Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/384868
referring to the small-world feeling that Instagram, at its best, can foster. And he sees himself in the mold of an earlier time. "I like the idea of the guys in suits in the 1930s who were painting Vanity Fair covers as their main job," he says, referring to illustration all-time greats like Miguel Covarrubias. "I'm at work at MAC in my suit, and painting these illustrations on the side." Robertson's path to fame was remarkably straightforward. The Toronto native attended art school "for two minutes," he says, before deciding that it wasn't for him. "I want to start a movement called Leave College Immediately: it's a waste of time for a lot of creative people." He helped found MAC Cosmetics in Toronto in his 20s, decades before boomeranging back to the brand once the Lauder family had acquired it. In the intervening years he worked at Condé Nast, largely under the legendary Editorial Director James Truman, and quickly became a leading creative director there. "Whenever one of those grand dame editors left, we'd reposition the magazine," he says, and his stints included Glamour and Cargo. Robertson, who is married to decorator Kim Hastings, now sees his creative director work and his drawing hobby as cut from the exact same quirky cloth. "This is what I have been doing all along, but now the curtain has been pulled back," he says. He certainly found the perfect medium with Instagram. "Facebook feels like suburbia, and I didn't like Twitter—it's for talkers," he says. "Instagram is for lookers, and it's a global superhighway. This morning, I talked to friends in the Mideast, my friends in London, and Mexico. Oh, and January Jones." The "Mad Men" actress saw his work and asked for a portrait, and Robertson happily obliged. And to his credit, personal fame isn't Robertson's goal— though he's enjoying that a lot. He wants to boost the whole art form of illustration, which has suffered as photography came to dominate periodicals. "I just started selling things on the app Trendabl, and all these illustrators saw that and started sending their work in," he says. "Now there's a whole art section. I'm really happy about that. All these kids are coming up, and usually people don't give illustrators the time of day. I mean, how many illustrators can you name?" Well, given his soaring popularity, at least one. BAL HARBOUR 157 At left, rows of whimsical, waiflike figures is a recurring theme in Robertson's art. Above, Robertson working on a new multimedia piece using bright pieces of masking tape. Below, a Donald Robertson original featuring a portrait of Louis XV painted onto a Cap'n Crunch cereal box.