A Journey In Collaborating With Another Creative

Friends – This illustration was created for a lovely lady named Barbara Macchia. Barbara commissioned me and my husband, Casey, to design a playbill she had written for a dinner theater. I so enjoyed making the art for this piece and learning all about the New York Mob history. Barbara has now passed on, but the memory of her lives in my heart today. I met her when I was relatively young and fresh out of college. I viewed her as a “real” artist who didn’t just dabble in the creative life but lived and breathed it. Her home was filled with inspirational art, and I felt honored that she had selected me to be her hands as she gave her play life. I still remember sitting at her hand-painted table as she cut up the design to make it just how she envisioned it. I learned right then that working as an illustrator was a collaborative process. I had always felt protective of my art until I realized that part of the job was to allow my creative friend in on the process. She took a sharpie and accentuated the “thugs” nose and then exaggerated it to make it look like it had been broken in a fight. Her smile was worth the painstaking effort to get this piece “just right”, and while I felt like I couldn’t possibly re-draw this piece one more time, it was a lesson in patience and perseverance. I would love to hear about how you collaborated on a project and what you learned in the journey. Hugs! Deana