FEATURED ARTIST RICHARD WATHERWAX
Me and Leica…
Presenting Featured Artist Richard Watherwax
Enjoy Richard’s beautiful photography below and please visit this prolific artist’s website and facebook page. Don’t forget to check out our ‘Art-4-Sale’/Visual Arts section where you’ll find some of Richard’s work available for purchase.
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I’ve taken thousands of photographs…written 3 books, created several posters and over 50 humorous post cards…but when I was asked to produce an Artist’s Statemant about my work…I never know what to say. Why do I take pictures?I never knew how to answer that question…but it finally dawned on me a few years ago, when I took an art class at Guild Hall here in Key West. One of the first things we were asked to do was to sketch a vase on a stool…but without looking down at our sketch pads. When I was finished, I looked at it and saw what looked like a Brontosaurus. And that’s why I take pictures…because I can’t draw a straight line (let alone a curved one). So when I get a “creative” idea, I express it with a camera.I started taking pictures in high school, and went through decades of darkrooms and film…and was getting pretty jaded, but when Photoshop came along, I was reborn! Hallelujah ! (if that’s the correct spelling). Now I could use the P’shop tools to manipulate some of my photos…and it’s almost like sketching or painting. So I can enjoy both sides of photography.I was asked recently if I had a favorite photo that I have taken…and I absolutely do. It’s a picture of a carousel horse, painted mint green, standing on a sand dune in front of a wealthy man’s ocean house on Fire Island. One of its legs had fallen off, and was lying under it in the sea grass.I was walking along the deserted beach on a grey day in October of 1961 when I saw it. I went back to a friend’s house and borrowed her Ansco box camera and took the photograph. I’m glad I did, because the spring Northeaster storm of ’62 took the house and the horse into the ocean.I have shown that picture in every exhibit I’ve had, and it has been a children’s book cover, and a record cover. I originally captioned it “Sea Horse” (pretty corny), but a few years ago while I was looking at it, I was reminded of the children’s rhyme…Around and around I go…where I will end..I don’t know.So I renamed my picture…Journey’s End.And that’s my Artist’s Statement.R. Watherwax
FIFTY KEY WEST ARTISTS
A few years ago, I began a project FIFTY KEY WEST ARTISTS…I would go to each artist’s home, studio, or gallery, and do an environmental photo of them and their work. I recently finished with number 50…and here are 3 of them.
KEY WESTERS
Since 1985, I have shot photos for several newspapers and publications, and have accumulated pictures of thousands of Key Westers….and here are 4 of them…
HUMOR
Here is a small sample of my ‘humor’.
In 1985 Bill Huckel hired me to do the photography for Solares Hill, and part of the deal was that I could publish one of my photos every issue, which he titled ‘The Whimsical World of Watherwax’ (or something like that.)
And here are 4 of them…some old, some new.
I loved doing shots like this…the ‘fighter’ on the left is Spencer Gates, who is now a successful actor in New York. His mother, kneeling behind him, is Gerry Louise Gates. And local artist Pam Hobbs in the trainer cheering on her son.
(look who’s coming to dinner…)
My friend June, who is a big fan of Marilyn, finally got to meet her !
When I submitted this to Bill Huckel to run in Solares Hill, he rejected it, saying “It will be offensive to the blind”…and I said “But they won’t see it !”
He was not amused. It was finally published in Key West the Newspaper.
FOR WOMEN
Always my favorite subject…women…here are 6 photos…tip of the iceberg. You can see many many more at the opening of my and artist Lenny Addorisio’s exhibition at Sheila Mullin’s Fleming Street Gallery on Saturday, April 13th…6:00 – 9:00.
and here are the ladies…
These are 27 of the 38 women in the Green Chair..shot over several years when I lived on Baker Lane.
They are all anonymous …I removed tattos, etc, so they couldn’t be identified..but many of them didn’t care.
One woman had her baby the next night…one woman is 50 pounds overweight..and one was 70 years old.
A variety of the most fascinating people on earth….women.
I wanted to make it 40, but my landlord sold the house I was in, and I left the chair behind.
Richard Watherwax has more than 30 years of experience in advertising, illustration and wedding photography. After 25 years shooting in Manhattan for clients such as Coca Cola, Buick, TWA, Revlon and AT&T to name a few, Watherwax found his home in Key West.
Watherwax took to the easy, laid-back atmosphere of Key West like a duck to water. Without the high pressure of pleasing his Manhattan clients, he developed his own unique style of art that many have called ‘Watherwax Whimsy’.
Watherwax is probably known best for his world-renowned print ‘Fat Cat Capsizing’ which has been reproduced in the form of T-shirts, tote bags, towels and coffee mugs and sold world-wide.
His clients in Key West include the Wyndham Casa Marina Resort, the Pier House, the Hilton, Key West Aloe, Sloppy Joe’s and Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.
Among his accomplishments are authoring several books, among them ‘Cat Tales’ ,’The Cat Who Drank Too Much’, and ‘Tales of Old Key West’, a farcical history of the island. But his most impressive achievement would have to be entering his cat Willoughby in the 1989 Key West mayoral race where she received 37 votes! And Captain Tony won by 35 votes.
Watherwax’s favorite subject is women (followed closely by cats), as you can see from his gallery of women, showcasing the beauty of the female form.