Inspiration from Wayne Thiebaud

18 December 2011 • no comments • Inspiration

Wayne Thiebaud is an American painter known for his oddly enough his paintings of cakes, pastries and boots. I was first introduced to his work through a PBS special I just happened to stumble upon. His unique perspective on art, artists and the world around him made me think about how I see the world.

Brief Bio:

Six months after being born in Mesa, AZ on November 15, 1920, Thiebaud’s family moved to Long Beach, CA. While in high school, Thiebaud had the opportunity to apprentice at Walt Disney Studio as an artist making a whopping $14 a week. In the coming years Thiebaud attended Frank Wiggins Trade School, worked as a cartoonist and served as an artist for the U.S. Army Air Force.

After returning from home from the service, Thiebaud enrolled in college and earned a masters degree from Sacramento State College where he began teaching soon after.

During this time Thiebaud traveled to NYC where became friends with artists such as Kline and one of my favorites De Kooning. Their influence is noticeable in the works Thiebaud began producing during this time. The subject matter was food he had seen displayed in the window cases around NYC.

In the years to come, Thiebaud focused on a variety of subjects including: San Fransisco, the human form, cakes, gumball machines and much more.

His paintings opened a whole new world to me. At this time I began to realize that inspiration can come from a variety of places and cross the boundaries of the medium. Paintings can inspire film, music can inspire pastel and so on. While it may seem obvious to you and I now…it was not always the case.

Something Thiebaud said in the interview that has always stuck out in my mind was, when asked if he was an artist…Thiebaud quickly shook his head no and said something to the effect of, ” I don’t like the word artist.” He went on to list several people he considered artist, but he did not include himself. So humble, talented and inspiring…that is Wayne Thiebaud.

About the Author

Oh, where to begin? I am an artsy fellow for starters. I love to draw, create, and entertain. My dream has always been to be a film director, but Ohio isn't exactly the hub for moving pictures if you know what I mean. I love motion graphics, design, communicating and educating. I like new challenges, and I am always ready to learn something new...useful or not. I love the History channel, The Beatles, coffee, my family and God. I think that's just about it, my cat Scooter too! I have been very fortunate to do a lot of different types of design in a few different industries. Just a few months after college I got a gig as a graphic designer at Cybertechnology. The job was great, the people were a pleasure to work with, but when a chance to work 5 minutes from home and be a creative director opened up to me at Dunkin's Diamonds I jumped at the chance. Dunkin's was like a boot camp for graphic designers. The workload was heavy, the demands were high and the deadlines were always too soon. I made direct mail pieces, posters, flyers, emails, tv commercials and photographed jewelry. I learned so much about myself, time-management, team-management and marketing. My next big step was as Marketing Director at the Midland Theatre. It is a beautiful venue. All sorts of artists have performed there: Bill Cosby, The B-52s, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Joan Baez and Sinbad just to name a few. The people are great, and working for a non-profit is definitely a big change from the world of retial. You have to really love and believe in what you are doing, and I do. Sprinkle in a fair amount of freelance design work and teaching design courses at Central Ohio Technical College and get a pretty good idea of what kind of work I have done.