The Art of Michael LaBash

05/09/2011 20:07

Font size:

Michael LaBash

When I Thought I Couldn't Draw

Click on images for bigger versions of each piece.

Frank Moore likes to tell the story of how I thought I couldn't draw.

Sitting around our living room one day, admiring all the LaBash art on the walls, Frank asked me, "When did you realize you could draw?"

I looked around the room for a little while and pointed at one of the large, complex drawings and said, "I think it was after I finished that third big project for you." He was shocked; it turned out my teachers in college had told me that I couldn't draw. My boss at my first graphic design job used to tell me I couldn't draw...and I bought into it.

Frank, on the other hand, hearing that I was a graphic designer set me to work on various projects without even thinking about whether I could draw or not. He just assumed because I was a graphic designer, I must be able to draw!

So, when Frank lectured as a visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, he plastered one side wall of the auditorium with my drawings and posters and told the story of how I thought I couldn't draw to the packed house of students. At the end of it, he told them, "So quit art school! Don't listen to anybody! Follow your own vision!"