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Postcards from my Seventy-Two Year Vacation – A Conversation with Mitch Markovitz
February 8, 2022 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom
Registration closes on Monday, February 7 at 4:30 p.m. (CDT)
Painter Mitch Markovitz will discuss his lifelong love of railroad art from his earliest memories of visiting the Illinois Central’s Grand Crossing station with his mother to running trains by the same station forty years later as an engineer. Now a revered artist, the themes of his works tend to focus on the world of railroading – not just trains but life in railroad situations – through the medium of oil paint.
In this program Mitch will deliver a thirty-minute presentation on his art and then we will open the floor for a long-form Q&A session. Attendees will have the opportunity to unmute and ask their questions live.
Mitch Markovitz was born on the south side of Chicago and has enjoyed a lifelong interest in the arts and railroading. He attended the American Academy of Art and the Chicago Academy of Fine Art before being hired out to the Chicago and North Western Railroad in 1969 at first as a brakeman and later a suburban ticket collector and passenger service trainman. Mitch’s role in the railroad industry has been robust with him holding a large variety of positions, including fireman, hostler, engineer, Amtrak ticket clerk, conductor, service coordinator, and chef. From 1984 to 1999 he served as the art and creative director, assistant passenger traffic manager, trainman, and engineer for the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railway. Today he channels his vast experience of railroading into oil paintings as a commissioned artist. He has also authored the publication “How to Draw and Paint Trains Like a Pro,” and co-authored “Moonlight in Duneland.”
This event is free.
