Jack Lardis, Artist and Climate Change Activist.
My four careers:
- My first career was as art director of the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where I created a 23-person art department and the agency became the second largest in Holland within five years. Also, I started a theater production company to offer English-speaking entertainment for American and British travelers. I presented four successful intimate review musical comedies from London and during my last year, presented American singer, Eartha Kitt, at the Amsterdam Royale Concertgebouw. I returned to New York City and art directed Kodak Cameras & Film, Pan American Airlines, Holiday Inns, Chesterfield Cigarettes, Bausch & Lomb Sunglasses, to name a few.
- My second career took me to Hartford, Connecticut where I established my own agency as president/owner of Lardis, Barcham & Partners Advertising Agency. Clients included Jose Cuervo Tequila and Smirnoff Vodka of Heublein Liquors, Hartford National Bank, Cadbury Schweppes, and other Connecticut business accounts.
- After retiring from the commercial sector, my third career was as a painter and metal sculptor. Using oil sticks as a medium, I created Power Portraits of famous and not-so-famous persons, as well as an anthology of artworks based on the Ikaros myth of my ancestral island in the Aegean Sea.
- The September 11, 2001 catastrophe launched me on a journey as a Climate Change activist. I created Oil Drum Art, a non-profit art organization that promoted art that advocated reduced petroleum consumption for a more livable planet. Over fifteen years I enlisted over 250 regional artists who transformed recycled oil drums into artworks that focus on the dependence of oil. The drum artworks were displayed in 23 exhibitions in Connecticut and New York with over a quarter of a million viewers.
- During my journey as an artist, my wife, Shirley and our four children, Jerry, Michelle, Randy and Nick, have provided balance and family love that allowed me to create freely. I am forever indebted to Shirley and our family for their support.
I am closing my art studio and seek homes for my artwork. I have donated 18 pieces from my anthology of the mythical Ikaros to fellow-Ikarians. I retained seven of the major Ikaros pieces to offer to a more visible venue such as a museum or college/university art gallery.
POWER PORTRAITS
I am not a traditional, realistic portrait artist. My work is more expressionistic as the face is highly magnified, minimizing distraction by things from a specific period in time or history, such as hairstyles, clothing, glasses, etc. Because there are no materialistic clues in the final artwork, the subject is more timeless.
My medium is large oil sticks (compressed bees wax, Linseed oil, and oil paint) that help minimize detail and produce an impression of the subject rather than an accurate recording of the surface.
The face is the total image that is partly in shadow to represent the inner sanctum or hidden self of the subject. The coloration of the face is representational rather than realistic and seeks the subject’s emotion or intellect.
The selected subject generally has some exceptional ability or influence over the multitude. For General Colon Powell, the colors were predominately reds and hot colors to reflect the power and emotion that goes with life and death decisions. The famous resonating voice of James Earl Jones is high-lighted with vibrant red on his throat and the face is washed with theatrical stage lighting.
It takes two to complete art -- the creator and the viewer who subjectively unravels the mystery of a painting that is viewed. My Power Portraits attempt to convey the dynamics of a celebrity or renowned person in two dimensions with simple, timeless compositions.
Jack A Lardis
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