"FAST-FOOD" ARTIST SERVES UP SPICY FASHION DRAWINGS

Released on = April 30, 2005, 6:09 am

Press Release Author = LARRY ESTES

Industry = Apparel & Fashion

Press Release Summary = Local Virginia beach "Fast - food" artist serves up 46 spicy fashion drawings at Virginia Beach Central Library Opening May 2, 2005, 6:30 - 8:30pm. The exhibition is from mMay 2- 31, 2005.

Press Release Body = Larry S. Estes
3716 Shore Drive
Virginia Beach, VA. 23455
757-737-0672 cell
757-464-5000 office
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P R E S S R E L E A S E

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Larry Estes
April 24, 2005
757-737-0672

"FAST-FOOD" ARTIST SERVES UP SPICY FASHION DRAWINGS

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA -- A zesty collection of 46 fashion drawings by local"fast-food" artist Larry Estes, will be on exhibit from May 2 to May 31, 2005, at the Virginia Beach Central Library. Larry completed these works at fast-food restaurants using warm coffee to blend the colors.

For over a decade, local artist Larry Estes, had used fast-food tables as his studio. It all started when he left a commercial art job in the 80's for a job in a factory. When he left that job, he left behind his studio. At the factory he gradually made it a habit to draw on his lunchbreak at McD's, Hardee's, or Burger King. "I responded to the factory lunch horn like a Pavlovian Dog, except my conditioned response was not so much to eat, but to draw."

"A common excuse for artists not pursuing their art is the lack of a studio and time. I set a goal in the late 80's to win an exhibition in the Art Capital of the world - NYC, without the aid of a studio, using my lunchbreaks."

That goal was met in 2003. Larry flew to NYC to promote his drawings in April of that year. "It was like I expected - a 2 year waiting list just to get a portfolio viewing." Before he left NY, he slipped a slide entry under the door of a Soho gallery sponsoring a National Juried Competition. Weeks later, while drawing at a McD's in Virginia Beach, he got a call from NY. He was informed that a curator from one of the top contemporary museums in the world - the
Museum of Modern Art, had chosen him as the 2nd Place Winner in that Competition, earning him a Solo Exhibition in NYC. "It was the call I had waited over a decade for."

These never-before exhibited fashion drawings were done mostly in celebration of the long-awaited good news of his NYC show. There is a melodic explosion of color in these drawings that was dramatically missing in the rhythmic drawings that won him a show in NY. "For years, it was just black ink on white paper. The deprivation of color allowed me to focus on the subtlety of line and rhythm. When color came, it was like July 4th in Paris."

"I've enhanced and enlarged prints of the originals. Signed, stamp embossed, and mounted and laminated them to give the show a glossy fashion magazine look."

When asked if he felt a bit out of place drawing at a restaurant, Larry
responded, "No more out of place than someone eating in his studio."

Web Site = http://

Contact Details = Larry S. Estes
3716 Shore Drive
Virginia Beach, VA. 23455
757-737-0672 cell
757-464-5000 office