At Your Service: Parallel Lines
01/01/2008
If you’ve changed addresses since your precocious six-year-old interpreted your home’s facade in crayon, then it may be time to engage a professional. Artist Jeff DiCicco’s fine pen-and-ink architectural renderings can ensure that your memories of home endure, whether you are a lifer or simply moving on. Another added benefit: "For owners of multiple homes," says DiCicco, "these renderings serve as a reminder of where they can’t be all the time."DiCicco’s works are true hand-drawn reproductions that evoke a timeless quality. "It’s a painstaking process—it’s technical and methodical," says the artist, who can spend months on a series of images for a home. In recent years, his skills have been put to work on increasingly more complicated commissions, including five renditions of a 1912 Pasadena, Calif., estate by Myron Hunt (who also designed the Ambassador Hotel and the Huntington Library). Detailed cross-hatching emphasizes the graceful, simple beauty of the Shingle Style residence.
This method is particularly apropos for classically designed homes. DiCicco’s rendering of a Georgian Revival residence in Cincinnati invites the viewer to step onto the property and maybe, back in time (above). In Saint Luperce, France, interior designer Timothy Corrigan asked DiCicco to draw the Chateau de Blanville; the black-and-white rendering shows a forest of trees framing the building’s wings, juxtaposing the feathery foliage with the formal lines of the symmetrical structure. For other estates, DiCicco has had to do just a little bit of cheating. "I’ve used a cherry picker to bypass saplings," he admits, "so I can see the whole property."
Jeff DiCicco, 310.395.4498, www.jeffdicicco.com