"All of the (male) artists were pleasant, many were helpful, but none ever asked me to join them for lunch... because I was a woman. It wasn’t until twenty years later that I got a little angry about it… in retrospect."
- Barbara Bradley, speaking about her early days working in a New York City commercial art studio

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Margaret Erath (1930 - )

A few years ago I found this lovely record jacket at my local Goodwill signed by "M Erath."


Some searching on the Internet turned up an Arizona artist named Margaret Erath and after connecting with her I was thrilled to discover that she was in fact the illustrator of that record jacket.

Mrs. Erath generously agreed to write to me with some background information about her career: She graduated from Washington Irving High School and Parsons School of Design.

She was a textile designer for 32 years in New York City at the Gloria Bucé Studio.


Thoughout the 70's and into the 80's, Margaret Erath created fine art - for gallery exhibitions - she did produce artwork and posters for the BAFFA News and, as a member of the National League of American Pen Women, designed covers for the Penwomens NLAPW shows at CHPS in the early 80's. She also illustrated "Spanish Lesson" for Eyegate Film Strips and record jackets for Wide World Children's Records...


... but I suspect those assignments came much earlier, based on the date of the first album cover I found.

Mrs. Erath kindly sent along several slides of her more recent work. Unfortunately, not having the means to scan them, I was unable to show them here. I managed to find some wonderful examples of her paintings online, as you can see.


"My main goal in painting is to take JOY in the gift God has given me - This comes about in taking what the Living God has created in life and in a designed way to recapture the beauty I see to give to others - for His Glory" - Margaret Erath

My Margaret Erath Flickr set.
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 2, 2010 at 5:17 PM

    I adore the way colours are used on the Seasons record, and how crowded those pictures are all without becoming cluttered :D

    (came here via a @beatonna tweet, congrats on the great idea for a blog and on how much care you put into describing your finds, there is nothing more unnerving than a fine picture with no caption) :)

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  2. Mike GarrettMarch 2, 2010 at 9:03 PM

    I found the quote regarding her many lonely lunches in N.Y. sadly touching and brutally honest. How many of us encountered the same thing as we started out in the biz? I can only imagine how interesting lunch would be with her today.

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