Love
{ FOR THE
OF A RT }
That led to more traveling, more caricature sketching
at fairs and even Busch Gardens in Tampa.
Along the way, he'd met and married Karen.
When their daughter was born, he returned to bigscale
projects - billboards. But this time, he was both
designing and painting them.
" It was very hard; they were big and it was kind of
like manual labor for an artist, " Bloodworth said. " I'm
sure a lot of other artists could have done it. But they
didn't choose that hard work, and so I rose to the top in
that field because I don't mind hard work. "
Bloodworth was invited to paint Marlboro billboards
under Marvin Gunderson, a highly respected artist
who'd garnered an exclusive contract with the famous
tobacco brand. The Western-style paintings stood a
whopping 42-by-90-feet.
" I was lucky enough to work with the best guy in the
country, " he said.
Soon
Bloodworth was
painting ads on a translucent
material that was
applied to buses. He and
Karen moved to Central
Florida, where theme parks
and tourist attractions made
way for plenty more work
- so much work that he
hired a large crew to assist.
Left: Doug works on a mural
on the Barnstorm Theater
in 2012 while fellow artists
Dennis Graves and Jim
Jackson work on another
section of the building.
6
JULY 2022