A sketchy situation: Courtroom artist from Nelson Co. opens show in Lynchburg

By Aaron Lee

Published: June 4, 2008

Well, rising gas prices and Hustler magazine have at least one thing in common – an elementary school teacher in Nelson County.

In December 1984 Claudia Van Koba, who now teaches art at Tye River Elementary, was in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. In front of her were lawyers for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and adult-magazine publisher Larry Flynt.

Slideshow:  Claudia van Koba talks about her work

Falwell’s lawyers were seeking $45 million in damages for a parody ad of Falwell that ran in Hustler where Falwell was supposedly talking about his “first time” in an outhouse.

In her lap Van Koba was recording the proceedings with chalk and colored pencils for WDBJ7 because at that time media cameras were not routinely let into courtrooms.

And while that is the highest-profiled gig she’s sketched, there were more courtrooms over the years, some where the men she was drawing were on trial for murder.

Van Koba sold many of her sketches from trials over the years, but there are roughly 40 in a show opening on June 6 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. Nearly a quarter of those pictures are from the Falwell case.

Van Koba’s hoping the history attached to the sketches will draw buyers. And that enough of the art will sell for her to put a substantial down payment on a hybrid car for her husband who commutes more than 100 miles a day from their Nelson home to work at the University of Virginia Hospital.

The collection also includes sketches of local lawmen, attorneys and judges. Some of whom have complained about uncanny likenesses, Van Koba said.

“I don’t do plastic surgery … I’m not going to take your chin off,” Van Koba said. “Because then you’re within your rights to say, ‘That doesn’t look like me.’”

Having taught art for the last 16 years in Amherst and Nelson counties, Van Koba’s last time sketching in court was in 2006 when former Lynchburg mayor Carl B. Hutcherson was on trial in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

Her show opens on June 6 at the Academy of Fine Arts in downtown Lynchburg. The show runs through June 27. Call 434-528-3256 for more information or visit http://www.academyfinearts.com.