Bar-mitzvah in Highland Park

If the bar-mitzvah boy is an enthusiastic photographer and accomplished caricaturist, then holding the celebration at the Art Center of Highland Park certainly is the right thing to do.  The party was held in the galleries themselves, with art work all around us.  The most elegant and cultivated setting you can imagine!  For me, an absolute pleasure. ( I have had some of my paintings shown in these galleries. In addition to working as a caricaturist I’m also an abstract painter and teacher;  see http://artamaze.wordpress.com)  The slide show featured some of Jacob’s work.  I found his caricatures most interesting and quite advanced, even sophisticated.  Congratulations, Jacob!  Thank  you, Nancy.

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

 

 

 

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Wedding at the Adler Planetarium

Once you’ve seen the party space and the view from it, why would you hold your wedding reception anywhere else!?   The Adler Planetarium is at the tip of a long pier and the party room curves towards the sky line and the lake—all glass, for a spectacular view.  Day or night. I was fortunate to be set up for my work so that I could get a glimpse of the view. Ahhh.

This wedding reception was in the evening and the cocktail hour was set in a blue-lit spaceship, or so you would think.  From beginning to end, this evening was a dream.  The marriage was made in the stars…or find your own star-inspired, spacy metaphor.

As usual, the bride and groom slipped back to the dance floor as soon as the drawing was outlined and so I don’t have a shot of them as their formally dressed, beaming selves.

Friends and family thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as you can see from the photos here.  It’s obvious that they were inspired and that they inspired me.

I love drawing pregnant couples.  You can tell, right? And about the next …this man, a wit and charming braggadocio, promised that my blog would go viral as soon as I posted his photo.  Let’s see. Oh, it’s some joke about a cheese.

I drew many more, but this will have to do here.

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

The New People in Des Plaines

In mid-December I drove to Des Plaines to draw the new people at a service company.  This was a tradition there.  The office had a large wall where all the employees were celebrated in caricature form.

Why doesn’t every company do this!?  It creates a moment of levity in the midst of nine-to-five cubicle stress.  With the right caricature artist—!!!!—the humor will be lighthearted and the effect is uplifting.  People love to be drawn. It’s not like a snap show, so ordinary and every-day.  A drawing has the aura of class and tradition.  You can see by these faces at the moment when they first see the drawing, that they are filled with delight.

I can’t believe I get to do this.  I love my job.

Notice that the humor in these drawings is very different from the humor in the last post. This difference is important.  I adjust the way I draw to the setting where I work. You can be sure, the ambiance in a gray-and-beige office space is very different from the ambiance at a New Year’s Eve party, before or after the balloon drop!  But, hey, it’s all fun in its own way.

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year’s Eve Couple in Indy

When you compare this drawing to the drawings I did of kids at the New Year’s Eve party (previous post), you can see how different the humor is.  This was an engaged couple who had met at St. Xavier College somewhere in Indiana, if I recall that correctly.    Very wholesome, proper, polite.  Beautiful faces, she of the refined well-bred beauty sort and he of the seductive blue-eyed with the eyelashes and the strong neck….oh, my.  She had been an education major, he graduated with a degree in environmental studies specializing in water.   So, of course, I teased them a little to find out if they would give me permission to go for it and they loved every bit of it, letting me know by their chit chat to my chit chat that, well, that I could go for it.  I love drawing people who are secure in knowing who they are because then the pen just flows. On the other hand, I also love drawing folks who are mystified by what I do and sometimes even apprehensive.  Then the pen flows differently and I enjoy that, too.  Basically, you get the drift here, I enjoy this gig all the time. And, important point, the chit chat is essential.

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

New Year’s Eve at the Indiana State Museum

It’s the place to be and be seen on New Year’s Eve.  Fourteen-hundred Hoosiers can’t be wrong.

About eight years ago, some bright people at the Indiana State Museum in down town Indianapolis thought of throwing a New Year’s Eve party for parents and their kids.  There must have been some nay-sayers when this proposal was initially being evaluated, as in no-one-will-go-to-a-museum-on-New-Year’s-Eve.  It’s been a smashing success from the beginning!

Easy to see why.  The space is grand, made for major events, with a three-story atrium and a cross walk on the third floor, where I had the privilege of being set up to draw the party goers.  They were parents with school age kids, mostly.  The party goes from 6:00 to 9:00, with the balloon drop in the atrium at 8:00.  It’s spectacular, festive and, I’m sure, a fond memory when the kids are grown up.  Every city and town should have such a wholesome way of celebrating New Year’s Eve.

Thank you David, Katie and Petra!  I hope to gasp at that balloon drop again in 355 days. Class act! —————————————————————–

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleavage

I’ve been trying to understand the cleavage craze.  Statistically, 49% of babies born worldwide at any time are male and 51% are female.  But for some mysterious reason, we live at a time when the balance is even more lopsided and the theory goes, therefore, women feel more sexually competitive.  Another theory says that the exposed midriff lasted for a short time and then the exposure craze moved north, so to speak.

Whatever the explanation, girlfriend, the look is way retro.  Like a hundred, a hundred fifty and even  two hundred years.  Remember powdered wigs?  Hooped skirts?  Whale bone corsets? That’s the period your fantasy is working in now.
For a caricaturist, this is great stuff.  Pure theater.  When your cleavage cleaves more than five inches, girlfriend, you’re on stage, in a play. Stepping out of the house always involves some role playing, but when you go to a party and you can’t sit down because of the corset that pushes your bosom up like a shelf and you ask me to feel how solid this structure is, then we’re talking major theater, like from the late 19^th century.  France, maybe.  A farce at the Folie Bergere, let’s say.  I’m a big theater fan and the theatricality of cleavage gives me lots to work with.  The fact that people shriek with laughter when they see these drawings tells us that the craze is just that. It’s lasted a short enough time to be still shocking and will be replaced by another fashion craze before long.

Sometimes cleavage is the main event.  Sometimes it’s the southward sliding part of a tube thing that’s sliding northward at the bottom, a so called skirt, which looks like there wasn’t time to get fully dressed before rushing to this much anticipated party. All this is great for an artist. We’ve studied anatomy, you know, and welcome the opportunity to strut our stuff, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

Intelligrated Kids

We’re back in October, me catching up again.  Here are some of the drawings of kids at that as-close-to-perfect-picnic –as- you- can -get for the Intelligrated Company in Bollingbrook.   (Earlier posts about this picnic, see Nov 8, 9, and 24.)———————————————————————————————-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sparkling in Belvidere

The party in Marengo was on Friday.  The next day on Saturday I was back on I-90, again heading towards Rockford and getting very close…Belvidere, which means something like “beautiful view.”  It was, indeed, all about beautiful views.  The hostess organizes some four thousand women in the mid-west who hold parties in their homes to sell jewelry.  About forty of them and their men-folk were gathered in this old Victorian house.  You guessed it, the women were sparkling and weighed down with baubles and the guys were, well, just there, “looking on,” supportive and amused and in good spirits.  Great food, big punch bowl and abundant decorations.  Good, hearty sense of humor, driving the whole evening and me right in there reflecting that ambiance, as I always do.  As the evening glittered on, I started putting people in thongs and bikinis and eventually there was a nipple showing in one of the drawings.  Hey, it was warm and cozy under that Christmas tree and I just go with the flow. It’s really fun to draw solid, hard-working, sensible people in a trashy,  rock ‘n’ roll way–and they love it, too!!

Here’s a small sample of the drawings from that wonderful evening.  I really did draw everybody there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the evening glittered on, I started putting people in thongs and bikinis…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and eventually there was a wardrobe malfunction in one of the drawings.  Hey, it was warm and cozy under that Christmas tree and I just go with the flow.  You can’t miss the absolute delight in these reactions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gracious hostess gave me a present:  a necklace that can also be worn as a belt.  Thank you, Kay!  The perfect gift, since I’ve been wearing these black tube things when I go to gallery openings and something was always missing.  The following day, Sunday, I did in fact go to an opening, wearing my black tube things and my leather jacket.  This time, with the right accessory.  Yeah!!!   Perfect!    Thank you, Kay.

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All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

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EXTRA! EXTRA! RIOT IN MARENGO!

I did a lot of map-questing to find this town. It’s way up near the Wisconsin border.  They even had snow up there while we in Chicago were still a little green.  I used this city-country theme to rile them and explained my humor as being from the “big city, you know.”   I would use the word “country” and the room would go up in riotous, howling, screaming  laughter.  They gave

me permission to go that route—and I always go with the ambiance—by standing around, solidly, no less than fifteen people at any one time, egging me on and anticipating the next stroke of the marker with absolute glee.  There was food and there were tables and balloons in the heated garage (I noticed later) but the real party was right there where I was set up in one of those unidentifiable rooms that you get in old houses with additions.  This crowd was sophisticated and down-to-earth at the same time—school principals, pharmacists, business owners, IT guys, public relations types—and they were with me all the way.  When this happens, the drawing flows by itself and there’s inexhaustible energy.  Plenty left over for the long drive back to “the city” late at night.  Then I think, why am I in the city, what about moving to a town that sounds like a yummy desert, where people are so smart, energetic and funny.

My thanks to Jen, who flew in from San Diego to throw this bash for her dad’s birthday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s just a small sampling of the forty or so people I drew that evening.

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All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com

 

 

 

18th Birthday in Rolling Meadows

Janet invited nine friends for her 19th birthday party and her mom thought a leisurely pizza-and-salad lunch– with a caricaturist!– would be the way to celebrate.  So there I was, in this well-appointed, spacious family room, drawing these smart, caring young women.  I could easily have drawn them all in an hour—in black and white.  But mom decided on color and gave me an hour-and-a-half.  This time frame also allowed for drawing the whole body and for working on the larger paper, 11 x 14.  Nothing wrong with 8-1/2 x 11 or with b/w, but the color drawing on large paper really does seem to go over big with kids and teenagers.

Thank you, Terry!  Happy Birthday, Janet!

This group photo was taken towards the end of the party. Two of the girls had to leave early because of other obligations.  It was  December, too many parties to go to.

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://artamaze.wordpress.com