Douglas Bell Named by Creative Quarterly as 100 Best Winner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Douglas Bell
Named by Creative Quarterly as 100 Best Winner

[New York] Derby 1, a project developed by Douglas Bell, was selected as one of the top 25 award-winning entries in the Professional Illustration Unpublished category. This highly selective and well-recognized competition sponsored by Creative Quarterly, The Journal of Art & Design magazine, now in its 12th year, recognizes outstanding creative work produced by artists, graphic designers, illustrators and photographers from around the world. A complete list of this year’s 100 Best winners is available at www.cqjournal.com/annual.

Winners of our quarterly competitions move on to our year-end competition where 25 winners in each category are selected by a distinguished jury. This year’s judging panel included Caitlin Karolczak, fine artist; Reiner Hebe, Hebe Webeagentur, graphic designer; Page Tsou, illustrator and Daniel Featherstone, photographer.

Entries were judged according to these criteria:

            • How well does the entry communicate?

            • How memorable or unique is the entry?

            • How strong is the entry aesthetically?

Each year winners represent countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America. Both professional and academic winners are represented.

Project title: Derby 1

Client: Self Promotion

Creative team: Douglas Bell

All winning projects will be prominently featured in the 128-page, hardbound100 Best annual coming out in May, 2017.

Creative Quarterly sponsors quarterly competitions in January, April, July and October. Information about this year’s shows is available at www.cqjournal.com/callforentries.

About Creative Quarterly

Creative Quarterly offers the best of art and design, quarterly. Founded in 2005 Creative Quarterly has received numerous international awards and recognition for its design. The magazine showcases the work of fine artists, graphic designers, illustrators and photographers, both professional and academic work is featured in both the magazine and online gallery. Creative Quarterly is distributed worldwide.

NYC-Friday: seeing, feeling, missing

Friday:

Finished up the PDF conference, and it was, um… interesting. Probably a lot like the UN. A lot of flexing, a lot of heated debate, a lot of jockeying for time in front of the heads of the organization, whether to impress, or to hopefully gather higher status, I don’t know (and really don’t care). But it was a view into a truly different world. Eye opening I would call it… fist over the eye is another way I would put it at certain times.

I am more prone to notice couples now that I am alone. Maybe it is just because this is the first trip that I am alone… I have seen young couples in love, the discovery phase… where they are almost giddy and just so dogged gone cute about it. I saw one beautiful couple share a very long last kiss good-bye. (hell, I’d do him, they were that gorgeous). And he slowly sauntered off into the night without his love. She was looking down, and every once in a while would carefully glance up, just for a moment to see if he was truly leaving.

I saw tender elderly couples who have shared lifetimes together walking arm in arm, speaking of memories long past… that between the two of them, they seemed to get the story out correctly.

It was when I would walk by an elegant doorway or a beautifully rendered building and started to take the picture to share with Lee Ann, that I would have to remind myself where I am, now in my life and that I don’t have that love to share with. That is the really tough pill to swallow is that the world keeps going on. Friends go on; strangers go on, the grass, the seasons, the bills… all keep going on. I keep going on too… just that there are times when everyone else goes on with their loves, to have and to hold… correction, not everyone.

*Addendum: moving forward takes time, effort, and trial. It isn’t perfect. It isn’t smooth, and it is far from pretty. For those who have offered a shoulder or a hand to hold, I thank you most sincerely. Pain is unique, for each of us. Our lives are all different from each other just is our as our pain, just as is our joy. It doesn’t make one person’s pain worse, or less important, it makes it different. I hope as I move through this life that I not be as brash as to impose my life experience onto someone else’s suffering as if I were to understand their circumstances and feelings. I can only know what I know and how I might be affected. No more, no less.

Wednesday: NYC - Dinner and a Show

Wednesday:

Slept in until 9am Eastern Time. Went down and had some cereal and rye toast. Everyone here has freshly squozed orange juice. I have never experienced the like since Florida. Ohhh it was so good. I stayed with just the one glass so as not to rupture my sugar levels. Got cleaned up, and I headed out for the day, which was all planed out. I was to start with The Illustration House, Arcadia Fine Art Gallery, Forbidden Planet (comic book/toy/geek dom). If I am still standing after all that, the last stop was to be the legendary Strand bookstore. (I wasn’t standing, so I skipped the Strand).

So with Talcum powder freshly applied everywhere, even on my ears… I was ready for another brisk walk down to the Illustration House. Oh, did I mention that the Walking portion of Google Maps is Beta, I may have forgotten that because after 2 hours I was a bit over half way!!! But never fear, I stopped at a local deli that offered 2slices and a can for 4.99. My hope was that the slices were slices of pizza and not slices into my side with a box cutter. I was correct. It was 2 slices of cheese pizza, New Yawk style. It was good. I actually heard some older guy griping about stuff and actually say… “now I got a problem”… to which the owner came over and quickly calmed everything down and sat with the gentleman, served him his lunch and discussed local building history. I believe I may have been witness to a… transaction of some sort. So, I packed up and skee-dadled before jimmy the nose decided I was his next “problem”. It was good pie, maybe jimmy the nose spilt soda on his plaid trousers??? Probably not.

So, I continued on for another hour and made it to a run down alley. No name, no nothing…. I thought… I have been screwed. Then I noticed a lot of dark oak, and books, and some paintings farther away from the front window. There was a small sign that said, Illustration House. So I asked to be buzzed in and introduced myself.

A nice younger man said, “Oh, you’ll want to talk to Walt. I’ll call him down.”

Within a few moments, the 248 year old Walter Reed sauntered down a flight of stairs. He couldn’t have weighed more than 110 pounds, had hearing aids in each ear… but with dead batteries in both. But could weave tales about each painting and each artist as if they were completed not but twenty minutes ago and he was there to witness it all. His eyes would light up as he would pick up each painting with a shaky hand. I was sure he was going to drop a couple of them. I held one or two as his grip wasn’t quite what he suspected it was. He would point out subtle nuances, tell of stories of the times and technique challenges or discoveries. He apologized for missing some of the pieces due to a show on pulp fiction illustrators that was shipping out this week. I graciously told him that I had come just to see his studio and the Society of Illustrators, there could be no disappointment.

Here is an account of the artwork that I got to see… ORIGINAL PAINTINGS, ALL.

· 3 Michael Golden Punisher Covers, drawn and Inked by Mr. Golden.

· 2 Bernie Fuches landscape paintings… The master. I almost cried.

· 2 Norman Rockwell charcoal finished drawings for the Post. Most people can’t paint as well as Rockwell drew.

· The Hildebrandt Brothers Lord of the Rings masterpiece where everyone is meeting at the garden of the elven city, and the two hobbits are crying… it is flipping huge. And the details are amazing. I think I had an accident when I turned the corner. Mr. Reed had to hold me up, not an easy task for a man 248 years old.

· A Norman Lindsey watercolor of a man fighting off a shark… black and white.

· Violet Oakley’s preliminary painting for one of her massive murals at Pennsylvania University.

· A Hayden Sunbloome pin up girl illustration. (Sunbloome was the painter of the coca-cola santa and the quaker oats man.)

· Several pen and ink illustrations: joseph Clement Coll, Charles Dana Gipson, A.B. Frost,

· Coles Phillips a disappearing girl in deep blue.

· And several of the pulp illustrations that had yet to be packed up.

Mr. Reed stayed and spoke to me for a good hour or more. What an honor.

Norman Lindsey

a different Coles Phillips... very similar, but the girl is facing the other way and the background is blue... but the design and concept are of the same starting point.

Dean Cornwell... this baby is not as big as I have seen him paint. 20" x 24" maybe
I turned a corner and my insides started to quake when I saw this... the corners are actually tattered a bit. They painted to the edge of the board, no handling space at all. It is almost as wide as I am tall.

From there I cabbed it to the Arcadia Fine Arts Gallery. Just too sore at the time… and a bit too lost… I think the cabbie was too. But we made it. The gallery was much more clean, tidy, but certainly lacked the warmth and love of the works the way that Mr Reed had provided. Nonetheless, I did get to see some spectacular pieces by Robert Liberace, Malcolm Leipke, Jeremy Lipking, and Francis Livingstone. The paintings were stunning, make no doubt about it, but after having to follow a showman like Reed, Arcadia just was a room with canvases in it.

From Arcadia I walked to Forbidden Planet. For those who don’t know, like myself,

Forbidden Planet is one of 2 bookstores on earth. One resides in NYC, the other in London, Proper. (that’s England folks).

Forbidden Planet is about the size of every comic book store you have ever been to… added together… and I don’t care how many you have been to. It is STILL bigger than them all combined. It has… everything, literally. If you can’t find it, you only dreamt that it existed and even then… if you ask… they probably still have it. I didn’t even go up to the Third floor to look around for fear that I might find me up there for sale.

So as your little minds start spinning around trying to come up with some odd ball little thingy that the store didn’t have…. Don’t, I already checked… they had that too.

My body sent me back to the hotel for a nap… longer than expected. But needed none the less. I strolled down Broadway to “Mickey Mantle’s” for a supper and a chance to sit (quietly) and observe Yankee nation during playoffs. I had to do it, If they were home, I would have tried for a ticket, but they were in Minnesota. As far as Décor, I don’t know how much of it is real and how much is replica. They had a pillar that was made of Yankee signed broken bats, gloves, shoes. They had a Joe Namath wall, which I thought was odd, but whatever floats. The food was really good and for NY, was reasonably priced. I asked what the server liked to eat… and then chose from that list. A cheese steak hero, actually one of the best I have had, ever. This was goooooood, and not too big, it was a half order. I watched the last half of the Reds lose to the Phillies to a perfect game pitched by Roy Halladay. Then stayed for 3 innings of the Yankees Twins game.

I needed a fresh head about me for the conference the next day, so I decided to walk back, and if I got a bit nervous I would hale a cab. The streets were active with mostly normal looking people. So I was able to maneuver my way back to the Hotel without incident. I did get so see my token “interesting” person of the trip… a shaggy man who had not seen a bath in a few days+ with a long flowing white beard and hair shouting warnings to us all about the end of days. Oh, did I mention he was dressed in carpet samples? Rolls of carpet runners, carpet squares, shag, short fibers, it must have been like wearing armor. Now THAT’s NEW YORK CITY, Dinner and a show.

NYC -Tuesday: somebody get me a leash

Sam Weber artwork from his 3person show at Society of Illustrators: Blow Up.

New York City… New York City? Get a rope, I need a leash.

Had a 5 hour delay in Chicago to get to NYC LaGuardia… so I didn’t get to my hotel until 1:45am Tuesday Morning. Somehow they didn’t have a confirmation for the extra night of Monday night… but they gladly put me up due to open rooms. With an extra minute or two, I was in bed.

The next morning I closed out that old account from a few hours before and switched over to the regularly scheduled program. Now I had the day to explore. I planned out the most efficient walking route down to the destinations… 3 the first day. The Forum Gallery, The Wendt Gallery, and …………………. The Society of Illustrators, you may genuflect if you feel the need.

Forum Gallery: I showed up at a bad time on the calendar, they were packing to move to a new location. They were more than generous to allow me to see what was still up, the current show. It was, nice. But not travel half way across the country nice. But that is due to the new season just beginning and the gallery just packing up. No fault, just bad timing. And they were really nice people.

Wendt Gallery: These girls were the car sales force of the Art world. Hovering around wanting to know how many pieces I was interested in, and as soon as I showed interest in one piece, Man did their eyes and ears perk up… (I probably should have told them that I was not going to buy anything, but it seemed the only way to get information.)

Society of Illustrators: Very nice… very nice indeed. 3 floors. It is a smaller gallery, but full of drawings, paintings, and even a tiny little gift shop. It is smalle

r than the Kemper Museum. There were

two exhibits. One was a 3 person show, which had the final works on the main floor, then on the lower level, all of the preliminary works were displayed as well… which was a real treat. Up the stairwell, and on the Third floor…(the famous Society of Illustrators Bar) was an exhibit of Illustrators who taught. This was capped off by a 12 piece showing of Murry Tinkleman pen and Ink originals. I was in heaven.

Above the Bar, is the original Norman Rockwell painting

masterpiece of a Christmas Carriage in profile filled with passengers, and atop, a driver, horn blower, and several children all having fun. The piece is probably 3 feet high by 5 feet wide? Maybe larger.

I actually had a tonic water

at the Bar… THE BAR. I felt the entire time that somebody was going to yank me out of there in front of everybody… “You! Punk! What do you think you are doing in here?” But nobody ever did. They even chatted with me for a few words.

There were two antique book cases with ooooold illustrated classics in them. Rockwell’s version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Someone’s illustrations for the Book of Birds… A book Titled Searching for Christy, about Illustrator, Howard Chandler Christy. And tons of others.

As far as original works, I got to see an original Paul Calle pencil drawing portrait, a couple of Rockwells, a huge piece on Tale of Two Cities by Harvey Dunn, It had to have 50 characters in it all charging at each other. What power. Bob Fawcett, Dean Cornwell, James Montgomery Flagg, my mind can’t recall them all.

I was on such a high that I walked all the way back, not realizing that it was almost 3 miles back… until my body told me, Hey Stupid… this is a long hike back, and I am fat. But I made it. Bought some talcum powder, and took a nap. I awoke in time to make the hike back down there to Society of Illustrators for the Drawing sessions. Yes, with the Talcum powder applied, it made a world of difference. (and it was down hill).

Drawing night at Society of Illustrators. *see the previous two posts with the drawings for examples... I posted 6 of the drawings done at the Society open session.

Short poses: 3 minute, 5 minute, 10 minute, 15 minute, then I believe 3 twenty minute poses.

I couldn’t tell you by name the famous people that were there, but you could tell by dress, hair style, and when I walked around the room, the old timers who just flat out were brilliant. There were about 8 of them in attendance. The rest were younger students… some were also really hot stuff. By the time everybody was settled in and working, there were probably 60 people?, yes… 60 people were there. Also live jazz was played. There were 2 models. Really good, both of them. They did classical poses, but could hold them well.

I am really glad I went. By the end of the night, I had produced a couple of drawings that were ok. For the time allowed, I am happy with them.

Cabbed it back to the hotel, it was dark, I was tired, and it was uphill. Head hit the pillow, I was out.