Painting through a series meas I paint them all, regardless of what they did. I am usually able to find interest in every subject, I like that ability. But when it comes to Woodrow Wilson, we come to one of my favorite presidents and that is why I spent so long hovered over this painting. I’m currently reading through this awesome, full fledged 500 page biography of the man. So as to not write my own book in this post, I will save writing about Woodrow for a later date. I’ll update this page when that’s done.

If you must know, my other favorite presidents are James K Polk, Theodore Roosevelt and to a lesser extent Harry Truman. Through this project I gained respect for Grover Cleveland and the mini series HBO did on John Adams (and my wife gave me for Valentines) will hopefully shed a new light on the man. Of course I’m a fan of George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. That’s a given.

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If you’re from the area, you should instantly recognize the name Capper from Capper’s Weekly (rural farming newsweekly) and the Capper Foundation (assists children with disabilities). Capper was also the 20th governor of the state of Kansas and a state senator.

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This painting is of Alf Landon, governor of Kansas and the poor individual who tried to get in the way of FDRs reelection in 1936. Landon was Republican nominee for President, but he was bowled over by the unstoppable force that was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the solution to the great depression and the saviour to everyone living in that generation. Landon lost the election by nearly 10 million votes.

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It’s a painting of Charles Curtis, the Topekan born politician who was Vice President under Herbert Hoover and the first Native American to reach either of our Nation’s highest offices.

Two more pieces will be posted in the coming days.

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Personally, I didn’t expect him to change the world in 1 year, nor do I think it fair to be too critical of him after only a year.

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Check it out here. There are all kinds of other publications on the site, so be prepared to waste a lot of time if you’re into visual history.

I like the internet and all, it obviously makes research such as this much easier, but I hope we never see the day where printed newspapers and magazines cease to exist. Digital is just not the same in my opinion. I often wonder what our generation will leave behind. Museums have innumerable written correspondance between friends, lovers and haters. Children find vintage records, baseball cards and other priceless ephemera in their parents and grandparents attics. What will I leave behind? A hard drive with a bunch of files on it? Yeah, that’s just not that exciting at all.

Also, I feel that the Time covers aren’t quite as good the more modern they become. Older issues had lively illustrations and ideas, new ones look more like photo collages. Wonder if my opinion has anything to do with the fact that I’m an illustrator, haha. Obviously I’m really drawn to the individual portraits of the older covers and would love to do that kind of work.

A few of my favorites are:

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Taft’s presidency also wasn’t the most successful, even he admitted so, and that is supported by the fact that he gained fewer votes for reelection than any other incumbent. This, however, could be due to the fact that he was in a race against the popular Woodrow Wilson and the old stalwart back with a new party, Theodore Roosevelt.

Like many others who held office, though, Taft’s lasting legacy is left in what he did outside of office. It’s actually believed that he never wanted the presidency and that his wife and her ambitions pushed him into the oval office. He has been quoted as saying he was uncomfortable holding such office, and that he had always wanted to serve as Chief Justice on the Supreme Court. In fact, while he was president he had to appoint another for the position of Chief Justice. He appointed an older man to the position, many believe he did this because his appointee would not live as long and the position would open up after he left office.

Taft was a likable fellow with a cheery personality and a generous chuckle (hence the bright, happy color palette in his portrait). However, he was an unhappy man during his 4 years in office, but he regained his cheer after leaving office.

After leaving office, 8 years later, he did just that- he became Chief Justice. Taft is the only man to have led both the Executive and Judicial branches and was allegedly quoted as saying “The truth is that in my present life I don’t remember that I ever was president.” He considered his 9 years as Chief Justice his proudest achievement.

Taft served our nation well, though his time was unmemorable. Heavily criticized during his time in office for his disdain for rampant executive power, time has since shown Taft may not have been so wrong after all. So maybe he wasn’t great, but he wasn’t terrible either.

Taft was the first president to throw out the first pitch to inaugurate the baseball season.

Taft was the first president to preside over the 48 states, or the continental U.S.

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View More at <a href="http://www.shorthandedstudio.com/us-presidents">www.shorthandedstudio.com/us-presidents</a>

Artist creates ‘tasteful’ depictions of 50 states

MAYETTA — A Mayetta-based artist is finding out Americans have a hunger for his hand-drawn posters.

John Holcomb, 25, has created a series of tongue-in-cheek posters titled “The United Plates” that depict each state as food. A rectangular Kansas is made from triangular turnovers. Indiana is a bunch of asparagus, while Minnesota is a frothy mug of beer.

The sales of his unique artwork recently were boosted after catching the eye of SeriousEats.com, a recipe blog, and the Food Network Magazine, which featured his posters in its December issue.

“It’s my goal to create something that people will enjoy and hopefully something that will last longer than I will,” Holcomb explains in a flyer about his series. “I’m always working and always pushing myself to do something better.”

Holcomb, who grew up in Mayetta, attended Topeka High School and graduated from John Brown University in 2007 with a degree in design and illustration. After his graduation, he and his wife, Ali, returned to Mayetta to live. His wife took a job at the Holton newspaper while he concentrated on his art and taking care of his ailing great-grandmother.

In March 2008, when he was at his great-grandmother’s home, the idea of “The United Plates” series popped into his head.

“I thought Delaware looked like a dead fish,” he said. “It was a random thought. I sketch every thought I have. I did 20 states right there and then.”

Iowa became a green bell pepper; Oregon, a pile of spaghetti and meatballs; Tennessee, a hot dog; and North Carolina, a slice of cherry pie.

The following July, Holcomb began screen-printing his designs in his garage.

“I printed 5,000 to start with — 100 of each state,” he said.

The last state he drew was Missouri. Holcomb said he is an ardent Jayhawk fan and didn’t want to let the Kansas-Missouri rivalry influence what food he chose to use for that state.

“Chinese — I gave them my favorite food,” he said.

In January 2009, Holcomb launched a Web site, theunitedplates.com, to sell his prints. But traffic at the site was slow and sales were sparse.

“It was really hard for seven months,” he said.

Last July, Holcomb said he and his wife said a prayer and put his fate as an artist in God’s hands.

“The next day I was featured on SeriousEats.com, and traffic on the Web site jumped 3,000 percent, and I got an e-mail from the Food Network the next day,” he said.

The magazine gave him a full-page feature story that showed several of his posters.

Since then, he receives two to three e-mails a day from people inquiring about his artwork and has gone from screen-printing each poster to printing them on the computer. Holcomb includes a hand-written thank-you and a brief note about the state with each order.

Holcomb said “The United Plates” series was a “confidence builder” that has led to other projects: a coffeetable-style book based on the “United Plates” series and a series of watercolor paintings of the U.S. presidents, which can be seen at www.shorthandedstudio.com/us-presidents/.

“I work with the ideas I have,” he said, “and see where it goes.”

Jan Biles can be reached at (785) 295-1292 or jan.biles@cjonline.com.

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Enter the code “newsite” for a 10% discount in my shop!

I’ve been slightly derailed from the Presidents series of late, but it’s not for lack of good reason. One of which is new jobs, the other is a brand new Shorthandedstudio.com!

If you’ve happened by the site of late, you will have seen some of these growing pains. I’m not a “web designer” so I choose to tweak my site a piece at a time instead of launching new versions overnight. However, I believe I have finally put the finishing polish on this version of the site and I’m really excited with how it turned out. It’s much cleaner than the last iteration, and most importantly to me it features a brand new store!

If you’ve really been following Shorthanded since it’s debut launch in January of 2008, this is in fact version 4.0 (4.5 if you count the crash and collapse that happened on January of 09 that caused a massive loss of data and many unkind words spoken on my part). The second version was launched January 2009, the 3rd in November of 2009 and now this version in February 2010. I wish I would have kept screenshots of each version because it would have been nice to see the progression, but I’ve never been that organized.

This version directly adresses two areas that I’ve always felt were problem areas for my site.

Problem #1, the store. Paypal is a great tool, but their popup and cart system are hideous not to mention I dread adding products because it means I’ll have to login to Paypal’s backend site. As a person interested in design and usability, Paypal’s administrator area is the nastiest place on the web. Even though I came up with a quite genius setup for adding products to the store, I always felt it was a weak link. Now I cannot lie, the store I just added to this site rules! You should really go check it out. I’m so excited to finally have it integrated as a shopping cart.

Problem #2, the navigation. I’ve never liked the navigation systems I’ve employed in the past. To me, the beauty in a navigation is hidden in its simplicity yet as a peddler of visual goods I want every viewer to see everything I do, but that’s the worst approach to a navigation system possible. When those two opposing ideas collide, there’s chaos. Your best bet in navigation is always sub navigation and since I hate hate hate dropdown menus, I chose to employ a sub navigation system my own way.

There is a photo of a recent version of the site so you can see the changes.

Those who choose to shop in my store are my means of existence, my most appreciated visitors. To say thanks, and to entice anyone who may want to make a purchase from my shop, enter the code “newsite” in the discount code field and take 10% off the order total.

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Therefore, the only reason for this blog post is to say I’m cheering for my long lost cousin Steve Holcomb in the two man bobsled tomorrow and the four man later. It’s fun to hear announcers say “Holcomb this” and “Holcomb that.” The only other time I’ve heard my name on TV was that one brief moment where Kelly Holcomb won a game or two with the Buffalo Bills in the mid 2000s and then disappeared. After day one of the 2 man competition, Steve and teammate Curtis Tomasevicz are sitting in 4th place. They looked great in the second run, so here’s to tomorrow!

Check out his website here: Team Holcomb and Steve’s profile here: Vancouver 2010.

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