It's hard to believe that I launched this website 10 years ago today.
I began building the website in late 2007. I was unemployed at the time, thanks to a writers' strike that crippled L.A.'s film & TV industry. One November afternoon I had some time on my hands and visited Fullerton, CA, to catch a retrospective of the art of J.C. Leyendecker. (A blog post from artist Bill Stout brought the show to my attention.) It rekindled my lifelong interest in Richard Amsel's work, and, as I stepped out of the museum, I felt determined, right then and there, to help preserve the legacy of my other all-time favorite illustrator.
So much has happened over the last ten years. I've worked at Disney and Warner Bros., made so many wonderful friends, creative associates, and collaborators. Like Amsel's work itself, this website has been a journey that's given me joy, and fuelled my imagination and inspiration.
I can only hope to honor and help preserve Richard Amsel's artistic legacy -- not as something for any one person to claim ownership of, but rather by sharing that legacy with the world, and ensure the man behind the magic would never be forgotten.
Here's to Richard, and to all of you.
P.S.: There's a bittersweet reason why I specifically recall the exact date of this website's first launch. It was the day the great JOHN ALVIN died, and I heard the sad news just as I was putting the finishing touches on my Amsel tribute writeup.
So few creative heroes are left. To those we've lost, we must fight to preserve not just what they've left behind, but carry the torch so that future artists may be inspired by them just as we had been. They deserve that much, and more..
