Style Imitating Art | Jawbreaker Machine by Wayne Thiebaud

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was chosen by Terri. You can read why she picked this work here.

The Artwork

Jawbreaker Machine by Wayne Thiebaud

About the Artist: Wayne Thiebaud

Morton Wayne Thiebaud was born on November 15, 1920, in Mesa, Arizona, to Alice Eugenia (LeBaron) and Morton Thiebaud, who was a Ford mechanic, a foreman at the Gold Medal Creamery, a traffic safety supervisor, a real estate agent, and later a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A year after Wayne’s birth, the Thiebaud family moved to Long Beach, California, where he lived until his graduation from secondary school.

One summer during high school, Thiebaud was an apprentice for Walt Disney Studios where he earned $14 a week by drawing “in-betweens” of the Disney characters Goofy, Pinocchio, and Jiminy Cricket. The following summer he studied at the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, and in 1938 at the age of 18, he began his work as a cartoonist and designer splitting his time between California and New York City. He continued this work until 1949 when he enrolled in San Jose State College. He eventually transferred to Sacramento State College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1951 and a master’s degree in 1952. From 1942-1945, Thiebaud served as an artist in the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces.

After earning his master’s degree, Thiebaud accepted a teaching position at Sacramento City College. In 1961, he became an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, remaining on the faculty for the next 30 years. He maintained the title of Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, until his death in 2021.

Thiebaud was a co-founder of the Artists Contemporary Gallery, recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, and winner of the National Medal of Arts which presented to him by President Bill Clinton in 1994. In 2001, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Art from the American Academy of Design, and subsequently inducted into the California Hall of Fame at the California Museum, Sacramento, in 2010.

Thiebaud was married twice. He had two children, including model and writer Twinka Thiebaud, with his first wife, Patricia Patterson. His son, art dealer Paul LeBaron Thiebaud, was born to his second wife, Betty Jean Carr. Thiebaud also legally adopted Betty’s son, Matthew. Wayne Thiebaud died in his Sacramento home on December 25, 2021, at the age of 101.

About the Art: Jawbreaker Machine

Wayne Thiebaud was best known for his paintings that colorfully depict commonplace objects as well as his figure paintings and landscapes. Because he exhibited such an abundant interest in objects of mass culture, Thiebaud became associated with the pop art movement despite his earliest works predating the classic pop artists by nearly a decade. Because of this, it has been suggested that Thiebaud had some influence on the entire pop art movement.

Thiebaud was not a fan of labels and rejected terms such as “fine artist” and “commercial artist”, describing himself instead as “just an old-fashioned painter”. Many of works are in permanent collections at various museums in the United States. His 1962 painting, Four Pinball Machines, broke an auction record in July 2020 when it sold for $19,135,000 in New York City at a Christie’s global live auction.

Trademarks of Thiebaud’s work include the use of heavy pigmentation and exaggerated colors in the depiction of his subjects in addition to the well defined shadows that characteristically appear in advertisements. He was most well known for his paintings of production line objects which could most commonly be found in diners and cafeterias such as pies, pastries, hot dogs, ice cream cones, and well, jawbreaker machines.

Jawbreaker Machine, the subject of this week’s Style Imitating Art, is a 1963 oil painting on canvas, measuring 26 x 31 1/2 inches (66.04 x 80.01 cm) unframed and 26 5/8 x 32 5/16 x 1 7/8 inches (67.63 x 82.07 x 4.76 cm) with its frame. It depicts what I have always called a gumball machine in the exact vintage style that I would expect in a painting from the 1960s. The color palette which is heavy on yellows also gives me a strong vintage feel. This painting was originally a gift to Allan Stone with an inscription in the top left corner that says, “To Maggie and Allan” with a heart symbol.

It was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Glenn of Kansas City, Missouri, from Allan Stone Galleries. The painting was subsequently gifted by the Glenns in 1965 to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City where it has greeted Terri for the past five decades that she has been frequenting that museum. And now we get to share in the joy that this colorfully whimsical work has brought to her for half a century!

References/Resources:

• Wayne Thiebaud: Wikipedia
• Jawbreaker Machine: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

About My Outfit

I went shopping on my birthday and overindulged myself with inexpensive dresses. I brought home a pile of dresses from The Thrifty Shopper and another pile from the Kohl’s clearance rack. While I have been really trying to not buy very much new stuff, I had birthday rewards from both stores and nothing else to do on my special day so allowed myself the unnecessary extravagance of adding more things to my already too full wardrobe. This buttery yellow maxi dress is one of those completely superfluous garments that now resides in my closet room.

I don’t love the color but I do love the style. It is two sizes too big but I have been wanting to try my hand at alterations. And it cost me somewhere around $10 brand new. It seemed worth the money to have something to practice alterations on so I bought it. But I haven’t altered it yet.

It is definitely too big to wear alone because the armholes are gigantic. It is an XXL and the large fits me perfectly. I know this because I bought another one in size large which does not require alterations. But the color and print on that one didn’t work with this painting, the yellow one did. So I layered on a colorful striped poncho and belted it all to create a shape that is less like an oversized sack. My new rainbow sunhat was an obvious head topper with all of its vibrant colors.

While I have no red in my outfit, I wanted to incorporate the color to represent the red 1¢ symbols so I went for my red cowgirl boots and red earrings. My earrings each have a big turquoise dot on them which reflects the shape of the jawbreakers in the machine. About a dozen multicolored hair ties secured my pigtails for the day and I really did feel very much like this vintage Jawbreaker Machine.

As much as I liked this outfit in the end, it was wicked hot and humid the day I wore it. Since my pigtails were all colorful, I kept the poncho but switched to denim shorts, a black tank top, rope sandals, and a brightly colored baseball cap. Not so much like the Jawbreaker Machine now but much more comfortable for a day of sweaty summer errands and chores.

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July so we are pushing everything one day later this week. Be sure to check out Terri’s interpretation of the artwork as well as Salazar’s take on it. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Terri’s round up post on Thursday, July 6, 2023, be sure to email your photos to her at meadowtreestyle@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. I look forward to seeing your sartorial interpretations of Wayne Theibaud’s 1963 Jawbreaker Machine. In the meantime, Happy Independence Day to my American friends!

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Maxi Dress and Long Tassel Necklace-Kohl’s / Crochet Poncho and Rainbow Sunhat-Wona Trading / Boots-Country Outfitter / Belt, Denim Shorts, and Tank Top-Torrid / Earrings-Lynne Bates / Rope Sandals-Nomadic State of Mind / Rag Earrings-Big Earrings / Mushroom Necklace-Rainbow Zen / Blessed Baseball Hat-Hobby Lobby