coyleart

dexter does tricks

This has nothing to do with anything, it's just an extra-cute picture of our cat Dex (and me) showing off our high-five. Of course I'm biased, but I think he's got the right stuff to make it someday on this website. Just look at that adorable paw pad and whisker action!!

Roger Brown

There are a lot of artists whose work I love, but there are a few that draw me into their world so completely that I could pore over them endlessly. Romare Bearden is one of those, Roger Brown is another. To me, his work's magnetic quality has to do with the narrative woven through Brown's work, the americana comic book style and yet it looks like nothing I've ever seen. I think Roger Brown invented something truly unique, which is rare, and he did it at a time when it was practically in defiance of everything that was happening in the art world around him.

I'm affected by the combination of nostalgia, invention and cultural commentary in his work. I'm taken in by the dramatic cloud shapes and landscapes that have a mesmerizing rhythm and a forbidding cast. I love his buildings and houses with their yellow-lit windows and tiny people in silhouette.

Roger Brown also has a great story, and it was a bit of legend when I was in school at Auburn in Alabama. The very idea that someone from from the next town over, whose dad owned the James Brown Family restaurant where we used to get our meat-n-3 over in Opelika, could move to Chicago and become a famous painter.

I've had my eye on him since then, from the tail-end of the 80's and into the 90's when he did a couple of Time magazine covers, while his paintings were hanging in so many museum collections I could visit them in my travels. Sadly he died at the age of 56 in 1997, but he left an incredible body of work and a few houses full of collectables (he was a voracious collector) to the Art Institute of Chicago where they are available for those who are inspired by the life and influences of a great American painter.

So on my recent trip to Auburn, I felt especially lucky to run into a show of Roger Brown's paintings and collected artifacts at the Jule Collins Smith Museum. If you are anywhere near there, go take a look. The show will be up until January 5th. Some of the artifacts are from a collection that resides in his house museum in Beulah, AL, which is nearby, but we didn't have time to investigate that. If you go, or if you've been there, let me know!

And I can recommend a little bbq spot between Auburn and Atlanta called Sprayberry's in Newnan, GA. Be sure to go to the original Sprayberry's (converted gas station circa 1926) and not the new one next to the highway, yes it's the same food, but atmosphere counts too. Their sauce is something to behold - it's the tangy vinegar style I prefer - and the slaw is sweet and sour and goes right on the sandwich - perfect! Get some brunswick stew too, okay? Ahhh, this is what I love about the south, bbq and fine art all in the same afternoon.

illustrationists unite!

Last week I had the fun of getting out of my lonely studio and meeting up with some fellow illustrators at the Art Institute of Atlanta. We had a chance to talk shop and even enjoy some of the delicious, rich and artisticaly arranged cooking at the culinary school on the AIA campus. The chair of the Illustration & Design department is Dan Henderson and I've linked his name to his website where you can view his strange and wonderful work. His amazing works are done in charcoal and are like nothing you've ever seen. You can catch Dan every year at Dragon*Con. I also met David Moyers, another illustration faculty member and I hope to get a chance to check out his work once his website is up and running. My other fellow Atlanta freelancer was Aaron McKinney and he's been working on some very cool stuff - you can check it out at his eponymous website.

back home again

Last week, I had the pleasure and honor of participating in a symposium at my alma mater Auburn University's College of Architecture, Design and Construction. The title was "Outstanding Women in Design," and I was invited to represent the school of Graphic Design alongside 6 other graduates who represented their respective disciplines. I had the chance to meet and chat with some great women, all successful in careers ranging from Architecture to Building Science to Urban Planning and it was inspiring to say the least!

Above are Dean Dan Bennett, Lee Ann Gamble of G+G Architects and Myra Deyhle, Interior Architect/Designer of LRK I was so impressed with both of these women's portfolios and their aesthetics. I also met Leslie Norvell, a Landscape Architect from Philly; Rebecca Burleson, a builder of enormous amazing projects; Shayla Jones Beaco, an inspiring City Planner and Heather Bailey an Industrial Designer and engaging speaker.

My talk was entitled "Making a Career of Creative Freedom," and along with showing my portfolio and talking about my work as an illustrator, I also hoped to offer a little inspiration to students headed towards careers in design and illustration. One theme I heard repeated a few times over the course of the day was the importance of finding out what you love to do, whatever it is that is really you and using that as your guiding force along your career path. It seems self-explanatory, but I think it's one of the great challenges of having a creative career.

Knowing who you are and what you do best (usually because it's something you love and have a passion for) is the ticket to finding fulfillment in your career. And I don't think jobs or assignments always provide the best ground for exploring those things for artists and designers, so you have to make a real effort to seek it out on your own, even as you are working and doing your best to pay the rent.

In some ways, that is your "career in creative freedom," and it runs parallel to your work career, it's the place where you spend years in a quest for what resonates deeply with you and time developing your talent and showing what you can do with it whenever you can. I'm amazed at the opportunities that come out of the work I do on that parallel path. And while I'm working there, I'm a little free-er from the pressures of other people's expectations, is it on schedule? will somebody else like it? will it sell? we all have to give ourselves creative freedom.

Aside from all this other stuff, Auburn is just a lovely place to be in the fall.

And here's a place filled with lots of happy memories of art school. Biggin Hall. 1950.

And just on the opposite corner from Biggin, a tradition at Auburn, lemonade from Toomer's Drugs.

I was lucky to have some great professors to inspire me at Auburn. (that's Professor John Morgan to the left, I missed my chance to get pictures of Ross Heck or Ray Dugas) I rely on the solid foundation in graphic design training I got there, along with the opportunities to study other studio arts like printmaking (Charles Munday), painting, ceramics (Gary Wagoner) and photography. And who could get along without art history? The other great thing about art school at a big university like Auburn, is that you have ample opportunities to explore other fields of study like literature and writing, sociology, music, physics and I benefited from all of those. Among the working illustrators I've met over the years are many interesting, smart people with a lot going on in their imaginations; all those different classes, explorations and tangents can broaden your possibilities.

If you want to know more about the school, check out Auburn's new graphic design website designed by Professor Wei Wang.

And thanks to my husband (architect, webmaster, designer, photographer, editor, supporter) Clayton Daspit for taking all the pictures!!

Anna Maria on Martha!

Got my tivo ready to capture fellow artist and surtex friend Anna Maria Horner on THE Martha Stewart show today. And I can't wait to read her blog entry on the whole experience. Like up close...can you tell? can you see the bionics? Martha!!!