Backlash - Bookplate
- BACKLASH, BOOKPLATE - A black ink and black color pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size coquille board. A bookplate made for Peter Cushing.
When Philip Cushway sent me this commission, around 1980, he also offered me a commission to paint a poster for the notorious rock group, "THE GRATEFUL DEAD". At that time they were at the forefront of the drug culture, and you have no idea how much I despise that kind of life-style. So I decided not to accept the commission.
But my friend Sam Moskowitz, the SF Historian, chastised me for not accepting the job, pointing out to me that as a professional illustrator I do not have to like the people for whom I do artwork, just as a defense lawyer does not have to like a client in order to defend him, even if he knows the man is guilty. True, but it's still a choice, not an obligation, and I did have a lot of assignments ahead of me, so turning down the Grateful Dead job was not that hard a decision to make.
I know that decisions lead to consequences, and perhaps if I had painted a successful Grateful Dead poster it may have led me to bigger and better things. Maybe not. I have made three decisions in the past that changed my life dramatically; in 1949 I enlisted in the USAF and that decision took me into the world of electronics where I earned a living for 20 years. In 1955, I decided to marry a girl named Dorothy, and for 60 years I've been sharing my life with her. In 1974 I decided to make a major switch from electronics to illustration, not really knowing where I was going. But the truth is that the vehicle of life has no "destination". Choosing forks in the road of life is what its all about, until you run out of gas. So, when I came to the fork in the road where the sign said, "Grateful Dead - that way >" I turned the steering wheel and came THIS way, and here I am. No regrets.
Feel Free to add your Comments about this Artwork
Please do not abuse this feature or it will be removed, Keep it clean, keep it classy, keep it respectful