To commemorate the 50th anniversary of James Dean's death, nationally-known artist Charles Fazzino
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REBEL - Artist Charles Fazzino created this painting exclusively for James Dean Fest. |
took on the project of making the actor and his legacy come alive in 3-D.
Fazzino, a New York-based artist who has done pieces for the National Football League, Warner Bros. Studios and the Indianapolis 500, worked with organizers of events honoring Dean to create a collage-like painting available as a poster and a limited-edition three dimensional serigraph painting.
"I love doing personality pieces and different pieces on icons because it's just exciting," said Fazzino, speaking from his New Rochelle, N.Y., studio this week. "I love doing James Dean because he's sort of a cool icon."
A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Fazzino gives his work a 3-D effect by making several copies of each painting, cutting out portions of the extras with a knife and layering those pieces onto the original to make certain details pop out. He learned the technique in the 1970s, after unknowingly walking in on a crafts class in Florida.
"I sat down with the people and took this class and had this brainstorm," Fazzino said. "Everybody was using this wrapping paper and greeting cards and I thought I should take my own prints. I had just finished school and my artwork lent itself to this type of duplicate handicraft."
Before creating his pieces - which include detailed images of New York City streets and tributes to performers like Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe, Fazzino does extensive research. He either travels to the city he plans to depict or, in the case of the James Dean artwork, turned to books, movies and the Internet.
"I picked up some of the old movies and watched them, I got photos off the Internet to see what he looked like, read a book on him to become familiar with him and his life," Fazzino said.
Each piece starts with a pencil drawing that Fazzino takes to the company or estate he's working with for approval. The artist then creates a final design painted with colored pencils. The work then goes back to a fine art printer, who makes multiple, colorful copies using a silk-screening process. Fazzino said he usually prints about 1,000 copies for a 500-edition work so the extras can be used to make the art three dimensional.
The Dean painting includes an image of the actor driving his Porsche Spyder and a tiny scene of Los Angeles that includes Griffith Observatory, filming site for several key scenes in Rebel Without a Cause. There is also a drag race that passes street signs for Marion, where Dean was born, and Fairmount, where he grew up.
"When you think of James Dean, you think of the '50s and the '60s and I wanted to bring that across," Fazzino said. "At the bottom, you have a drive-in and a refreshment stand and you have some old signs and I tried to have cars that were actually from those years."
He also incorporated several black and white photographs of Dean. One photo of Dean walking along a New York City street, melds together with Fazzino's colorful rendering of the Big Apple skyline, making the actor appear to be walking out of the artwork.
Fazzino, whose work can be found in the private collections of Hillary Clinton and Julia Roberts, will be at the June 3 to 5 James Dean Fest at the Marion Municipal Airport. Examples of his work will be on display and the artist plans to participate in poster-signing events.
The James Dean artwork was unveiled this week at the Cannes Film Festival in France in conjunction with the premiere of the new documentary James Dean: Forever Young. The painting and documentary, which will have its U.S. premiere at the Dean Fest, got favorable receptions in France, event producer and CEO Israel Baron said.
"It was a big success," he said. "We had a full house."
