Connecting the Dots: The Illustrations of John Rodak

Sawyer Yards presents Connecting the Dots: The Illustrations of John Rodak. The work in this exhibit represents more than 25 years of Rodak’s pointillist, pen and ink illustrations. While showcasing some examples of his early Ohio barns series, the rest of the selections reflect a wide range of subjects that the artist found interesting over the years, including from his travels to Taiwan, his wife’s home country. From statuaries in cemeteries, to landscapes, to old structures, Rodak’s work expanded. He describes his more recent works as branching into ‘concept art’ — seeing more into the drawing than what is on the surface.

Rodak’s drawings are imbued with his lifelong love for the act of drawing. He prefers working in black and white, and using pencil, charcoal, and pen, to develop an image and create a contrast between nothingness (white) and the presence or ‘true image’ of his subjects. This approach challenges the artist to focus on exactly what they believe is essential and necessary. For Rodak, drawing with dots is the most interesting way to develop an illustration, no matter the subject.

About the Artist: John A. Rodak is an art instructor, illustrator and graphic designer specializing in visual storytelling and creative communications. His pointillist illustrations focus on capturing and preserving images of statuary, structures and sights that have been all but forgotten or soon to be ‘lost’ in this modern age of immediacy. Mr. Rodak is an expatriated Ohioan born in Elyria and educated at the University of Cincinnati. His career as an educator began in 1972 with the Cincinnati Public Schools, and continued after his move to Houston in 1995 until his retirement in 2012. Rodak and his wife, Lan-Hsi Wen, live in Houston amidst an array of books, reference photos, drawing tools, table tennis paddles and guitars.