...Built road/bridge)..I did pen and ink drawings of all the cottages,,,and local homes to earn extra money during my suummers , and also get some experience ...to see if my plans to study commerical art in college were viable....it was a no brainer, i have been drawing and painting since i was three...i do have a love of black and white..pen and ink in particular...
i wish i had some of my early work....that is the problem when you sell things...oh well...
xoxoxoxox
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