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His major interest was the Hidden Picture Page. “I’d turn to the Hidden Pictures Page and hope I had to wait long enough to find all the hidden pictures. It reminded me of lying on the grass looking at the clouds where I could see dozens of shapes. I always had a good imagination,” Chaz says. You will see the fruits of Chaz’s “good imagination” at Old Fashioned Christmas in the Woods this fall. You may look at one of his animal drawings and admire the likeness of the animal and the symmetry of his black and white pen and ink drawings. Look closer. He is never satisfied with drawing only one animal. His cute penguin picture incorporates 17-species of penguins into one body. Can you find them? “Now 17 may sound like a lot of hidden animals but I call that minimalist. Move up the line and see the bear hiding 44 other bears in its fur. I call it “Grin and bear it.” I like the word play and try to put humorous titles on all my prints.” “A Cat’s Tale,” in which a mother cat is looking at her kittens, will reveal 80 cats on close examination. Moving along his exhibit, check out the horse and elephant drawings and see if you can find the 101 hidden little ones. “Tigerama” may top the list of most hidden pictures with 171 hidden animals, each with amazing detail. He finds nature fascinating and in a drawing of ten butterflies, you will find 110 of the beautiful creatures within the wings of the more visible ones. His favorite is a large picture of an eagle that appeals to people whose sons become Eagle Scouts. “I listen to people who browse my gallery and some of my drawings are a result of requests,” Chaz says. “I didn’t draw frogs until people started to ask for them two years ago. Frogs have become kind of a fad and when someone asked me to draw a frog, I went home and began to sketch. “These drawings take a lot of time and I do them first in pencil. Then, I decide what I’ll hide. It’s like building a puzzle. When I’m satisfied with the drawing, I ink over the pencil with a very fine artist’s pen. When I finish, I erase the underlying pencil drawing before making prints of the original.” He mattes all his pictures and frame some of them, doing the work himself to keep the pictures affordable. Growing up in a middle class home, his parents encouraged him to enjoy drawing. They took him to Saturday classes at Carnegie Mellon. They indulged his love of animals by allowing him to keep a menagerie of small pets – rabbits, hamsters, garter snakes, and turtles. “They encouraged my interests, but they stressed that it was important to go to college to learn to do something that will lead to a good career – meaning doctor, lawyer, engineer or accountant. They saw my math aptitude as a prizewinning talent. “As a teenager, I graduated from Highlights Magazine Hidden Picture art to M.C. Escher’s mathematically inspired art. I loved Escher’s optical illusions and had some understanding of his math, but my drawings were always more free form than Escher.” To satisfy his parents, he majored in Economics at the University of Pittsburgh and quickly established himself as a cost analyst at U. S. Steel. In January 1991, he stepped into a public relations job where he was responsible for marketing the four major Pittsburgh museums. “I never gave up my interest in hidden picture art and began exhibiting some art work at the Three Rivers Art Festival and other shows while working fulltime. When funding for the museums was cutback in 2003, I decided it was time to become a fulltime artist,” Chaz says. In addition to matted and framed pictures, priced between $25 and $80, Chaz will show sets of note cards, boxed for gift giving. Preview the hidden picture art at his website chazmania.com © Copyright ShakerWoods.com |
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