Anthony Palumbo can credit genetics and benevolence for helping him to display his talent as an illustrator and gallery artist. Particularly potent when painting people, noting he loves doing so with such care that “the viewers who see it are themselves excited to be alive and to be a person,” the 35-year-old has accumulated an impressive list of genre-specific acknowledgments but certainly does not think himself above adding a skill to his repertoire. Kindness and consideration have engendered a brush with novelty for the proficient producer, who handled scenic painting and set design duties for Quince Productions’ staging of “Rodeo.”
“My normal work is just me and [girlfriend] Winona [Nelson] in the studio independently doing our illustrations and sending them off to our clients who mostly are based on the West Coast,” the Passyunk Square dweller said from Venice, where he and his partner are spending the month, of an immediate distinction between his customary calling and latest endeavor. “Theater work is so personal, and in that way was the exact opposite environment of my illustration work, which is arranged entirely by email communication.”
The exposure to more interactive employment came courtesy of Rich Rubin, Quince’s producing artistic director. A collector of work by Palumbo through the creator’s Artists’ House Gallery projects, he approached the figure to see if he would enliven what had already promised to be an entertaining Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5-situated offering. With Rubin’s consistent support of his output, Palumbo could not refuse the commission and set out to make the set serve as an homage to some of his favorite European comic book artists.
“I did have one night of apprehension about half way into it, after I had been to some production meetings, met some of the other cast and crew and was fully committed to it,” the hire said, adding that the constituents were about six times larger than anything he had ever painted. “As the production came further and further along, and I was working in the theater, rubbing elbows with the other crew and actors, the beauty of the collaborative nature of theater really hit home for me.”
Centering on “rough and tumble” cowgirl Cody’s mission to claim kudos by capturing a male-only rodeo, the plot features, according to Quince’s website, “Western-y and Shakespearean-y shenanigans.” With little time to fulfill his obligation, Palumbo blotted out his anxiety and let the unified goal infuse his involvement with added delight.
“All of these people united sacrificing so much effort and time to put on a show, it felt great, and I could totally see why people devote their lives to it,” he said of having entered a new world. “The amount of time needed to do this probably means I won’t be able to take on something like it again for a while, unless I encounter a theater production with a massive budget that would allow me to push other work aside. I can totally see how theater is addictive, though, similar to drawing comics.”
Lacking people, a staple in his handiwork, the “Rodeo” tasks nonetheless provided the executor an excellent means to progress as an artist and should continue to win regard through the show’s April 23 close, with a concentration on new personal paintings and webcomics to take off once his plane back to Philadelphia lands.
“In a world where photography exists, the desire to make realistic pictures by hand is very counterintuitive, and I don’t necessarily understand it myself,” Palumbo said of his passion. “It’s an unexplained drive, but other people are strangely driven to want to see it, so we’re all participating together, and none of us knows why! I think that’s art.”
The Michigan native began to find himself beckoned to the subjective allure of a creative life through his father, Donald, an English professor whose scholarly work during a chunk of his son’s youth colored comic books as vital societal components, mother Julie Bell, and stepfather Boris Vallejo, the acclaimed fantasy illustrator who enhanced his and his matriarch’s budding talent. Meeting Vallejo at age 10, Palumbo came to see visual art as a valuable vocation, and, clinging to that niche, he developed a sense of comfort and purpose that escapes classification.
“I’ve been doing it so long that I don’t even know anymore, but it just feels good to make something, especially when a piece comes out different and better from how I had initially planned it,” he said.
Spending most of his childhood in the Allentown area, he gained exposure to the art scenes in New York and Philadelphia, landing in the latter for studies at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Having commenced his time there so that he could become either a freelance science fiction illustrator or a comic book artist, he soon secured a relationship with the Old City-situated Artists’ Home Gallery that bred opportunities to market his Naturalist and Realist-inspired paintings of friends. Craving a renewed connection with his initial loves, he ended up meeting Nelson at an illustration workshop, and the two realized that, much like yellow and blue make green, passion and conviction yield careers.
“It took us a couple of years to get our footing, but we’ve both got pretty steady work coming in from various comic book and gaming clients now,” Palumbo confided. “And of course now that this is the case, I’ve got the bug to paint a new body of my own work and focus on gallery sales again.”
A visit to anthonypalumboillustration.com fosters encounters with amazingly vivid and considerate pieces. The site notes that his art has made its way onto book covers, in collectible card games, and in video games, with clients including Fantasy Flight Games, Heavy Metal Magazine, Night Shade Books, and Wizards of the Coast.
“The thing that has always been a constant since I was a little kid is wanting to make pictures of people,” Palumbo stated. “As long as I can make a picture of a person, especially their face, I’m in my element.” ■
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Visit quinceproductions.com.
Contact Editor Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
Portrait Photo by Winona Nelson (Top Left)
Stage( SET) Photo PRovided by Quince Productions
