Long Time Coming
Despite a rough childhood, setbacks and life getting in the way, illustrator London Ladd keeps moving forward By Molly English-Bowers
R
ejection plays differently in your 30s, even if you’ve been moderately suc- cessful at your profession. Just ask
London Ladd. “Things have been pretty slow the past
year,” says Ladd, 38, an illustrator with two children’s books under his belt. “I’ve been doing personal things, sending out submis- sions, getting feedback, getting rejection let- ters. It’s good motivation; it’s very humbling. You think you’re somebody with a couple of books, but if nobody will hire you, if you don’t get any awards or any recognition you keep falling by the wayside.” So Ladd has hired an agent to try to find
him more work. “I did some research about the pros and cons of hiring a rep. And given my situation, because I’m older and I have family obligations, sometimes I can’t always dedicate myself to finding work. I’m not say- ing that as an excuse; it’s just my reality.”
12 Another reality is that Ladd is breathtakingly
talented, and diligent. His meticulous brush- strokes result from hours of tinkering, creating illustrations that jump off the page. A favorite subject is Satchel Paige, the Negro League pitcher, and himself. He points to a drawing hanging in his second-floor studio of a brood- ing young man, fists clenched, tenement behind him; the illustration bleeds gray and anger. “That’s me,” he says. “I was so angry, just
an angry youth. Now I’m a nice guy.” Indeed, Syracuse University Bookstore
keeps inviting Ladd under their big top to sign books during the Syracuse Arts & Crafts Festival. He will be there this Saturday, July 31, signing books and displaying his artwork. “We invite London every year,” says Leah Deyneka, academic support coordinator for the SU Bookstore, “because he’s one of our favorite people.” A few hours spent with Ladd, who lives in the Valley with his wife Theresa Ladd, a
July 28 - August 4, 2010 Syracuse New Times
Syracuse City School District music teacher, and their 15-year-old daughter Lavanda, an incoming sophomore at Corcoran High School, reveals a friendly man of remarkable candor. Ladd speaks bluntly of his rough childhood, his low self-esteem, his depression, his flunking out of SU, his battles with alco- hol. It’s a story he shares with children during visits to area schools. “The kids really connect to it,” he says,
“especially in the city schools. But it’s funny—I went to a suburban school out in Liverpool and a country school in Onon- daga—and I didn’t think my story could relate to them. But it did. It doesn’t matter about your background or where you live. It just boils down to persevering. Even if you come from a family that makes $100,000, you’ve still got to work and strive for your goals as much as the kid down here in the city, or out in the country. And I hope I plant seeds into these kids, and they can grow, and hope.”
THE ILLUSTRATING MAN Ladd’s three major paid gigs all presented
commonalities to his life: escaped slave of mixed race Jermain Loguen, who settled in Syracuse and played a big role in the Jerry Rescue; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose “I Have a Dream Speech” has become a civil rights touchstone; and Oprah Winfrey, the fabulously successful personality, who, like Ladd, was born poor into a single-parent household. His first job was to paint a mural of Loguen, under the auspices of a Cultural Resources Council project. “There was an open call for four murals in 2005, in different parts of Syracuse,” he notes. “I put together a small illustration, submitted it and I won.” Located on the eastern side of the Rich-
mark Carpet building on Cherry Street, the mural colorfully depicts Loguen, whose now-destroyed home was a stop on the Underground Railroad and who rose through the ranks of the African Methodist Episcopal
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