Becker Coat of Arms

“Becker Coat of Arms”
Pen and Ink on Illustration Board
16″ x 20″ (matted)

This Coat of Arms drawing was a gift to my friends Scott and Angie for their wedding. After interviewing them about the piece, I used as much of the information as possible. I even did some on site research to get a feeling and sense of place and color for certain aspects of the drawing. Probably the most research I have done for one of these drawings thus far. Scott is from New York and Angie is from outside Detroit but met each other in the pub across the street from me, Galway Bay. So, I included elements of each city. The Joe Louis Arena on the left for Ang along with her beloved Red Wings logo beneath and on the right is the statue of liberty and a small metropolitan skyline to symbolize NYC. On the underside of these sections is the Chicago “basement” bar in which they met. On the left side beneath the Detroit imagery in black and white are the numbers 11/3/12, the date of their wedding. Diagonally through the center of the piece are stage images of a runner. Angie is an avid distance runner with some marathons under her belt, but we will get back to that in a bit. The lower left portion of the piece is a small drawing of them on a kayak trip in Costa Rica where they spent their honeymoon; Angie in a red boat for her Red Wings and Scott in a green one for his Jets. These colors are reflected in the bar above the city which also contains each of their initials. The river leads to a waterfall, a memory from the trip as well. Directly to the right of the water fall is a scene in front of a small bridge. This is the site I visited to collect rocks and embrace the area as much as I could. At the end of a long run one day, Angie came upon this bridge and Scott was waiting for her there. This is the spot where he proposed to the love of his life. My hope is that this drawing achieves an illustrative recount of their story, and their love.

• January 17, 2013

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