Dick Bobnick’s Artist Profile
Dick Bobnick has been a successful illustrator for over thirty years. His versatility in creating dramatic celebrity portrait montages, beautiful figures, action-adventure illustrations and glamour portraiture in a variety of mediums, keeps his work in demand by regional, national and international corporations, advertising agencies, public relations firms and publishers of books and collectibles.
Over the years Dick has created illustrations for General Mills, 3M Company, the U.S. Army, the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland U.S.A., Onan Company, U.S. West, Pillsbury Company, Rosemount Aeropspace Corporation, Northwest Airlines, Editor/Publisher magazine, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Elvis Presley Enterprises, AT&T, the United States Historical Society, the Minnesota Orchestra, Sony Corporation, the U.S.A. Cable Network and numerous other local, regional and national advertising agencies and corporations. In 1985, Dick was selected by the National Republican Inaugural Committee to create the illustrations for three double truck ads in U.S.A. TODAY heralding President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. Silkscreened prints of the three original portrait montage illustrations were presented to President Reagan and his cabinet. In 1988, Dick’s full color portrait of golf legend Sam Snead was chosen by Snead as his official portrait in the Professional Golf Association’s Hall Of Fame.
Throughout his career Dick has been the recipient of many local and regional Art Directors and Illustration awards as well as recognition and awards in national illustration exhibitions and competitions. Some of his most recent awards are described in the NEWS&LINKS section.
After twenty five years as lead illustrator at several major Minneapolis graphics studios Dick went on his own in 1990 and opened his own illustration studio in Bloomington Minnesota in order to pursue his specialties. Dick’s celebrity portraiture and glamour figurework are in constant demand for the publishing and advertising industries. In 1994 he created a montage illustration and print commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion for the United States Historical Society. In the last eight years Dick has produced many illustrations for the collectibles giants: The Franklin Mint, the Bradford Exchange, the Hamilton Collection and the Danbury Mint. He completed two 6 collector plate series for the Franklin Mint commemorating the JAMES BOND films starring Sean Connery, and, the GUNSMOKE television series.
In 1996 Dick was commissioned to create portraits of the four presidential candidates: Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Jack Kemp and Al Gore for historical commemoratives of the 1997 Inaugural. Dick also created the commemorative stamp cache art for U.S. first day issue stamps honoring Louis Armstrong, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Pete Fountain and Reggie Jackson to name just a few. In 1997 he also designed 6 federal stamps honoring Elvis Presley for several foreign governments. Another recent commission was an advertising promotional portrait montage of musical giants Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Bill Cosby, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock and K.D. Lang, who were honored in a Sony sponsored “America Music Honors” T.V. special teleacast December 28, 1996 nationally. In addition, Dick completed a series of sports superstar portraits including Kirby Puckett, Rhyne Sandberg, Jim Kelly and Greg Maddux, for open edition prints. The Puckett illustration was selected for inclusion in the prestigious Illustration West 35th Annual Exhibit held in Los Angeles and it is published in the Show’s 1998 Annual.
In April of 1998 the Franklin Mint made a decision to produce a commemorative fine art collector plate based on a painting Dick submitted to them 1 1/2 months earlier. That painting was of Mother Teresa. In late June of 1999 the Limited Edition Heirloom collector plate
honoring Mother Teresa was released for general sale worldwide.
In 2000 the Franklin Mint selected Dick’s stunning portrait of Marilyn Monroe for the inside front and back covers of their special leather and gold Limited Edition of Joyce Carol Oates’ newest best seller, BLONDE. More recently he completed several covers for EDITOR-PUBLISHER magazine and in June, 2004, Dick was selected to create a series of glamour illustrations for the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s newest national ad campaigns promoting both their new exotic and Turkish blends cigarettes.
Dick continues to create the dynamic illustrations he has become known for in his recently completed home studio in Burnsville, Minnesota.
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