Anatomy of a Commission

At the end of this year, I created a commissioned piece for the son of parents whose showbiz careers stretched from Broadway to Hollywood. The format was to follow my Appliance piece series that features a vintage TV, a featured spokesmodel, and a collage that tells a piece of history.

Early in her professional career, Charles’ mother Arlene was a beauty queen, a model, and a singer in a touring musical trio, which meant I was gifted a ridiculous number of options when it came to choosing my spokesmodel.

Charles’ father, Danny Dayton, was an actor who got his big break when Zero Mostel fell ill, opening the door for Dayton to step into the lead role in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum on Broadway. This is the image you’ll see featured in the 1948 Emerson TV/Radio in the finished piece.

For the collage that tells their story, some of my source material came directly from his and his sister’s personal photo albums.  I also dove deep into online newspaper archives, uncovering advertisements, reviews, and graphics that felt authentic to the era.

With all of this incredible material in hand, my goal was to create new imagery, allowing familiar photos to be seen with fresh eyes.

Much of the content was originally black and white, which gave me an opportunity to colorize images. Many of his mother’s photos were promotional stills from her singing trio, so I created composites placing them in front of the actual venues where they performed.

For the featured spokesmodel image, I extracted her from one of the trio pictures and colorized her. Until then, the family had only ever seen that image in black and white, and always alongside the other singers. You’ll see her in the finished piece.

Extracting Arlene

It was understood from the start that I wouldn’t be sharing progress shots. Since Charles was already familiar with my style, he had a general sense of what to expect. My original intention was to focus solely on the parents and not include Danny’s first famous wife, Dagmar, nor images of their children. Ultimately, I chose to incorporate them all, as they were all a natural and meaningful extension of their story.

Before the reveal the Dayton piece gets pro photos taken.

Here’s the finished piece. Among the layers, you’ll find the letters “Dayton” in the bed of the collage. The left side documents Arlene’s life and the right features Danny’s. While I painted the sky and clouds I couldn’t help adding Klieg lights since they worked so well in Motown.

I’ll admit, since I was more than a little anxious about the reveal. Thankfully, he loved it!

Here’s his reaction. If the emailed blog doesn’t show it, you can find it under the blog section of my website.

Another great commission experience. I’m looking forward to the next one. Will it be for you? If you’d like to see my other commissions you can find them here.

Upcoming shows

The Makery - Unredacted, a group show with fellow artists from my critique group.

🗓 Preview: April 2

🗓 Artist Reception: April 12

🗓 Show runs: April 3–30

📍 260 S Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, CA

Not Shockboxx - Group Show “Up In Smoke” featuring “One Night To Forget”

🗓 Opening night: April 11

📍636 Cypress Avenue, Hermosa Beach, CA

Gabby Gallery - Group show featuring “Ecstasy XL”

🗓 Opening night: May 16

📍235 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA

See you around,

Julie