Loeschen frames cityscapes to the page
Published 10:29 am Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Bruce Loeschen spoke Tuesday morning about creating city montages and the historic walking tour of Austin. Participants attended the meeting at the Historic Hormel House and learned about how he got his start. — Photos by Jenae Peterson/jenae.peterson@austindailyherald.com
Local artist talks about his montages, walking tours
Bruce Loeschen discussed his artwork on Tuesday morning at the Historic Hormel House as part of the pre-festival events before the ArtWorks Festival.
“I’m going to lead [city montages] into a greater discussion I hope of commercial art [and] fine art,” Loeschen said.
About 15 people came to hear about Loeschen’s artwork and how he got his start. Michelle Bos was excited to hear him speak.
“His different kind of work is interesting and it’s fun to hear what he has to say,” Bos said.
She hoped to learn more about Loeschen’s work with the walking tour, and was excited to hear what he had to say about his artistry. Bos has also enjoyed Loeschen’s work at previous ArtWorks Festivals.
Eunice Urlick (left), Lisa Sanders and Lana Epley look at a Loeschen montage.
Loeschen and his wife, Sharon Reilly, have lived in Austin for about 35 years. Loeschen was an art teacher at Austin High School for about 19 years before graduating with the 2010 class. He has drawn city montages for Community Creations, based out of Columbus, Ohio, for about 25 years. They made him a generous offer after they heard feedback that people preferred his artwork to similar drawings they had.
The city montages that Loeschen draws are filled with places and landmarks from the city he is drawing. His drawings sell for about $25 per poster and have been popular among both members of the communities that he draws as well as tourists.
Not only does Loeschen draw city montages, he has also been in charge of creating a historic walking tour for Austin.
“I’m doing a walking tour … downtown to get a greater vision of what we have, and there’s some beautiful, and some ugly, features, but what makes that a style?” Loeschen said. “We have some real treasures, I think, in town, architecturally, we just take for granted.”
Loeschen took a small group on a walking tour after the seminar Tuesday. He has found most people who have lived in the community for a while are more interested in who lived and owned the buildings, and the history of them, over what style of architecture they have.
“If there isn’t the interest it won’t go on, but everybody who’s been on it has said it’s fun and interesting,” Loeschen said.
He isn’t giving up yet. Loeschen hopes that people are able to see architecture and downtown with an artist’s eye.
“A greater appreciation of their downtown architecture, what it is and why it is,” Loeschen said. “This to me is like a baseball game. I find the sport very boring, but artwork is always exciting.”
Loeschen has worked with the ArtWorks Festival for the last three years, and he plans to have his Austin city montage for sale at this weekend’s festival.
