(for J.C.)
-Check out this genius with a pen. If you look hard enough you might be able to find one of his sweet Jazz covers hiding in a vintage record shop near you!
David Stone Martin
Illustrator
1913-1992
ABOUT
David Stone Martin was a prolific illustrator who left his
artistic mark on the world of Jazz music and his amazing album covers.
He was a true jazz aficionado and his artwork graced hundreds of album
covers during the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Chicago Illinois and studied
art at the Chicago Art Institute. David Stone Martin did designs and
murals for the 1933 Chicago World's and worked for several governmental
agencies during the 1930s and 1940's; he was supervisor of mural projects of
the Federal Artists Project, art director for the Tennessee Valley Authority,
graphic arts director for the Office of Strategic Services and art director for
the Office of War Information with artist and close friend and mentor, Ben
Shahn. Martin's studio was in the same town as Shahn, in Roosevelt, New Jersey. During a American
Artist Mgazine interview, (April 1950) Martin said, I have
tried practically every drawing tool, but one of my favorites is the crow quill
pen point. I use it like a brush, freely, but deliberately. At times allowing
it to produce the thin whisper of a line that it is so well fitted to do; then,
when I need emphasis, apply pressure, the nibs spread to their maximum and a
line of about one eighth of an inch appears. The crow quill was never meant to
withstand this sort of treatment - they usually live a very short life in my
hand." He has received numerous awards for his work and is
included in the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian.
Martin drawing on location c. 1950
The End.