“I acquainted like screaming, so I did a account that screamed,” she explained..
Less loud and added archetypal are her portraits of Philip Rose, a Broadway producer, and his wife, Doris Belack, a soap‐opera actress. The portraits are advised to face anniversary added on the bank of their Central Park West accommodation in Manhattan.
These, like all Mrs. Cusack's works, were created by archetype accurate blow‐ups of the subjects, again agreement the traced assets on a ablaze table and analogue the areas on swatches of fabric. A glued‐down adaptation was again submitted to the Roses, who approved. Then, added the portraits actuality and there with polyester batting, she sewed them up.
‘Like a Surgeon’
Warts and all? Well, Mrs. Cusack sometimes takes a constrict actuality and there. “I acquainted like’ a surgeon,” she recalled, abacus that she'd do as abundant for any client. “I'm not Rembrandt.”
Mrs. Cusack is not a dyedin‐the‐wool purist about appliqué, either. While some bodies pride themselves on handwork, Mrs. Cusack panics every time her balky, 4‐year‐old Singer goes in for repairs. “I can't sew a zipper,” she noted, after a trace of shame.
Nor is she abnormally careful about fabric. Asked to name the accomplishments actual of one portrait, she replied: “Gabardine, I guess.” Another bolt was articular as “part of my sister's carpet.”
All this does not beggarly that Mrs. Cusack lacks expertise. A alum of Pratt Institute, she has formed as a clear designer, an art administrator and a set designer, acceptable a 1971 Emmy.award.
Free‐Lance Illustrator
Then in 1972, capitalizing on the chic for appliqué collage, she became a free‐lance illustrator. Her works, active with a name‐tag “like your mother sews on your affected shirts,” accept appeared on the covers of several above magazines, on almanac jackets and catalogues.
Once, balked by an angel pie that didn't attending “lumpy” abundant for a Bloomingdale's catalogue, Mrs. Cusack ripped accessible the glassy band and tossed in a scattering of dust from the backyard.
Appliquéd bodies are a new inlerest. It began with a band of Matisse‐like “Nude Lady” pillows, which are accessible at boutiques such as Serendipity III. But Mrs. Cusack anon annoyed of seeing her assignment “punched around” and so angled out into the pertrait bed-making business.
Her portraits ambit in bulk from $80 to $200, depending on the size, fabrics and bulk of padding. Examples are on appearance through January 31 at the Hands of Man, which is beyond from the Bedford Hills alternation station. The cardinal there: (914) 666‐6224.
