Bud, a Steve Kaufman acoustic guitar Kamp alumni several times over, playing for us in Hawaii. Yes our humble and perfect cottages were that close to the Pacific Ocean.
I’m not a commercial artist. This is what I tell three time national flatpik champion Steve Kaufman when I enter the design a t-shirt contest for his 2014 annual world renown acoustic guitar Kamp. Friend and father to our awesome daughter in law Terri, Bud Onstad, suggests that I enter this competition for one of his favorite camps.
I’m game. But being a fine artist I’m not at all trained in graphic design. My entry follows the guidelines which ask that Kamp name, location and year be included. I do all the lettering free hand. Real free hand.
My freshman year in college our art class is to design an album cover. I free hand the title with some snappy art and turn my idea in. My professor likes it and suggests that I free hand the final presentation. I do but tidy it up somewhat getting rid of wandering brush strokes. He chastises me asking why didn’t I stick to the free hand like he suggested. In my mind I had but I guess even a bit of tidying up dismisses the free hand aspect.
I email a photo of my entry to Steve and then forget about the contest. At RPI in Richmond studying fine art I am intrigued by the mysteries of the commercial art world. Maybe partly because fine art and commercial art students rarely mix. Each of us think that our world is the better. At a recent RPI reunion a group of curious current art students asks me if the different art department students kept to themselves when we were in school like they do now. I laugh. Some things never change.
My art is everywhere!
Summer rolls around and the time for Steve Kaufman Acoustic Kamp. I’ve not heard anything but did not expect to because after all I’m not a commercial artist. Still I have much commercial art student envy while at RPI. So much so that I take a commercial art class my last year. One assignment is to copy a Mondrian abstract as closely as possible. It’s one of those with a white background and various size intersecting black and primary color lines. Upon closer inspection of the photo we are working from I decide that the whites are not all the same tone and spend hours mixing just the right tweak to each white panel, carefully masking each before painting it in so no paint crosses into the wrong area. The project is small, 5×7 so it’s a tiny rendering. I am sure I’ll get an A or at the least a B. C- is crushing especially when my good friend, a commercial art major, who spends no time at all on her piece gets an A.
Now we’re to December 2014 in this story line. I get an email from Steve Kaufman, whom I have actually met when we went with Bud and lovely wife Amy to listen to him play at Cape Hatteras High School a few Januarys back. Steve deserves every accolade he gets and title he wins, his talent is incredible.
Me & Bud sporting our shirts
Hi Sandy
I bet you thought I forgot about you. I really liked your design and wanted to hang on to it for the 20th annual. Do you think you can update the design and then send me the original?
20th Annual and 2015 are the only changes.
I don’t know if you still have the design there but I like it’s earthy approach. Let me know if this is possible.
Cheers and happy holidays–
Bye for now, Steve Kaufman
I have moved that piece of art around the studio so many times and almost thrown it out a couple of times. Can I even find it? I dig around and it surfaces. I make the changes, mail it off and a few weeks later get a nice surprise check in the mail. Then again I forget all about Steve and his Kamp.
Kamp note card
Imagine my astonishment when I get a post on my FB page from Bud while he is at Steve’s 20th annual Kamp, wearing a t-shirt with my design! And look there I am on Steve’s Kamp website and on Kamp note cards.
A few weeks after Kamp has ended Bud & Amy come to the beach for a visit bearing a t-shirt for me (well actually it arrived in the mail while they were here. Amy has sent it from Kamp). “Didn’t you know about this?” Bud asks. I tell him not really. I say that Steve never specifically says what he is going to do with the art. I figure he will just make posters or flyers. As I am putting this post together I see that Steve does mention saving my entry for his 20th annual acoustic Kamp. In hind sight that is pretty clear.
But still I didn’t expect to be the Kamp art star. Doing alright for not being a commercial artist.
Goodbye Bellows Air Force Base. You were the perfect spot for a stellar Hawaiian vacation with Bud, Amy, Terri, Donald & Sebastian.
