Shelbyville’s Public Library adds the Frederic Goudy “Sunday School Murals” poster to its permanent collection

I grew up nearby Shelbyville, Illinois where Frederic Goudy attended high school. It was my pleasure to present the Shelbyville’s Public Library Director Monica Cameron with my “The Sunday School Murals” poster for the Library’s permanent collection.

The Sunday School Murals in Shelbyville became the seventeen year old Goudy’s first lettering project in 1882. These letter patterns would be the inspiration for Goudy’s typeface Ornate Title which he would design in 1931 at age 66.

Shelbyville’s Public Library is of classic French Renaissance design, built with funding provided by Andrew Carnegie, and dedicated in 1905. “I’m amazed how your design captured the Arts & Crafts stained glass windows of the building,” said Cameron, “It’s a wonderful addition to our Library’s collection.”

“The Park Ridge Art Colony”: A New Book of Posters by Rex Parker

Fearless. Trend-setting. Tradition-Bending. Fun! That’s the art colony history of Park Ridge. This spiral bound book is 10 1/4 x 14 1/4 — features 30 powerful poster illustrations by award winning artist, Rex Parker celebrating the vibrant heritage of the Park Ridge art colony and, through his own artworks, the vitality of Park Ridge today.

Art is most often displayed in the world’s glittering big cities, but it doesn’t always start there. The quiet Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois, was home to a thriving art colony that attracted some of the country’s most remarkable talents. Painting, sculpting, metalwork, musical composition, architecture and even typeface design that attained worldwide recognition was abundant here from the late l890s through the Depression. But in our busy post-WWII society, this treasured local art history went unnoticed by many.

Rex’s bold colorful, book of collectible posters on “The Park Ridge Art Colony” is a celebration of Clara Barck Welles, Kalo, Grant Wood, Alfonso Iannelli, Frederick Goudy, The Village Press and John Alden Carpenter. Included in the book is one of Rex’s own favorite poster series “Legends of the Pickwick Theatre” these posters herald movies, locally raised celebrity actors and other creatives that enriched Park Ridge; a series some have called a modern Art Deco masterpiece. Rex simply calls it doing good works.

Spectacular Movie Palaces

Rex’s love of movies and architecture are intertwined in this poster series of “Spectacular Movie Palaces”. The Golden Age of Hollywood is most visible in Rex’s sleek, streamlined — “Normal Theater” poster an Art Moderne-style theater that opened in 1937, in Normal, Illinois.

Rex’s “Mayfair Theatre” poster infuses Art Deco with a nautical flair. The 1934 building in Kaikoura, New Zealand, with its perfectly symmetrical design has patterns of lines that stretch the length of the building’s facade with wonderfully pastel hues of pink and sandstone. It is an exceptional example of New Zealand’s Art Deco style.

GoodWorks for the Center of Concern

The Center of Concern is a non-profit social service agency providing services and housing solutions to seniors, the disabled and others in need, enabling them to live safely and independently. The Center of Concern has been supporting families and strengthening community for nearly 40 years. For the new “Senior Help Line” Rex designed a marketing program using bright pastel colors, vintage bicycles, engaging seniors & a darling Yorkie.

Take a trip back to the sixties with Rex’s “The UnClassic” poster for the Center of Concern’s annual summer fundraiser — Peace, Love, & Miniature Golf!

The Moweaqua Coal Mine Museum adds “Always” and “Christmas Angels” Posters to Permanent Collection

The Moweaqua Coal Mine Museum has announced the recent acquisition of Rex Parker’s “Always” and “Moweaqua’s Christmas Angels.” Each of Rex’s dramatic posters celebrates the extraordinary lives and hardships of the hard-working heroes of the Moweaqua coal mining -community. His powerful images further enhance the Moweaqua Coal Mine Museum’s collection of unique artifacts, from small gas detectors, miners’ lamps, historical documents, rare vintage photographs, exhibitions and geological coal samples from the mine. These are the first posters by the artist to enter the museum’s collection.

Parker has a unique connection to the museum location: His grandparents owned the building in the 1940’s and ran the Parker Feed Store with a little roadside fruit stand, “It was a community gathering spot, a lot like Starbucks today,” said Rex’s father John Haldon Parker.

Parker used a unforgiving, gritty pointillism style, with a blue monochromatic palette to express these uniquely American subjects. The audacious “Always” poster shows the noble dignity of Moweaqua coal miners, enduring backbreaking labor in the dark labyrinths of the coal mine.

The “Moweaqua’s Christmas Angels” poster is a touching tribute to the final chapter of the Moweaqua coal mine that was written at 8:15 a.m. on December 24, 1932, when an explosion of methane gas blew through the mine, killing 54 miners at work on that heartbreaking Christmas Eve.