Raleigh Rambles

David Larson 2000 Calendar & Bio Pics

In 1999, David was working pretty fulltime at the Habitat Re-Store, and a stack of bright white 1 ft. square chipboard panels came in. David started designing images on them with Sharpie marker, a concentric frame of his art deco style with an interesting natural figure in the middle. After I had seen several of them, I told him if he finished 12 of them, we would publish a calendar. Everybody was going nuts over Y2K, from millennial prophecy to worldwide mainframe crashes from two missing digits, and I thought we could make something of that. The result was a monochrome calendar that sold very poorly with two exceptions: to friends at Paper Plant events and to customers at Habitat, who received a very deep discount. (and David got all the money).  Nevertheless, the calendar has become a wonderful way to save and send a nice sample of David’s work.

I remember this as a wonderful and well-attended event at our house on Person Street. Many Larson laughs heard at this event!

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My favorite feature of the project was the bio sketches that David did (or had already done) which we used to illustrate their noted birthdate in the calendar. David regularly did this kind of work, using a photo, and turned them into stickers which he shared with friends. A spread of calendar pics in followed by some of this work.

The final image is David Larson, born 12/3/55.

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Posada prep

Posada finalPortrait of Jose Guadalupe Posada, Mexican political illustrator who used lithography to produce his works. A favorite of David’s, using skulls and skeletons in his figures, he influenced his Day Of The Dead pieces.  Transparency and detailed image for the 2000 calendar.

 Born in 1852, Posada was able to set up his own lithography workshop and became a teacher of the craft in 1883 after his success from periodicals and newspapers publishing his works. A flood had him relocate to Mexico City in 1888 where he worked for La Patria Ilustrada, then joined a publishing firm where he created book covers, cartoons, and illustrations depicting various current events, using satire. From the beginning of the Mexican revolution in 1910 until his death in 1913, he worked tirelessly in the press honing his printmaking craft with features in the magazine El Jicote.

from David N

from Evan W

from Evan W

from Evan W

from Art D

from Mary R – Tolouse Lautrec

Sasser Street charcoal

from Alan Bowling, de facto executor of David’s art.

David Larson Art webpage

January 22, 2022 - Posted by raleighnaturalist | art, David Larson | David Larson, music