ART IMITATES LIFE
Cathie Bleck, an illustrator for 28 years, defines the work on her website under the categories Energy, Passion, and Spirit—themes which also define her life. Based in Cleveland, Bleck comes from a family of artists. Following in her mother’s footsteps—she raised nine children and at age 48 became one of the first freelance illustrators for Hallmark—Bleck has successfully combined motherhood and career, beginning with her first job as an art director at the Chicago Tribune, where she honed her skills illustrating a variety of topics, on articles she didn’t assign out. “I am a mother of three wonderful children and have done illustrations in my car, in hospitals, on vacation, and on the kitchen table while I was sick with pneumonia,” says Bleck, who happily chose the portable medium of scratchboard, and who sagely advises not using your personal life as a reason for missing deadlines.

Her 40 years in illustration have earned Kinuko Y. Craft a perspective markedly different from that of her younger colleagues. “The world as I knew it when I got into ‘illustration’ no longer exists. Cut-and-paste, computer-generated art and stock art has replaced a great deal of it. It still takes the same qualities to survive —hard work, tenacity, and inventiveness—however, considering the limited opportunities for work, my advice to any illustrator is to plan to make a small income from commercial work, but seek the mass market to make a living. Guard your copyrights and the right to license your art beyond the assignments you are offered above all. Unless today’s illustrators market directly to the world of pop culture and somehow merge into the fine-arts world, I don’t see the same opportunities for them as I had,” Craft says. She now has her dream assignment, illustrating fantasy book covers with her meticulous oil over watercolor technique.

Despite that sober look at the industry, it is hard to dispute Luba Lukova’s assertion that “there is a future for illustration because images will always speak more strongly than words.” Lukova’s striking and powerful images of humanity in all its complexity have garnered many accolades, including the World’s Most Memorable Poster award in 2001 from the International Poster Salon in Paris. An emigre to the U.S. from Bulgaria, Lukova’s potent combination of graphic colors and shapes pose visual metaphors that cry out with their message of hope and peace.

Cynthia von Buhler entered the field in the mid-1980s but found it slow going at first. In fact, she contemplated being a stripper so she could work on illustrations during the day. “I got two jobs my first year, but then it picked up and I quit my day job,” she remembers. “I was the queen of teen magazine illustration. Anorexia, date rape, and jealousy were constant themes.” Eventually her dark, moody style evolved into a bright, happy style for high-end clients like the Four Seasons Hotel and she began to feel disconnected from it. “So, when I bought an old gothic Victorian house with my boyfriend, I started making dark, moody 3D paintings for the walls, and that became the art style that I am known for today.

“The one thing I love about illustration is that I am treated equally to men in this field. I have always felt that way,” von Buhler says. “Through the years, I have tried other fields like band management, record label ownership, and running my own band, and in all I was disadvantaged due to my sex, but in illustration I have always felt that it doesn’t matter what I look like and it doesn’t matter that I’m a woman. I think that my work is often handsome. I have had it described so in reviews on occasion. I see plenty of work done by men that is sensitive.”

The most powerful illustrators speak with their own nuanced and individual voices. That is why they became artists, not accountants. Now that women no longer have to disguise their sex to follow their muse, it doesn’t matter whether the art is by anonymous, Betty, or Dick, as long as it’s good.