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In this final post in the four-part series, “Allow Me to Illustrate”, I’m featuring Amos Goldbaum (my son) as an example of an artist I call “an accidental illustrator.”
The more basic printing methods of past centuries limited images primarily to line drawing.1 Now, of course, illustration can be anything from a photo to a painting. But Amos has always been attracted to line drawing.
Yet line drawing is still useful for illustration; for example, “spot” illustrations in The New Yorker magazine. And although Amos doesn’t seek it out, he is often recruited to do illustration work. Here are two illustrations from a book he illustrated:
And here are commissioned designs for a watch and packaging for Swatch:
Most of Amos’ murals feature linear work. This life-size creature was on the wall of Tratto restaurant in San Francisco:
And one of many public mural commissions:
View more of Amos murals here.
Here are some linear drawings from Amos’ pocket sketchbooks:
This design for lampost banners appears along Divisidero Street in San Francisco, incorporating line and his superb color sense.
Finally, Amos’ lesser-known art: paintings that include some line but with a painterly aesthetic.
The question posed in my first illustration post was, “Is illustration fine art?” It turns out the term “fine art” was historically defined by class and gender: work commissioned by wealthy donors and executed by men was considered fine art, while work by women or native peoples was called “craft.”
Today, some remnants of this bias remain in schools of “fine art” and “fine art” museums. But reader comments on my Substack mostly said that the distinction is not between fine art and lesser art but between good and bad art.
See tons more Amos art on his website
Amos is very active on Instagram
I’m thrilled to be painting again! I’m designing some blue/purple flowers which will go behind the figure, with the bright magenta flowers in the foreground. [17 sec video]
Writing Art & Love helped me overcome some of the blocks I previously experienced about painting - I call them the “three demons”:
1. I’m no good.
2. This is taking too long
3. (the worst one) Trouble getting started each day.
My self-therapy is described in Chapter 20 of Art & Love - “Surrender to Slow.”
Amos and I have donated archival prints to this event, “Art Without Borders.”
Hope to see some of you there!
📚 Albany Library Presentation, July 29, Wednesday, 6 pm - 8 pm. SAVE THE DATE!
[This is Albany, California (next to Berkeley), not Albany, New York]
The event will include an egg tempera demo with audience participation, a reading from Art & Love, and a slideshow on the egg tempera process and history, “Botticelli’s Forgotten Medium”.
📚 The National Art Library of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London has accepted a donation of the book for its collection.
📚 Art & Love is available for check out at the San Francisco Public Library, the ebook is on Libby and the audiobook is available on Hoopla.
📚 Please request Art & Love at your local library to make it more widely available. Suggestion forms are available online.
WHERE TO BUY Art & Love:
🛒 Art & Love can be purchased on my website or ordered at any independent bookstore, Bookshop.org, or Amazon. It’s available in a deluxe coffee-table edition, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.
You can read some of the reviews on Amazon, and if you’re inspired to write one, I would so appreciate it. Here is the link to post a review. The ebook is currently $2.99 to encourage a “verified review,” which helps the book appear in search results. GoodReads is also a great place to leave a review.
Johnny Cash performing “I Walk the Line” in Denmark in 1971. Cash wrote the song in 1956. It’s not part of the Great American Songbook, but I couldn’t resist sharing it, given the line drawing theme of this Substack 🖋.
Lora
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This is an oversimplification of a vast subject, but detailed information is, of course, available online.
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