Presidential Busts!

The internet has really changed how freelance artists get work and make a living. Search engines are powerful tools that can instantly connect artists with clients that would otherwise have never been able to find them. It also allows freelance illustrators to turn their art into a kind of “stock house” of images that can allow you to resell the rights to the same images to different clients. Sometimes even art you do just for fun ends up generating work or income.

Case in point- my series of caricatures of U.S. presidents. I originally did these for table centerpieces for my final NCS Reuben Awards banquet in D.C. in 2015. There was no thought for any commercial use for them, The Lovely Anna harassed me into doing them as she was in charge of the decor. Several followers asked me to create a print of them, which I did, but it didn’t sell all that well.

Those caricatures ended up being a little cottage industry of ongoing work. I have sold the rights to use the images to a medical imaging manufacturer, several textbook publishers, a children’s book publisher (I had to produce color versions for that one) and a few newspapers. The latest client to inquire about them was a D.C. design firm that was putting together a gallery exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas Texas. The exhibit was about humor and the White House, and showcased some of the presidents and First ladies who were known for their senses of humor. They had me do larger versions of a few of my presidents and add caricatures of Barbara Bush and Betty Ford, done in an inked, crosshatched style but as “busts” on small pedestals:

All this happened back in November, and the exhibit did open in early March, but the center has been closed during the pandemic.

The show is supposed to run through October 4, so maybe the center will open again before its run is over.