{"id":6639,"date":"2011-04-20T13:34:46","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T18:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=6639"},"modified":"2011-04-20T13:34:46","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T18:34:46","slug":"art-of-therapy-features-bruce-dellinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/04\/20\/art-of-therapy-features-bruce-dellinger\/","title":{"rendered":"“Art of Therapy” features Bruce Dellinger"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace<\/strong><\/p>\n

We all can learn a thing or two about ability from Bruce Lynn Dellinger. Bruce is an artist from Timberville, Virginia, whose work we are fortunate to currently have on display as part of \u201cThe Art of Therapy,\u201d exhibit.\u00a0 Bruce has worked with many mediums, but he finds that a No. 2 pencil is his medium of choice to create intricate images of wildlife, animals and scenes of nature.\u00a0 Many of his incredibly detailed drawings can take up to 180 hours to<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cHoneysuckle Row\u201d (detail), graphite drawing by Bruce Lynn Dellinger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

complete. \u00a0He says that he likes to draw the natural world because he feels it best reflects his mood and his adaptability to life.<\/p>\n

Bruce is the official artist of the Virginia Wheelin\u2019 Sportsmen Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF).\u00a0 He travels around the Virginia area to various festivals and activities, drawing, meeting the public and selling prints of his artwork.<\/p>\n

Bruce is self-taught and has been successfully drawing and marketing his work for over 15 years.\u00a0 He does all his artwork by holding a pencil firmly between his teeth, because a farming accident in 1981 left him quadriplegic.\u00a0 When he discovered that he could draw by mouth, he realized how enjoyable and therapeutic making art can be.<\/p>\n

We have three of Bruce\u2019s beautiful drawings in The Art of Therapy exhibit.\u00a0 If you are interested, we have a supply of his brochures which include an order form for prints of his work.<\/p>\n

I hope you will visit the Wassenberg Art Center often to join with us in enjoying art of all kinds.\u00a0 Our current exhibits, \u201cIt\u2019s In the Cards\u201d and \u201cThe Art of Therapy\u201d focus on two very different types of art which both encourage interaction.\u00a0 These shows, sponsored by Vancrest Health Care Center, will run through May 7.\u00a0 Exhibit hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays) and admission is free.<\/p>\n

The Wassenberg Art Center is located at 643 S. Washington Street in Van Wert, Ohio.\u00a0 Contact us by phone at 419.238.6837 or by e-mail at wassenberg@embarqmail.com.\u00a0 Check the calendar on our website, www.vanwert.com\/wassenberg, for current activities.<\/p>\n

Eldon Dedini was born to draw funny pictures<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Photo caption:\u00a0 Cartoon by Eldon Dedini.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1930s it was possible to make a living as a freelance magazine cartoonist; however, it was like doing a trapeze act without a net.\u00a0 Cartoonists who didn\u2019t live near New York and Chicago — the two major centers for scores of national magazines — had to rely on the postal service to deliver their work.\u00a0 They also had to compete with other cartoonists who could actually meet with magazine cartoonist on weekly \u201clook days.\u201d\u00a0 On \u201clook<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cartoon by Eldon Dedini.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

days,\u201d cartoonists could not only talk to magazine editors but also visit with other cartoonists and stay informed about news that affected their profession.<\/p>\n

Eldon Dedini, a farm boy living in a remote rural area of California, didn\u2019t have these options.\u00a0 His cartoon roughs, sketched on sheets of ordinary typewriter paper, put in an envelope and dropped in a mailbox, had to speak for him.<\/p>\n

As a child Dedini pored over comic books and newspaper \u201cfunnies.\u201d\u00a0 Before he reached high school he had set his mind on a career in comic art.\u00a0 His mother, an elementary teacher, bound together years of Sunday comics for him to study.\u00a0 He trained himself to draw by emulating the art in those bound comics and by reading books on drawing. \u00a0He took a \u201cHow to Draw\u201d mail course which included the basics of assembling batches of rough cartoon and sending them to magazine publishers for approval.\u00a0 Dedini sketched cartoon ideas while riding the bus to junior college 100 miles up and down the Salinas Valley every day, and began sending them out.<\/p>\n

At first the rejection slips from the Saturday Evening Post, Look, Ladies Home Journal, and other magazines piled up.\u00a0 \u00a0But finally, while studying art and history as a college freshman, he broke into the select ranks of Esquire Magazine cartoonists.\u00a0 This was an astonishing accomplishment for a 19-year-old who still lived on a farm thousands of miles from his cartoon editor.\u00a0 Dedini\u2019s wit and drawing were beginning to make an impact.<\/p>\n

From there, his career as a humorous artist slowly built.\u00a0 He moved to Los Angeles to attend Chouinard Art Institute, where he developed his sense of composition, color, and technique.\u00a0 His innate sense of humor needed no polishing.<\/p>\n

He went on to work for Universal Studios and then for Walt Disney, while still submitting successful cartoons and gags to Esquire.\u00a0 In 1946 Esquire\u2019s editor offered to double his Disney salary and put him on staff (while remaining in California) to draw cartoons and produce 100 gags a month for other Esquire cartoonists.\u00a0 Dedini jumped at the chance, and said good-bye to a \u201cregular\u201d job.<\/p>\n

In 1950 the Esquire editor realized that Dedini\u2019s full potential was barely being tapped, and arranged for the cartoonist to submit work to the editors of The New Yorker Magazine.\u00a0 This was a major turning point.\u00a0 The New Yorker editors welcomed and encouraged Dedini\u2019s graphic originality.<\/p>\n

In 1954 a young man named Hugh Hefner took the old idea that \u201cbeautiful babes help sell magazines\u201d to a higher level, creating Playboy magazine.\u00a0 Hefner was a cartoonist, so the magazine included sophisticated, handsomely executed cartoons alongside substantive articles by recognized writers.\u00a0 \u201cHef\u201d had been a copyboy at Esquire and admired Dedini\u2019s work.\u00a0 For three years he kept swinging the trapeze to Dedini, inviting the cartoonist to join his contributors and offering to raise the pay each time.\u00a0 Finally, in 1959, with no objections from his other editors, Dedini grabbed the bar.\u00a0 His association with Playboy would last for the next 45 years.<\/p>\n

Dedini\u2019s work helped take Playboy\u2019s image beyond that of a \u201cmen\u2019s magazine\u201d and into sophisticated satire covering the bar and party scene, the corporate world, international politics, jazz, mythology, and even Japanese art.<\/p>\n

(To be continued)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace We all can learn a thing or two about ability from Bruce Lynn Dellinger. Bruce is an artist from Timberville, Virginia, whose work we are fortunate to currently have on display as part of \u201cThe Art of Therapy,\u201d exhibit.\u00a0 Bruce has worked with many mediums, but he finds that a No. 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wassenberg"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 13:26:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}