Along the Way (Toni Peck Graphic Artist)
Recently Mary and I were invited to breakfast with our good friends, Connie and Earl Yost. Joining us that morning was their daughter, Toni Peck. Toni lives in Florida where she has raised two children while operating her own business as a graphic designer.
Toni’s skills are an inheritance from her well known father and local artist, Earl Yost. In fact, that skill has been handed down from Earl’s father to Earl and now to his daughter. Over six decades ago, Earl’s father would come home from work and sit with Earl at the kitchen table, and by oil lamp teach him the skills he would need to become an artist.
Toni and her sister Amy began life here in New Martinsville. As sometimes happens, families change and they relocated to Florida with their mother. Toni and Amy returned to New Martinsville each summer for several years to live with Connie and Earl. She remembered those times fondly with her mom and dad and our community. It was also about that time she knew she possessed skills when it came to art. Not physically taught by her father, but she had basic art knowledge that was part of her inherited talent.
At age 13 she entered a sidewalk art contest in Winter Park Florida. When the judges had finished, she had second and third place ribbons on two of her works. Puzzled as to why she had not won, she asked her teacher. His response, “How about we see if we can get you a scholarship at the art school?” Fortunately, just down the road was a small non-profit art school named Creaidé School of Art. That was her first formal training in the creative art world.
Toni explained that when she went to art school, she was first taught, art is a perspective that appears distorted in some conditions but accurate in others, anamorphic art study. You take an object and pull it real close to your eye where it is abstract. That experience freed Toni to see into the art. Before that she had created art but it never looked good to her, something off in the eyes or color. The anamorphic art taught her it didn’t have to be perfect. It taught her how to look at lines and planes of images. Today, Toni serves on the board of directors at the Creaidé Art School.
Toni has been in the graphic art business for over thirty years. In 1995 at age 25 Toni went back to school to increase her skills. At that time, the school was filled with people who needed a skill to find a job. Displaced home-makers or work relief people who were funded by the state, filled those classes. She soon realized that graphic-artists were a dime a dozen, some are very good and some not so good.
It is one thing to call yourself a graphic artist, but another to sell yourself in such a competitive field. She saw an ad for a small plastic extrusion company. They made bags for fertilizer and ice. She set up an interview, and they offered her the job. The next day Universal Studios also offered her a job. She had said yes to the plastics company, and didn’t feel right quitting. So, she stayed with the extrusion company.
She had good skills in art and the school had given her more skills in graphic art. But creating a design to fit onto a bag of soil and not wrinkle and bunch up when filled, was a whole new set of art rules. In the early days Toni would create a hard concept for a product. The customers would look at it on the wall and make suggestions for her to recreate the image. Today she uses what is known as a move board. The image is on the screen and the customer can touch an element and move it or change its color. Gives the customers and the artist much more flexibility in creating the product image.
Toni explained that today after thirty years as a graphic artist, she has more flexibility in her dealings with businesses. Today she is under contract with a couple companies and receives pay even when they are not requiring any art work.
Today Toni is expanding beyond just the artwork. She is creating the words and story around the graphic designs. She is creating the entire package for the product. Toni was visibly excited about creating the entire product. The manufacturer is making money using her design and is rewarding her.
I asked, is all her work graphics, Toni explained she also draws illustrations. One customer wanted a variety of bird illustrations in real detail. One other customer wanted pest illustration. She was not excited about drawing ticks and bugs. Still, it is what the customer wanted and they were very satisfied with real live looking bugs.
Recently, she was employed to create a new image of a cow. The image will be part of a mulch product that has been around for fifty years. Toni explains that the image of the new cow paid extremely well. She also said if it is still on the customers bags in fifty years it may not seem like as much.
As we finished our conversation, I asked Toni, what is one thing she would like to accomplish before she retires. It took just a moment for her to say, “I would like to return to New Martinsville and do an art show with my dad, Earl Yost. That would be great.”