Brad Holland: We’ll never make it (let’s keep going)

adapted from: http://www.theaoi.com

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 01 April 2004

b.1943

From a self taught start, through little bits of tattooing and some time at Hallmark cards in the 1960s, Brad has become one of America’s leading illustrators and is still at the top of the tree through the constant evolving and developing of his work. He first came to mainstream public notice through the creation of a whole genre of scratchy pen and ink editorial illustration in the 1970s, creating powerful images for the New York Times’ OpEd page in particular, before turning to paint and colour, at first still in a figurative manner but later in a more formalised way, with just as much success. By refusing to stand still he has maintained one of the highest profiles in the world of illustration.

A lot of people say art is dead. But a lot of people say Elvis is alive. There are a lot of people in this world who aren’t worth listening to. The world is always going through a time of change and change tends to frighten people who are easily frightened. It’s hard to have hope for the future when you don’t know what the future will be. But the truth is, if you’re an artist you don’t need hope. Making art is an act of faith. Let me tell you a story.

One day ten years ago, my wife and I were driving from Wappingers Falls, New York to Poughkeepsie. We were taking a package to Federal Express. Fed Ex was supposed to close at five-thirty. But bad traffic and bad weather delayed us, and by five-thirty we were still twenty minutes away.

“We’ll never make it,” I kept grumbling.

“Should we go back?” my wife asked.

“No,” I kept saying, “let’s keep going.”

So we plugged on.

It was six o’clock when we finally got to the Federal Express office but the doors were still open. I raced in and (to my surprise) they took the package. It seems there had been a major screw-up of some sort that day and they couldn’t get the doors shut in time. So everything worked out fine. Now, whenever I hear grim predictions about the future of art, the voice of reason in my head says, “We’ll never make it.” But in the back of my head, there’s another voice that says, “Let’s keep going.” If life has taught me anything it’s this: The future is never what people say it will be and life is less efficient than Federal Express. My guess is that before the future everybody fears can arrive, there’ll be a major screw-up of some sort and everything will work out just fine.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 23 October 2005 )

Originally posted in http://sioyean.wordpress.com/ by sioyean on February 9th, 2008