Mostrom
Art
Robert Crumb
A theme that R. Crumb has visited repeatedly in his long art career is Old Time Music. His fans have known that he possesses an uncanny ability to make the long-vanished Blues, jazz, country, and other musicians of the 1920s and 1930s come back to life in the lines of his cartoon work. It is obvious that he, himself, is an old musical soul returned from the past. In addition, Crumb, a respected 78 record collector, dissects and captures in his work the quirkiness, insecurities, and obsessions of his fellow collectors.
Tony Mostrom
Mostrom, a Los Angeles-based writer on popular culture, has developed a second career as an illustrator. In 2012, he was selected to illustrate Jack White’s two-volume extravaganza, The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records. The result was over 300 portrait illustrations of musicians, running from the known to the obscure. What is impressive about this art of old blues, jazz, and country artists is the economy of lines and broken ink Mostrom uses. It’s as if these musicians vibrate, having been summoned back to earth for one more round. It appears that these illustrations are so brittle and delicate they will dissolve upon touch. Of course, sometimes the music on crackly 78s has this same quality.
Very cool work.
George Schmidt
A New Orleans native, artist George Schmidt has been focusing on the beauty and history of his hometown for many years. His series, “The History of New Orleans Jazz” brings to life the New Orleans of the early 1900s. With no formal art training, a source of pride for Schmidt, he picked up his drawing and color skills in architecture school, then developed a successful art career as, in his words, a “creative reactionary”. In addition to his art, Schultz is a founder of the New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra, playing now for over fifty years, as well as publisher of music arrangements from the early 20th century.
