My wife, the lovely and gracious Janice, works at a local museum; "The Works, Ohio Center for History, Art & Technology." It's essentially a children's museum that has much in the way of interactive science activities, a fully functioning glass studio, art classes and celebrates local Ohio history as well. They also have a small galley where the works of local artists are featured. Several of our friends take advantage of the facilities and the many year round events to educate and entertain their kids. As a non-profit organization they rely on fundraising for their operations and this year they are having their black tie event "Hats Off! 2012" on September 22nd. Please check out their website:
The Works for more information about them and the event. There are several items and packages donated to the event by local business and artisans for auction. This one is mine. It was inspired by the vintage illustrations of artist Vernon Grant (the guy who created the characters of Snap, Crackle and Pop for Kellogg's back in 1933) but with my own twist. The Museum building itself used to house a factory that built steam engines in 1861. The Works logo features gears and Newark Ohio has a storied manufacturing history so the idea of a kid with overalls, work gloves and a giant sledge hammer just sort of competed the picture for me! I confess my mind works in strange ways but I'm really happy with the result and I hope the event guests will like it too. The illustration was drawn by hand and painted digitally with a combination of Photoshop CS6, Painter 12 and Art Rage Pro. It measures 16 x 20 and will be printed on canvas with archival inks.
