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About Thomas Duane |
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ABOUT THOMAS DUANE
ARTIST BIO
At the age of seventeen I discovered I could draw photo realistically quite by accident. I was home from school sick with both pneumonia and the flu (can you imagine?) and I was beyond bored of watching television. For some reason I picked up a black ball point pen and started drawing photographs from a National Geographic magazine. I was hooked. In a matter of two weeks I produced over twenty drawings learning by instinct how to use lines and crosshatching to communicate volume and light. This focus on drawing carried over onto the edges of my notebook and soon my high school teachers started asking me to do portraits of their children and pets. Although I had planned on going to South Hampton University for marine biology (I started free-diving when I was eight years old), my father suggested that I apply to art schools. I did just that, and was fortunate to be awarded Pratt Institute’s Raw Talent Scholarship where I received my BFA in Illustration and Graphic Design four years later.
My ability to draw photo realistically landed me a job in the Menswear division of Ralph Lauren. My job was to illustrate Ralph Lauren’s concepts in photorealistic color pencil drawings. For example, Ralph would give me old Indian rugs and would ask that I translate the graphics into sweater concepts. Working for Ralph Lauren had a profound impact on my life and drove home to me the importance of quality in every aspect of what you do. I left Ralph Lauren to start a brand identity and package design company with my former college roommate. For ten years I designed brand identities, packaging, and print communications for companies that include; Estée Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Christian Dior, Fendi, Liz Claiborne, Coach, Cosmair, Revlon, Perry Ellis, Clarins, and most recently Stuart Weitzman. My work took me all over the world including; South Korea, Australia, Monaco, Switzerland, China and Canada. I also designed personal identities for Tiger Woods and former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.
I relocated to San Francisco to become worldwide creative director for Hotwire.com, and most recently, Logitech. When I am not creative directing at Logitech, I can be found working in my home studio workshop located in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. I show my work at a number of galleries and art shows in the Bay area and on the east coast.
I am a multi-disciplined artist who enjoys working in a variety of mediums. I tend to be representational in my work but can move from photo-realism to abstract comfortably. My Irish-half tends to drive my pieces toward humor with my Polo-fashion roots keeping my work balanced with elegance and beauty. I enjoy creating pieces that use bold strong colors combined with high-detail. I like unusual subject matters and enjoy combining unlikely elements into my pieces. My fashion background continues to be a theme in my work combined with graphic design and illustration.
I like to create visual stories and humor, for instance, you can simply enjoy the pen & ink of the hound dog I’ve done, or you can smile when you notice the hound dog hidden in the hound’s-tooth border that surrounds it. Another piece appears to be a pattern of fish pen & ink drawings, but stepping back, you might notice that the fish pattern is actually the classic herringbone textile weave.
I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoyed creating it.
ARTWORK DESCRIPTIONS
Pencil Portraiture
Over the past 25 years I have accepted an average of 6 to 10 commissions a year. My crosshatch realistic pencil style is a derivative of my work in pen & ink. Although it is painfully detailed and sometimes tedious to produce, I enjoy the purity of lines without using soft shading of any kind. I render the flesh of the subject with crosshatch detail and transition to clean linear lines to describe both hair and clothing. My portraiture work has been featured in Greenwich Connecticut’s The Greenwich Times and examples of my work can be found in galleries located in Los Gatos, Sonoma, Larkspur and San Francisco.
Cartographic Art
After moving to San Francisco, I became fascinated with the city’s illustrious history. My research led me to discover a number of historic maps that were in terrible condition. My favorite maps are the ones that are illustrated by the early cartographers of the time. In the early Victorian period, to stimulate interest in buying property, the banks & real-estate brokers hired artists to create “Birdseye Views” that look as if the viewer were hovering from a hot air balloon (because in some instances, this is exactly how they gained the desired vantage point). Unfortunately, the inks and paper used were not archival and many of these maps are in pieces, and in most cases, are missing portions. As an artist, I couldn’t bear the idea that these cartographic masterpieces were going to be lost to us. Maps are the silent observers and record keepers of the world’s changes. Planned land reclamation, land purchases, changes in state or province borders, all indicate major happenings captured by these antique maps.
Each of my maps is painstakingly restored from historical archives. I then research additional maps, illustrations, and photography from the period and create new cartographic works of art. All of the borders are original designs and in many cases the spot illustrations are my original pen & ink drawings. As a signature of my work, I always incorporate my silent goldfish hovering somewhere in the map, or map border. The goldfish is a pen & ink drawing I created to represent the prosperity and opportunity the California Gold-Rush offered enterprising early Americans. Over the years he has become my mascot and now appears in all of my cartographic and historic imagery. I hope you enjoy these pieces as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Functional Fine Art
Over the past two years I have been inventing and crafting functional-fine-art pieces that encourage art enthusiasts to interact with my art as a part of their daily lives. In working with paint, wood, resin and steel, I strive to produce pieces that combine sculptural beauty with clean functional lines designed in a way to offer me the opportunity to embellish the resulting surfaces with artwork created specifically for that individual piece. I have created a variety of objects including;
- Maple cutting boards that can be flipped over to reveal artwork protected with food-safe resin so that it can transform from a working cutting board into a beautiful serving platter or wall art piece.
- Two sided trays that feature original art on each side protected with resin and designed to hang as wall art.
- A “wheel of fortune” wall piece that encourages you to spin a flush-mounted wheel to find the answer to a number of questions and can transform into a game table for four players.
- Mini surfboards that convert from wall art into sushi boards.
I also design and hand paint tables of all sizes. One of these hand painted tables was featured on KRON News as one of the most unique items found at the 2006 International Gift Show.
Mixed Media
I combine pen & ink, watercolor, wood, photography and archival Giclée prints to produce original mixed-media pieces. I am particularly fond of creating unique three-dimensional shapes to communicate my art. These shapes include; surfboard, snowboard, Yin-Yang, circles, five sided boxes and organic shapes. I usually construct my forms with wood and apply my artwork using various combinations of paint, pen & ink, photography and Giclée prints of my own work. In most cases I cover the results in a high-gloss resin, which offers the piece UV protection without the fragility, or weight, of glass. After I complete each piece I am involved in the high-resolution scanning process, then it is carefully color corrected and printed using the finest archival materials. I produce prints, and signed limited editions using archival papers and canvas.
Photography
My photography work tends to either be humorous or focused on events and unusual circumstances. I have done documentary photo shoots of:
- 2006 Grand National Finals Rodeo, San Francisco, CA
- 2006 Cherry Jubilee, Monterey, CA
- 2006 Gay Pride Parade & Lady Kira’s Concert, San Francisco, CA
- 2006 How-Weird Festival, San Francisco, CA
- 2005 & 2006 Bay-to-Breakers, San Francisco, CA
- 2005 San Jose Motorcycle Show &
- 2005 Folsom Street Festival
- 2005 Exotic Erotic Ball
- 2003 Ruiz vs. Roy Jones Heavyweight Championship Bout, Las Vegas, NV
I am currently working on several photographic series:
- Dogs Who Wait- I am planning a collection of images of dogs waiting for their owners in unusual locations and circumstances. My objective is to document the intense love and devotion these dogs have for they’re absent owners.
- Looking Up- My intent is to expose the viewer to the world above them. My images capture everything from unique architecture, rock climbing, to the parrots of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill.
- Wildlife- Over the past ten years I have photographed wildlife all over the world. My images include underwater tigers, peaceful manatees, rare and exotic seahorses, birds of all kinds, lizards, alligators and anything else I can capture with my camera.
- Panoramas- I am creating a series of unique panoramic images that leverage this unique horizontal format.
I am located in San Francisco, CA and can be reached at (415) 310-2091 Monday thru Friday 8AM - 8PM PST. Or email me at tduane62@gmail.com
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