No. 445: Out of the Blue

Every now and then, a call comes out of nowhere that really leads somewhere.
No. 445, which I will call “Out of the Blue” for a couple of reasons, is the fruit of surprise.

I got a message in July from Dan Pecchia, inquiring about art. This intrigued me on a lot of levels: Dan and I used to be fairly fierce newspaper competitors, then we found ourselves working in the same newsroom at The Vindicator in Youngstown where he excelled at business coverage, before he branched off to form his own public relations company, Pecchia Communications in Canfield.

I really wasn’t expecting to hear from Dan the weekend after learning I’d lose my newspaper job due to closing. It’s not like we’re golf buddies.

But we agreed to meet up at a local eatery — both of us had the grilled chicken sandwich — and talk about the old days and ways, and eventually about art.
This is not the picture he initially envisioned: his younger and current self morphed together somehow in The Vindicator’s newsroom. His wife Betsy vetoed that one, thank you, because the one they have at home now is much more meaningful. Dan explains:

"With our three kids grown up and on their own, Betsy and I get more chances to travel and one of our favorite things to do is hike in the mountains. During one recent getaway we enjoyed a bunch of intermediate walks up and down the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia, an incredible place full of history and awesome views of God's creation.

"These mountains also hold sentimental value for us because when our kids were younger, we took them out of school every February to go skiing and hiking in these mountains. It's significant to us that we just sorta stumbled upon this place on our own, not as a result of someone else's suggestion or tradition. We keep coming back … blazing our own trails."

All drawings start with the eyes. If the eyes are wrong, nothing else will work. From there I shaded the faces, then roughed in their clothing and the mountains.
(Best moment: Assuring Dan that his wife indeed would have hair.)
They looked more like themselves after the clothing was filled in. The rocky landscape came last, then I touched up a few things to tie everything together.

Dan and I pecked through two frame choices but settled on the bigger, bolder one. Because climbing a mountain is a big, bold move.  Almost as big as, say, starting your own business or heading into a new horizon after 34 years in a newsroom.

We’ll see you at the top.