Marion Life Story: Fred Hardiman

Fred Hardiman is a 71-year-old retired commercial artist living in Cedar Rapids. You can find his work on exhibit at Lowe Park.

When I worked at [Rockwell] Collins in commercial art everything is straightforward, if you are drawing a 747 it is a 747.

When I was retired it was hard to get out of that confinement. That's when I decided I need to do different things. One day I might feel like I want to do something about how bad the world is. I'll do something off the cuff. My wife will look at it and say, "What the?"

I compare everything to music, if you are a musician and you can play every instrument every invented, but that is all you can do, you are an not satisfying your hunger. You gotta' stretch it.

When I experiment I'll start the work really enthusiastically. Then I'll come upstairs and my wife will say, "Whats the matter?" and I'll say, "It's a piece of [expletive]."   

I got a BFA from Drake and I had some very, very good professors there. The one that I thought the most of, he had an exam that went like this: You got a eight by eight piece of paper and he said, show me everything that you have learned.

We brought them to him, and he would show the class. Then he crumpled them up like this and throw them in the trash.

He said, "The only way to do art is to do what you feel." So my view is this: If I can do something, anything that makes you reflect on your inner self — things you've done, places you've been — than that's all I can do.

I took a leave after 12 years at [Rockwell] Collins and I worked for a program for drug addicts. 

If you go in [a drug addict's] apartment and it's disgusting and they tell you to have a seat, then you look around and say, "I'd rather stand," they can see right through you.

You can't go in thinking you are better than then them. I learned more about myself than I ever helped them.

It is hard sometimes to face what you are turning in to or what you have become, but when you are dealing with people like that, you change the way you looking at yourself.