Paramount Pictures

LOCAL ILLUSTRATOR’S WORK MOVES TO PRIME-TIME TV

By Ashley Hassebroek, World Herald Staff Writer

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Nebraska native Shelly Bartek loves the smell of paint. Is that weird to say? she said with a laugh, sitting at her dining-room table. I just love it. It’s a good thing she does, because Bartek’s successful home-based illustration business, Brush Images Inc. forces her to spend a lot of time around the substance.

Bartek depends on her representatives in Chicago, Denver, Phoenix and New York

to find companies that are interested in using her loose, painterly style of art in their promotions. Time Warner, United Airlines, Halcourt Publishers, Hewlett Packard, Camel cigarettes and Cherry Creek Shopping Center in Denver are among the companies that have used her work in magazine advertisements, posters or banners.

But this last year, the Omaha-based artist received what she considers to be her biggest and toughest assignment. She was asked to create a series of seven illustrations for the network prime-time television series That’s Life.

The producers of the show had seen her work in an advertisement in an illustration

publication called Workbook. Interested in the artist’s colorful style, they called one of her representatives, Mary Holland & Co. last February.

I first had to do a pilot, meaning a trial illustration, Bartek said.

Because of the nature and demands of the industry, it wasn’t until September 2000 that the producers called her back and asked her to do the job. The producer told her they wanted a collection of seven illustrations to run during the opening credits of the of the show, which would animate the day in the life of the lead character, Lydia, a 30-year-old New Jersey woman who is going back to college to make something of herself.

The only stipulation was that Bartek had to complete the illustrations within seven days, in time for the show’s premiere.

I had to get seven illustrations done in seven days, working day and night, Bartek said.

Bartek was given photos of the actors and actresses to incorporate into the scenes, but when she got the assignment, the show’s creators sill hadn’t decided exactly what they wanted the characters to be doing in the illustrations.

The description was very vague at first, and I would get conference calls at 10 at night, with the (the producers) changing their ideas for the scenes.

When the details had been finalized, Bartek sent the finished images to the producers in Los Angeles via e-mail.

A week later the show aired on Saturday in prime time.

It was one of the toughest jobs I’ve ever had because of when I received the job, the time I had to do it and that some of the decisions weren’t made at the time I had the deadline, she said.

Bartek said she enjoys watching That’s Life when she can, because she likes the main character, Lydia.

It’s a great show, she said. I love Lydia. She’s a modern-day woman with modern-day problems, and she has a lot of ambition, which I like.

Though Bartek keeps busy with her illustration business, she said she has career goals to cross into the realm of fine art, so she can have more control over the subject matter and style of her pieces.

One of the reasons I want to go into fine art is because of the heavy deadlines and not being able to create the quality of art I can, given more time and thought.

In the paste she has exhibited her work at the Heller Art Gallery in Omaha and Scottsdale Art Gallery in Arizona. She currently sells prints of some of her works.

Until her dream of creating fine art full-time is realized, Bartek plans to stay busy with her illustration business, expressing herself through her favorite elements.

I’m always challenged by the next project, Bartek said. I’m always looking for another adventure.

On Thursday at 6:30 p.m. she will be at the Mediterranean Bistro, 1712 N. 120th St., to sign labels she recently illustrated for the French wine company Barton & Guestier.