The Lesson: Speaking Amongst Giants

THE LESSON:

SPEAKING AMONGST

GI A N T S A STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

INTRO January 5th, 2013, at approximately 11:00am in the Dudley Building on NC A&T SU campus, I had the pleasure of going to an exhibition of a great man and even greater fashion illustrator, Don Earley. The significance of this show was not only the work, although they were magnificent, but the people I encountered. I met the friends of the Roy Carter, art director of the visual arts program at A&T, and had the pleasure to meet a really good friend of Mr. Carter’s who was also his teacher and mentor, Donald Earley. To me, it was like speaking with a group of GIANTS in the room. The Show exhibits the work that he has done over the years displaying mental process and progression in his work.

There were at 40 works on display throughout the month of January until it was taken down in early February.

BECOMING A GIANT

Earley dated his love of art back to the age of 5 or 6. He started drawing from comic books that he read, but most importantly in the third grade, he went on a field trip to an art museum. As he looked at the exhibitions, he asked the teacher, “Who did this?” and she said “Artists”. Then she asked him “What do you want to be?” and he replied, “An Artist”.

From that point on, Earley wanted to do nothing but make art in his life; however, for the longest time, he did not know where artists came from and remained a mystery. At around 12 years old, he and his friends would sit on the stoop and they would draw. Someone would ask them what are they doing and they said, “We are going to become artists!”

In high school, Earley’s childhood friend, Jimmy Macniel, went to the school of Music and Art, “One of the greatest schools in the world” Earley claimed. He came to Earley and said “Come here, I want to show you something.”Macniel brought Earley to his school and had shown him all the etchings, paintings, sculptures, and other forms of art students were making. He asked his

parents and they refused to enroll him. He asked “Why?”, they answered “We couldn’t afford it!”

So afterwards, Early continued his education through the regular school systems and eventually started working in Manhattan. One day, his father told him “Either you go to school, [College] or get out of the house.”

Earley went to his boss who suggested, “Why don’t you take a look at the school around the corner?” Early replied, “That’s an art school? I thought is was a business school. Students always come dressed up.”, “That is because it is a school for fashion.”

The school was known as FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology and still stands in New York today. After enrolling in the school, Earley soon met Mrs. Frances Neady, who would be the biggest influence on Earley’s life.

Earley began working in design layout at a design firm and was asked by Mr. Grant, a colleague of Earley’s, to work with an up and coming designer. He worked with him doing illustrations and designs for the artist’s lounge in the client’s studio. The artist Earley was helping out was Calvin Klein. After some time illustrating with Klein, Earley’s name started circulating and people came to ask Earley if he would like to work for them.

At that time, Klein had been making a name

for himself. He was gaining popularity and by the time Earley came back to New York to see a client, Klein was known as “one of the greatest designers of all time.”, which reflected on Early and his work.

Donald Earley, originally from Hempstead Long Island, went to FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) where he “learned to draw”.

He also taught at FIT, Cooper Union, and VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University).

In his career, he has done commission work for many well-established individuals such as Calvin Klein, New York Times, Eli Wallach, Nancy Littlefield, and many more. He has directed in motion pictures, TV production and also for theatrical organizations. Ultimately he went back to teaching at FIT and Cooper Union before working at VCU where he became the instructor or Joe Truxell and my instructor, Roy Carter. After teaching them and helping them grow, Earley still continued his work at VCU and does so to this day.

Before the formal interview, I spoke to Earley and Truxell about some of the projects I was going through and about my work.

They, and many other professional artists in the gallery that heard the conversation gave me some great and useful information. Talking to them reminded me of a conversation I had talking to Carter. He mentioned an old phrase known as “standing amongst giants.”

He explained that the master of the field that you are working in are the “giants” that many revere, respect, and praise. These very people are usually the people you, the pupil, aspire to be and so you work towards their level and gain the same skills they acquired.

Once you reach a certain level when your mentor can no longer teach you, you then realize that you are at their level and can see further than they did. It is literally like climbing a giant so you can see everything and then some because you are on top of the giant.

THE GIANTS

Hence, the term Standing Amongst Giants” was created, and you can see everything, including what direction to go. What is best is that you use what you have learned from your mentor to continue to grow and prosper and in time, you yourself become the next “giant” to serve as a link on the chain of great people.

I say all of that to say this, I began to feel what that phrase is like after speaking to the man who taught my professor and another great mind who is a good friend and former classmate of Carter in the same room talking as if they were just ordinary people.

To me it was the greatest moment in my time in college and I gained more from it than any other memorable moments I had at A&T. It was as though I was standing amongst giants and heard them talk. So I took my sketch book and took notes on the things that they said that I could keep to become the next .

...To be Continued...

Story: Jordan T. Robinson Photography: Brittany C. Wright Photography: Chris R. Martin Produced by A&T students