GREENSBORO, N.C. — As Edward Casey twirls a pair of scissors in his hands, a small smile pulls up the corners of his mouth. This is something he’s done more than once.
“Probably close to a million, I don’t know for sure,” he said with a laugh.
What You Need To Know
Silhouette portraiture is a pretty unique form of art
Edward Casey has been doing it over several decades
While working at Disney World, he saw someone working the silhouette method
He now runs Silhouettes by Edward and travels all around the country
Silhouette portraiture, the art of painting or cutting out one’s silhouette, is something he’s been doing for a long time.
When the U.S. Army drafted him for the Vietnam War, he would draw his fellow soldiers’ drivers’ licenses, so they could send them back home to their families.
“That’s kind of what I did to make a little bit of extra money,” Casey said. “My first paycheck was $58 for the month, so I was glad to get that extra 20 bucks.”
After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to get his degree in art and went into art education. After a few years, he decided education wasn’t his niche. So, Casey found a job at Disney World as a portrait artist. He watched other artists until he saw someone doing silhouette portraiture.
“I couldn’t believe that someone could do this and do it that quick,” Casey said.
He’s hard to miss with a gold hoop earring even Michael Jordan might be jealous of.
“A bunch of kids in Marietta, Georgia, they had a gang called ‘Hooper’s Hoods,’” Casey said. “Hooper had a ring in his ear, and me and my buddies thought that was cool. So, we decided, we were going to get us one.”
Ring in ear all the time, he went from selling hand-drawn pictures for $20 and now has a full-fledged business: Silhouettes by Edward.
Edward and his wife, Donna, and sister-in-law, Teresa Hardin, live in west Georgia. But the trio have traveled all around the country for his art, setting up in portrait studios or gift shops. They did an event at Greensboro at Swoozie’s last week.
“We get to meet so many sweet families and beautiful babies, and we just have a lot of fun doing it,” Donna Casey said. “We thought we were ready to retire until COVID, and we realized after sitting home for a long time, no, we weren’t ready for it.”
It’s not just a business but a family business.
“Oh, we enjoy it,” Hardin said. “We’re family, so it’s fun.”
The best part is seeing all the kids. It doesn’t take an expert to see Edward Casey loves being around them.
“You were great! Give me five, not too hard though,” he said to a child, feinting as if he wasn’t going to let the boy hit his hand. “All right, I won’t move it this time. There you go!”
It’s not money that he uses to test his performance: it’s children’s smiles.
“That’s the gauge I use to see if I do a good job,” Casey said. “If they look at it and they smile or they light up, I know I’m in the ballpark.”
With his results, smiles aren’t hard to come by.
“I never liked anything as much as drawing pictures my whole life,” Casey said.
The trio also dropped by Raleigh and Charlotte before making their way back south through South Carolina and Georgia.