| Hembeck Art: The NEXT Generation |
| Posted July 1st, 2007 |
| Daughter Julie, just shy of her 17th birthday,
is currently away from home attending a month
long pre-college art program at the Maryland
Institute of Art College (MICA), but if you
think the younger Hembeck is likely to follow
her dad into the wild and woolly world of
cartooning, you'd be way, WAY off base! It's
the fine arts--painting, photography, even
ceramics--for my kid. But there WAS a time, long, long ago--once--when she too had a go at the very same costumed cut-ups yours truly is noted for noodling. The thing is, Julie wasn't quite six years of age at the time. Here's the hook, though--these portraits weren't merely copied from a flat two-dimensional page, but were actually drawn from life!! Y'see, I have a modest collection of action figures, made up mostly of the initial couple of DC Comics' Super Powers series of several decades back, some Marvel PVC figures, and even a few stray Happy Meal plastic character giveaways. After a certain point, I just plain stopped collecting the things, as I really had nowhere to properly display them. Fact is, since we moved to our "new" house (that's eleven years ago now, folks), I STILL haven't gotten around to unpacking the little buggers! That's how I knew that the crayon studies I came across awhile back had to date from before the big move, made only scant week prior to Julie's sixth birthday. I stumbled upon this otherwise totally forgotten art shortly after a nasty flood in our basement some time back, and although the drawings survived for the most part, there WAS some water damage. A little color running is evident on a few of the pieces, but happily--in MY mind anyway--it doesn't detract from them overmuch. Hard to believe I that couldn't quite recall the circumstances under which these drawings were originally done, but y'know, that WAS such a tremendously hectic time, so maybe it's to be expected. And hey, who knew then that'd be the first AND last time my budding artist offspring would visually visit these characters? (And yes, I DID pay good money for a Santa Hulk PVC figure--wanna make something of it?...) At the very bottom of this Julie Hembeck Jamboree, you'll find (lastly) a witty illo I lifted from her 2005 sketchbook for a bit of contrast, with the penultimate drawing being a portrait of her paternal unit, scribbled circa 1996. Now, I suppose that posting my daughter's vintage drawings here could be considered pretty darn self-indulgent, but c'mon, isn't that what a web-site is FOR? Look, unless she comes home from MICA with a Kree-Skrull War tableau painted in oil, this'll most likely be the last you'll see Julie's work here at Hembeck.com for the time being. in the meantime, I just HAVE to ask--has good ol' Thanos EVER looked quite so cute?.... |
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