Tom Petty 013

This print is no longer available online. The edition of 20 prints is completed.
There may still be one available at a Look Closer Illustrations vendor.
See the Welcome page for a list with contact information.

Look closer for six song titles and one song lyric: American Girl; The Waiting; Refugee; I Won’t Back Down; Free Fallin’; Mary Jane’s Last Dance; “Watch her walk. . .” (Here Comes My Girl)

Thomas Earl Petty

Petty was born October 20, 1950, inGainesville, Florida, the first of two sons of Kitty (née Avery), a local tax office worker, and Earl Petty, who worked in a grocery store.He had a brother, Bruce, who was seven years younger.His interest inrock and rollmusic began at age ten when he metElvis Presley.In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley’s filmFollow That Dream, in nearbyOcala, and invited Petty to watch the shoot.He instantly became a Presley fan, and when he returned that Saturday, he was greeted by his friend Keith Harben, and soon traded hisWham-Oslingshot for a collection of Elvis45s.Of that meeting with Presley, Petty said, “Elvis glowed.”In a 2006 interview, Petty said he knew he wanted to be in a band when he saw theBeatlesonThe Ed Sullivan Show.”The minute I saw the Beatles on theEd Sullivan Show—and it’s true of thousands of guys—there was the way out. There was the way to do it. You get your friends and you’re a self-contained unit. And you make the music. And it looked like so much fun. It was something I identified with. I had never been hugely into sports. … I had been a big fan of Elvis. But I really saw in the Beatles that here’s something I could do. I knew I could do it. It wasn’t long before there were groups springing up in garages all over the place.” He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play bass with his newly formed band.

In an interview with theCBCin 2014, Petty stated that theRolling Stoneswere “my punk music”.He credited the group with inspiring him by demonstrating that he and musicians like him could make it in rock and roll.

One of his first guitar teachers wasDon Felder, a fellow Gainesville resident, who later joined theEagles.As a young man, Petty worked briefly on the grounds crew of theUniversity of Florida, but never attended as a student. AnOgeechee lime treethat he planted while employed at the university is now called the Tom Petty tree (Petty stated that he did not recall planting any trees).He also worked briefly as a gravedigger.

Petty also overcame a difficult relationship with his father, who found it hard to accept that his son was “a mild-mannered kid who was interested in the arts” and subjected him to verbal and physical abuse on a regular basis. Petty was close to his mother and remained close to his brother, Bruce.

– credit Wikipedia

The artwork:

Each illustration is tied to a non-profit fund raiser. The first print of this Tom Petty illustration was sold in a silent auction to benefit the Lost Pines Art Center, the largest comprehensive art center in the State of Texas, right here in Bastrop.

Digital Print on Archival Matte – Original illustration done in graphite and prismacolor: Lime green for the “Tom Petty Lime Tree” he planted at U or Florida, Gainsville; Process Red for the process to be a Hall of Fame musician and Ultra Marine for the You Tube videos that use “Won’t Back Down.”
Artist: Tobin Craig Bortner – drawing done in April of 2018 – ©Tobin Signs/Look Closer Illustrations

DERIVATIVE Work – photo credit: imgflip.com and Fender neck: local10.com