John Clapp
Illustration
(30 k), large version (152k)
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Illustration for magazine article: "Divine Intervention" by Jean Walton Wolff.
Client: West Magazine, San Jose Mercury News
Art Director: Tracy Cox
Watercolor on paper
Problem:
The article was about a self-described "fallen Unitarian" who in dealing with
her mother's suicide, finds comfort in the age old rituals of the Catholic Church.
Solution:
I have always loved the transcendent feeling of stained glass, how it makes you feel. I
wanted that feeling, but I wanted it to be contemporary at the same time. I ended up with
the realistic heads and hands dropped into this window-like painting.
Tracy Cox gave me a lot of freedom, approved the idea as it was, and let it all happen. It was criminally fun.
The "Madonna" and female saint are both my other friend Tracy, formerly the graveyard shift person at the local Kinko's, ( I know them well ) she is also the dental assistant elsewhere in the portfolio.
Everyone else is also a friend, left to right:
John Harris, who sold my mother his Corvette; Tracy; Steve (also the dentist elsewhere) my
neighbor and generic bald guy; and Dan, my father.