Today we’d like to introduce you to Georgiana Thomas.
Georgiana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started my business in 1985 while I was attending the University of Hartford where I earned my BFA. A former classmate noticed me doodling and sketching people during classes instead of taking notes. She insisted I start doing caricatures, and set me up with a job interview for a trade show, I landed the job! The three day event led to me making many contacts, resulting in subsequent gigs too numerous to count! And the train kept rolling to present day Party Ccaricatures LLC. My caricature art is more than just caricatures. It’s a calling, serving as a medium to connect with people through art, in my case “medium’ has a double meaning. The materials I use to provide the meaning. Each caricature serves as a time capsule. I’m in the business of preserving people in the moment. Moments to remember in art form, with individual relevance preserved in a visual time capsule, visually interpreted onto paper with markers and brush pens. My medium is markers on smooth white card stock, for all to enjoy, as we march into the future. A portable memory outside the brain.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest obstacle by far was the Covid pandemic, which killed my business! All my gigs were cancelled within a two week time frame starting on March 11, 2020. The real nightmare began when I suddenly realized my livelyhood was axed by all the covid restrictions! Right up until the pandemic, I considered my business to be bullet proof! Even the great recession didn’t impact my business! But the pandemic struck out like a covid bowling ball. Out of abject frustration, I started a covid series of hand painted sculptured covid balls. I used multi media to create multi colored covid virus spheres of various sizes. I took styrofoam balls, with cloves and push pins to form the spike proteins. I went so far as to use a physio ball with wine corks as spike proteins for the mother of them all! My house was rolling in painted covid spheres! My covid sculpture series was also meant to be symbolic of how the pandemic was consuming my business and my daily existence. The symbolism was in the sheer number of multi-colored covid virus structures invading my living space. I turned covid into art and symbolism. This enabled me to secure a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission, which I didn’t expect, because I thought I was being silly, creating art out of a global pandemic! I made unintentional lemonade out of lemons by creating spherical covid scultures as an outlet, symbolizing the negative pandemic effect on my life. I also did some virtual work from home teaching art classes and doing occasional virtual caricature gigs via Zoom.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m most known for my caricature career in business. However, I also do illustration work and I paint with acrylic on plywood.
I paint people and land scapes on plywood for the wood grain texture, which adds consistency to my work. I specialize in caricatures, illustrations and painting. My style of painting and all visual art is unique, the uniqueness is derived from my perception of life.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Follow your heart and use art as a medium of self expression, not to impress or compete, but as catharsis, a theraputic outlet. Art is a great coping mechanism! Go that rout, then everything else will follow.
Pricing:
- $135.00 – hourly rate for caricatures
- $500-$1000. per illustration
- $2,500-$10,000 per painting depending on size and detail
- $150. per canvas print of painting
- $50. per paper print of painting
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.spittingimagecaricatures.com
- Instagram: #Party Caricatures LLC
- Facebook: #Party Caricatures LLC
