Torch Drawings

INSPD employee, Jerry Williams begins his 22nd year of drawings for The Torch

Jerry Williams is the receptionist for the Indiana State Personnel Department. He has worked for Indiana State Government 30 years, and he has been drawing for the Torch for 22 years. His first drawing appeared in January 2001.

Q: When did you start drawing?
When I was a baby, mom said she’d put me in a highchair and stick a pen and paper in my hand and I would draw! I learned how to color from her. You color using circular motions this way colors blend evenly and smoothly together.

Later on in high school, the local bank in Greenfield held a contest and wanted artists to submit Veterans’ Day posters, and I won first place. I also did an ink drawing of the Greenfield Public Library, which won a red ribbon in a high school art show.

I started drawing for the Torch (originally named the Interchange) in 2001. Jeff Sullivan, who was over the Interchange, saw some of my high school drawings and he published my drawing of the New Year’s baby and Father time in January of that year.

Q: Where does your inspiration come from?
I love to draw flowers. I seem to be more comfortable doing that because I always grew up around gardening.

When I lived with my parents, mom and dad always had a garden. Annie Redmon, the lady who lived next door to us also loved flowers. She had a ‘green thumb’ and could grow anything. Her entire yard was in bloom from spring until fall.

Mom always grew asters, and my memories of them appear in these drawings:

And I loved gardening. When I was older, I had a big herb garden. I had about 40-50 herbs, medicinal and culinary—Skullcap, Valerian, Soapwort, Tansy. Sometimes I’d use them for flavor, but the medicinal ones I just grew because of their historical significance.

I worked at Frank’s Nursery and Crafts at Cherry Tree Plaza when it first opened. When I started there, my advantage was that I knew all the Latin names of the plants. I knew the scientific names, not because I had to, but because that was just part of me loving plants and flowers. I read all types of gardening books.

Q: What else do you like to draw?
I’ve drawn other things, but I just seem to be better at drawing flowers.

I’ve drawn people, for example. My style for drawing faces and people comes from reading DC comic books when I was younger, that’s why my people look more like comic strip characters than real people.

These were drawn one year for Mother's Day and Father's Day.

I’ve also drawn the American flag. The flag is very complicated to draw, and I’ve drawn several of them over the years. Everything must be exact because there are people out there who will actually count the stars and stripes. I’ve also drawn our Indiana state flag when Indiana celebrated its bicentennial.

Q: How do you prefer to draw? Do you draw from memory?
I usually just draw them from memory. Sometimes I have to resort to a picture, especially if I don’t remember exactly how the flower looks—like how many petals a daffodil has or what the leaves look like on a peony.

Sometimes I’ll just sit and think of an idea, and it starts with one simple line on paper, and I just keep building around that line. I sit and let my imagination go. If I’m not satisfied within the first few minutes, I scrap the picture. If I get to a certain point and keep on going, I know it’s the picture to use.

To create all my drawings, I use a black BIC Round Stic medium pen, and a box of Crayola colored pencils. Those are the tools of my trade.

Here are more flowers. Now I like to heavily outline them in black because I like the stained-glass window effect—that’s what I call it. It makes everything look so much better and adds depth instead of leaving a drawing flat.

Q: Do you have certain pieces you like to highlight?
My favorite ones are the fall drawings because I think I put more detail and work in these than I do on   the other ones. I like these cornucopias; I’ve done many of these over the years.

I also love daylilies. Pictured below are examples of an Asian Lily, a daylily, and a basket of daylilies and iris.

Here’s one—and this one’s interesting.

We had a couple cats, and they were good cats, but you know how cats are. Well, I got up one morning and they had killed a mouse. I don’t know where the mouse came from, but the cats found him, and they literally played with him until he died.

That was in December, so this is the January 2010 Torch drawing:

I felt so sorry for the mouse, and I made sure he was memorialized in this drawing!

This drawing (pictured left) was one of my better people drawings and was inspired by the style of Norman Rockwell. The Torch, before going on-line in glorious color, was then called the Interchange and printed in black and white to be distributed to all state agencies. I did this one after 9/11.

I remember when I was doing it, I changed it from “good will toward men” to “good will toward all.” I wanted it to be inclusive.

Jerry currently serves as the Receptionist for the Indiana State Personnel Department (INSPD). Maybe you’ve been greeted by his bright smile and a “Hi! How are you?” Maybe you’ve seen Jerry’s art in the Torch, but never met the man behind the drawings.

Now that you know the man behind the art, we hope you get a chance to meet Jerry in person and to appreciate him for his contribution to an enduring State of Indiana Torch tradition.

Story submitted by Kaitlyn Wampler, INSPD Communications