My memoir, "Drawn into Something" is now available. It's the story of how I became an artist from age zero to 21. My forty-year award-winning art career began where this memoir ends in 1979.

I was “drawn into something” before I was even aware of that the something was art. Early inspiration came from sources as varied as dancing cigarettes in TV commercials, Lincoln Logs, Flash Gordon, NASA, and creek mud. I grew up in a neighborhood of carpenters and bricklayers where sports were highly admired and the arts were insulted or disregarded entirely. By the time I was eight, I began to see myself as an artist though there was no art education and no adults who could be artist role models. I began teaching myself techniques in realism and the book shows the artworks that were successful but also many screw-ups. My childhood art reflected the tumultuous 1960s with drawings of nuclear apocalypse evolving to sexually provocative, handmade Playboy-like magazines by 1970 when I was 13. In high school, I wanted my art to have metaphor like the imagery in songs by Bob Dylan and John Prine, and poets like T.S. Eliot and Rimbaud. I was constantly frustrated by my limited skillset and the insane difficulty of using visual art to project literary ideas. Almost half the book is about my college years where I was slowly but very deliberately working toward an individual style of art that would effectively convey thought-provoking themes. There was obsessive work and depressing failures and I’ve illustrated both with dozens of high quality photographs of my life, various studios, and student work.

I wrote this memoir to depict the beginning history of my creativity. It’s not an autobiography and there are zillions of life experiences, family stories, and friendships that are not included. It’s a string of memories that I loosely hold about the development of my interests in art and writing. I added notable life signposts to portray my life when the art was made. I relied heavily on my boxes of papers, letters, mementos, family photographs, sketchbooks, and 100s of my old artworks to trigger memories and help with dates.

“Drawn into Something”
A memoir of becoming an artist by Jeff Whipple
176 pages, 500+ photographs
$40.00

You can get a copy from Jeff’s studio by appointment. (Cash/check only) Private FB message or memoir@jeffwhipple.com

Or Amazon will ship you a copy.
Amazon listing: https://www.amazon.com/Drawn.../dp/B0B6XQBGPB/ref=sr_1_2...
(There is a preview of the first several pages and the cover on the Amazon page.)

We’re looking into having it available in Jacksonville bookstores and art supply stores. (Reddiarts is interested.)

The painting in this photo is from 1978 when I was a 20-year-old undergraduate. It was an important development in my work that spring. Oil on canvas, 30" x 40". It's covered in plastic for storage in my studio.

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