You`re might spot David Acuff just about anywhere, anytime in the Chicago area.
It could be at dawn, surrounded by produce vendors in downtown`s South Water Market. Or on a residential street along a string of English-looking rowhouses.
It might be in the afternoon on a misty day in the middle of a deserted, muddy construction site in the Loop. Or on a crisp, sunny winter day at the top of a building under construction, while burly iron workers delicately fit huge steel beams around him.
Where ever you see him, Acuff is likely to have sketch pad in hand.
Acuff, 46, is a professional artist, and he says as much as half of his work is on construction sites, either commissioned by corporations or developers to record the progress of their new buildings or done on speculation for a corporate buyer Acuff seems to have little trouble finding. He currently is working on painting two construction projects–the new Leo Burnett Co. advertising agency headquarters at State Street and Wacker Drive; and the Highland Woods Office Campus being developed in west suburban Downers Grove by Philip I. Mappa Interests.
Both are in watercolor, his principal medium, although he also works in pen and ink.
”The raw material is just terrific on a construction site,” Acuff said during a recent interview at his studio/home in northwest suburban Palatine.
”You never know where you`ll find something.”
Acuff is particularly fond of closeups of men at work, whether he`s zeroing in on a crane operator or atop a building watching iron workers ply their trade on the narrow beams.
”My fun is the work those guys do, in climbing around, in getting the closeup views,” Acuff said. ”I think of myself as just being there as an observer.
”But the fact that I`m there doing my work while they`re there doing their work amazes them. It makes them realize their work is very important.
”I had never heard of people making a living painting,” Acuff admits.
”I wasn`t really convinced I could, but it was something I wanted to do. People told me: `It can`t be done.` I`m still not so sure it can be done,”
Acuff said by way of advice to others thinking of embarking on a career in art.
”They`d have to really want to do it, and really badly, because it would wear many people out. You have to produce week in and week out. It`s the same kind of discipline a writer has to have.
”There`s nothing like the steadiness of a paycheck every two weeks.”
Oddly enough, Acuff turned to art as a profession nine years ago because he wanted more job security.
”I was in the advertising business, and I knew how volatile the business is,” he said. ”I was with three different agencies in 12 years, and that was very stable for that business.
”I was getting a lot of momentum up in my painting, and I thought that might be more secure.”
Acuff had been continuing his art studies at the downtown American of Art (where he still teaches and holds demonstrations occasionally) and had been having some early success with his paintings when he decided to make his career move.
But watercolors had long been an interest for Acuff, beginning in his freshman year at Westport High School in Kansas City, Mo., where he held a one-man show. He wound up taking four years of art classes in high school, and continued painting for pleasure until he turned professional.
Acuff became involved in construction-site painting almost by accident in 1979 when the wife of a Farnsworth McKoane & Co. executive involved in a construction project saw some of Acuff`s work.
”She said, `I could see you painting some of those cranes,` ” Acuff recalled.
Acuff said he completed four site paintings on the project, in which Mappa, then with Farnsworth McKoane, also was involved.
Mappa eventually commissioned Acuff to do a dozen paintings of Cahners Plaza in Des Plaines in 1980 and another dozen of 1700 Higgins Centre, completed in early 1986, also in Des Plaines. Acuff now is working for Mappa on Highland Woods Office Campus in west suburban Downers Grove.
Besides Mappa and Leo Burnett, Acuff`s other clients have included corporate giants headquartered or operating in the Chicago area, such as Time, Kraft, McDonald`s Corp., A.C. Nielsen, Quaker Oats, Bell & Howell, Borg-Warner, Abbott Laboratories, Citicorp, Kemper Group, Standard Oil of Indiana and Western Electric.
In all, he estimates he has 175 paintings, which he sells for as much as $2,500 each, on display in private corporate or individual collections in the Chicago area.
”Chicago is such a strong market,” Acuff said. ”I cannot see how some artists can get along being in places like Rhinelander, Wis. How do they find people who need and want their art?”
As much as Acuff has found work on commission to be lucrative, he said he especially enjoys painting scenes on speculation and trying to find buyers later.
”There`s a lot of variety in what I do,” Acuff said. ”I like to go out and find new places. Artists can go almost anywhere we want. There`s a tremendous amount of freedom.”
His trips have taken him out in the countryside for water scenes and landscapes, up to Lake Superior and down to South Water Market after a 3 a.m. rising.
”It`s kind of like the excitement of going fishing,” Acuff said.
”I find sometimes the paintings are stronger if you just go and do them
(instead of on commission),” Acuff said. ”You have to have a certain amount of freedom.”
After doing some work on his own, Acuff said his advertising agency background pays dividends because it accustomed him to working with top company executives.
”You deal with people at the top, and that`s terrific because they don`t have anybody looking over their shoulder. They make the decisions.
”And I`m not intimidated,” Acuff said. ”I think a lot of artists wouldn`t feel comfortable with that.
”But there`s not a real lot of selling you have to do. You kind of go in there and let the paintings speak for themselves.”
Acuff`s watercolors speak loud and clear: vivid colors, strong contrast and dramatic closeups.
”People often don`t recognize them as watercolors,” Acuff said.
”They`re used to seeing (water) colors that are more faded.”
