Another one of the individuals I was tasked to caricature for the summit was Frank Gaffney. I had no idea who he was before I was assigned the job. I was given a single image, but when I went online to find more photos, I found pictures that were quite contrary in their depiction of him. Apparently he has changed quite a bit over the past few years. Will the real Frank Gaffney stand up?
Not knowing which is which, I tried to create a composite caricature from all of the different photos I found.
I sat down at my studio, ready to get started when it happened. My dreaded disease suddenly got the best of me.
The day I had scheduled to work on the Frank Gaffney piece, I was suddenly stricken with severe dizziness, mental confusion and headaches. I get these from time to time, perhaps once every other month, but rarely do I get them when I’m under pressure of a deadline. The headaches and dizziness lasted three days, and so I fought through a thick fog trying to get Gaffney’s portrait put together. The neurons to the creative center of my brain were not firing and I had to rely not on artistic intuition, but solely on the strict fundamentals stuck in my long term memory. I’m happy at the way the illustration finally turned out, but it was a challenge to get to this point. It took twice, maybe even thrice as long as normal.
When I finally did get to meet him, I discovered that he is a very unassuming man, very slight in stature, but powerful in word. I kind of wished I could sit him down real quick and just paint him from life. I know he’s a busy man, but I’m sure he could spare a few hours…
