June 2, 1999
‘Have easel, will travel’
Artist sketching to raise money for Leukemia Marathon
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Jack Lantz has discovered a way to make an easel transport him to Alaska.
No, it’s not some Rube Gold-bergian invention he cobbled together in his garage. Lantz is using his artistic skills to raise money and qualify for the Leukemia Society of America’s Team in Training marathon in Anchorage Alaska later this month.
Taking a ‘have easel, will travel’ approach, the Yuma parked himself in front of Horizon Books Saturday afternoon to draw caricatures and raise money toward his minimum pledge of $4,200. His third stint as a traveling caricaturist, Lantz has used his portable easel to net more than $1,000 toward his goal. Another $800 from sales of other artwork has also helped him on his way.
"I also sold a few paintings and I did a mural for Sparks Deli in Mesick, where 100 percent of the money I received for that job also went to the Leukemia So-ciety," said Lantz, who works as a customer service representa-tive at Visual Productions in Mesick. "Caricatures are like a cartoon, they are a blast to do."
For Lantz, making a caricature is not about being cruel, just having a little gentle fun and combined with an informal portrait. He talks to the person a few minutes while playing with the chalk to get an idea of what the subject is like and what they like to do. Then he starts sketching, taking between 20 and 30 minutes to complete the caricature.
"Then it will come to me and I know that the drawing will look like when done," Lantz said. "Sometimes I will get other in-sights as I’m doing it and it will go a different way."
Drawing WTCM radio personality Ron Jolly, one of Lantz’s caricature subjects Saturday afternoon, provided an easy inspiration: a microphone and a board captured his essence.
"I love it, it is an original piece of art and I’ll have it forever," said Jolly, a city resident whose wife, Laura, is also a member of the Team in Training. "I’m going to put it on the wall of the radio studio."
Besides putting lines on paper to raise money, Lantz has spent months pounding the pavement to train for the marathon. Lantz, Laura Jolly and Joe Lapekas of Long Lake Township are training with a professional running coach provided the Leukemia Society to prepare for their Alaskan adventure. Training since February, they keep focused using e-mail, bi-weekly runs together and conversations with their honor patients - local people with leukemia who cheer on their efforts.
"I just ran the Bayshore Saturday morning to train for Anchorage," said Lantz, who has completed four marathons since his first, last year’s Bayshore marathon. "In the fall I hope to put one together for some real speed and do it in 3:25 to qualify for Boston."
Lantz comes to marathon running from a non-traditional starting point. He was a smoker until just three years ago and began running only two years ago when he ran with his older son in his open cross country races. A few 5K races later and he set his sights on a marathon. Lantz finds that running and art are a potent mix and he gets a lot of artistic inspiration while running - he calls it the ‘Eureka phenomenon.’
Despite being a classically trained artist with a preference for oil portraits and landscapes, branching out into caricature to raise money for the Leukemia Society of America was an easy choice.
"I really prefer fine art," said Lantz. "But the Leukemia Society is helping hundreds of thou-sands of people ... touching lives in a way that would make you weep. I signed up to help right away."