88 keys

My poster for 2 Pianos 4 Hands is back in circulation. Portland Stage has brought this "comedy with music about a lifetime's obsession with 88 keys" back by popular demand. I did the illustration quite awhile ago, since the play ran originally in January of 2011. I worked on the illustration 2 summers ago, and Marty posed on the ivories.

 

Since then, he began taking piano lessons. Life imitating art? I've had the pleasure of listening to both my husband and daughter practicing their instruments for the last year. The message in 2 Pianos 4 Hands is complicated. Being a maestro is hard work. But in the end, the joy of music is what sustains us all.

Here's the proud student with his amazing teacher, Jan Thomas, after Marty's first recital.

Sound of many hands clapping here! Bravo, Marty!

2 pianos 4 hands

 

At last! The illustration I did during the summer for Portland Stage Company is now all over the place.

I had fun drawing hands many, many times. Nothing like the relentless practicing necessary for the musicians portrayed in the script. I got Marty to pose for one pair of hands.

 

And our neighbor's son, Jacob, posed for the other pair of hands.

Portland Stage gets great coverage for their marketing, which means the visual needs to fit a wide variety of formats. I supplied the art in separate layers; the title font (2 Piano 4 Hands) was one piece, the illustration another, and the text another.

We saw the opening night show on Friday: marvelous! Even though I'd read the script, the actor/musicians, Tom Frey and Jeffrey Rockwell, are dazzling in their seamless performance of multiple characters, voices, and interrupted playing. They brought us to another place with the finale, a piano duo performance of Bach's Concerto in D Minor. Heaven.

Hands are a challenge to draw, but I keep coming back to them. I drew them in this scene in Ice Harbor Mittens, when the elder knitter, Aunt Agnes, grasps Josie's hand to size him up for mittens. Josie thinks her hand feels like an "osprey's claw."

 

Now I'm prepping for a book event this Saturday on Peaks Island. Author Robin Hansen and I will make a presentation about the folks and folklore behind Ice Harbor Mittens, with some drawing and orienteering activities. I'll have some original illustrations on hand, and she'll bring a suitcase of mittens.

Come on by! At the Community Room on Peaks Island, Saturday February 5 from 11AM - 1 PM.