An Interview with Marshall Arisman
Over the course of my life, I have moved several times. Each time, non-essential things were kept in boxes, put in storage and were never to be seen again, until the fourth of July weekend in 2018. It was the project that began a whole other project. The day started out simple enough. My husband and I started to clean and clear out things from the basement, which is also known as the abyss. It was a task that was far long overdue. What was to come was something I would have never imagined. My weekend cleaning spree had resulted in the unveiling of a gold mine of trinkets and treasures. Going through storage bin after storage bin, I was able to take a trip down memory lane. There were things that I uncovered that I had completely forgotten about. Going through old posters from lectures, invitations from exhibitions, workshop flyers, magazines with articles in them that I had written or was featured in, kind notes from artists, curators, editors, former students and the like, was a reminder of my personal history. Amidst the chaos of the clean, I also found a very large plastic bin filled to the top with old cassette tapes. As I began to look through it, I was amazed at the memories that came flooding back to me. Being in the artist’s studio with Robert Heindel, talking to Milton Glaser about his I Love (heart) NY More Than Ever logo with a baby on my hip, being amazed by the civil rights stories of reportage illustrator Franklin McMahon and talking about illustration history with Murray Tinkleman, Vincent Di Fate, Walt Reed, Bunny (Alice) Carter and Ben Eisenstat are each moments I hold dear to my heart. And, then the
funny moments started to come back, like the time David Grove called me after midnight because he forgot the time zone change from the East and West coast. I did that interview into the wee hours of the morning. There are some interviews that I did with artists like Sterling Hundley, James Jean and Shawn Barber that were conducted early on in their careers for magazine annual feature profiles. It has been such a treat to see their evolution as artists. As I lifted cassette tape after cassette tape out of the bin, I recalled many fond memories of talking with Barron Storey, Marshall Arisman, Fred Otnes, Brad Holland and Kazuhiko Sano, just to name a few, about their work and process for both magazine articles and books. When I reflected back on each conversation, I could recall their words of wisdom, hearing their actual voice speaking to me in my mind. The experience of sitting in my basement and having all these memories come back to me was priceless. I knew then that these recorded moments in time should be shared. My interview with Hall of Fame illustrator Marshall Arisman is the first in this new series entitled Behind the Scenes, where I share insight into the backstories that I have witnessed through doing research and interviews for the many articles and books that I have written over the years. The full audio of my interview with Marshall Arisman is posted online on my YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFf-iWzaKo&t=32s The interview was originally done in 2009 as research for an artist profile entitled Content-Driven Approach featured in my book Art Revolution: Alternative Approaches for Fine Artists and Illustrators (North Light
