Name: Marcia Danits
Occupation: Courtroom illustrator
Background: Danits had two years of college before she was married. She returned to school in 1980 and earned a bachelor`s degree in painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute. She began working for Channel 2 in 1969 when they needed an artist to cover the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial. Prior to that she had been doing commercial art and design work. Born in Chicago, Danits has two grown sons and has lived in Lincolnwood for the last 17 years.
Years in present position: 20
To do this kind of work, you have to be able to draw very quickly. When I do an illustration, I try to capture the feeling of who the person is. The nicest compliment ever paid to me was from a reporter who had been in court with me and then had seen my drawings on the news. He said, ”I looked at him, and I knew where that man was coming from.” It wasn`t a photograph, but he knew who this man was from the drawing. To me, that showed success at getting at the character and bringing it out. These drawings can be so much stronger than a photograph. I`m very proud when I see the anguish, or whatever, in a face I`ve drawn.
The mobsters, the loan sharks, they`re all wonderful to draw. The Cappas (drug) trial was interesting. These kids all looked alike, the defendants and the witnesses. They`re all weight lifters, so they`re huge. They all wore the same type of sweaters and pants and the hairdo with the long lock of hair hanging down the back.
There was a trial once of a motorcycle gang. When they went on trial, they were all wearing three-piece suits. But the funniest thing was their shoes. They had these beautiful shoes, but there was no dirt on the soles. They`d never been worn outside.
I also at times do illustrations for events that, while they don`t take place in court, they do happen somewhere that a camera can`t go. I once went to the cemetery to make drawings of a funeral. There was a cemetery strike on, so no graves were being dug. But an Orthodox Jewish man had died, and he had to be buried within 24 hours. The station wanted to do a story on the funeral, but they didn`t want to be offensive by bringing cameras in. It was a snowy winter day, and I sat in the car and drew pictures of the funeral.
I`ve been called in to re-create things that people have seen. When a UFO was spotted somewhere in De Kalb County, I went down there and they explained what they had seen, and I did some drawings. Once a young girl was hit by a car while she was jogging, and she had no identification on her. She eventually died, but they had a picture of her while she was still on life support, and I drew her as if she were just sleeping. We put it on the air to find out who she was. She was identified by her grandfather.
I use colored pencils because they don`t smear. I can work over it, and it doesn`t get messy. I work on a sketch pad, and what I do depends on the situation. If somebody`s just been arrested and they`re making their first court appearance, it will last about two minutes. It`s over very quickly, so I`ll only get one to three drawings. Or at least I`ll get the outline and finish it later.
If I`m there for the whole day at a trial, I`ve got quite a bit of time, so I can play around with it. If something happens at 3 in the afternoon, I`ve got to get it done quickly because the first show is at 4:30 and the big show is at 5. With all the technology now, if you`re out in the field, it can be taped and shot back to the station and shown live. When I have enough time, I can send it back to the station and they tape it there and get a much clearer, sharper picture.
There is no typical day. That`s what`s fun about it. You can end up doing all kinds of wild things. The station will generally call me around 8:30 in the morning and say such-and-such is happening, and I go out there. I`ve gotten calls at noon when I thought I wouldn`t be working, and I have to be there by 1. You never know. But that`s the exciting part.
There are quite a few artists in the courtroom. There`s an artist for each station. They usually set aside a couple of rows for the press. And they`re always very nice about letting the artists have those seats that are the best to see. Getting a good seat is very important for me.
I could go to a trial and draw the pictures and they might not use the story. Or I could go and wait for a verdict to come in and nothing happens and I don`t draw a thing all day. Sometimes if a trial has been going on awhile and it`s getting boring and they don`t want to staff it, they`ll send me out just to be there in case something happens.
One day recently I went to three different stories in different courtrooms. Sometimes it`s out of town, in places like Kankakee or Rockford. I`ve worked occasionally for the network, and once I was in the airport, ready to go home, and something came up and they sent me off somewhere else. I get paid by the day, no matter how long I`m there and whether or not I draw.
I definitely get to meet some interesting people. During the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial I remember going up on the elevator with Jerry Rubin, and he said to me, ”Wait till you see what we`re going to do today.” That day they wore judicial robes, and his robe was fastened with a safety pin. We all knew each other by this time because the trial had gone on for so long.
Roy Cohn was once part of a trial involving fraud in some business transaction. When I first started drawing him, he was covering his face so I couldn`t see him. Nobody gets away with that, though. They`ll look up for a minute, and I`ve got them. But he was hiding; gradually he got a little more curious, and then he was straightening his tie and, eventually, posing. Finally he came up to me and asked to see the picture and asked me if I wanted his autograph.
People will come up to me during the breaks and comment on my work. They`ll tell me I gave someone too much hair, and then someone else will say I didn`t give the same person enough hair. The defendants want to see, too. The artists are no threat to them, and they`re curious about it. A lot of them want their drawings. At first I gave the drawings away, but now I sell them. I feel like the drawings are history, in a way, so I`ll redraw them if people buy them, so I can keep a copy. I`ve also done paintings from my sketches, and they`ve been in a few shows. A lot of my painting is taken from my experience in court.
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I guess I could be in danger sometimes. I do think about that. Once or twice a defendant has gone bonkers. Once I went to a coroner`s inquest and everyone was crowding to get in, and they were angry. Eventually they started to riot and throw briefcases around, and they had to call off the hearing and clear the room.
But they`re very careful now in the courtroom. Many years ago at 26th and California some woman brought in a gun in a book for one of the defendants, and he tried to escape. He started shooting at the courtroom. Nobody was hurt, and they ended up killing him in the hallway. After that, the security got much better at all of the courthouses. And at very heavy trials, there`s even more security.
I do get emotionally involved in some of these cases. Sometimes it becomes part of the drawing. I listen as I draw, and if it`s very heavy stuff, in a bizarre way it`s an aid to the drawing. I start pouring into it, and my pencil goes very fast.
What I like most about this job is that even if I didn`t draw a line, it`s still so interesting. I`ve seen so many things. A lot of it is so heavy and sad that you have to have a gallows sense of humor at times to get through it. You do hear a lot of things that are just extraordinary.
For an artist, this is an entirely different way to work. You can be a good artist and illustrator and such, but you go into the courtroom and it`s a whole different milieu. It takes a switch in thinking. And it takes time to learn to do it and do it well. There`s a lot of pressure. There`s time pressure and, of course, when you`re drawing someone who`s well known, you have to get that face looking like who it is.
But this profession is going to disappear eventually. Most states are bringing the cameras in. That seems to be what people want. If I were on trial, I wouldn`t want a camera sitting there and recording it. There are so few of us, anyway; as the camera takes over, the profession will just fade away. But right now it`s perfect; how many people can make a living as an artist? –