Artist Shout Outs: Artist Feature

Welcome to our first Artist Feature!

I'm hoping to weekly (or even more often) post interviews with special up and coming as well as seasoned artists. Our first artist is Teagan White of Chicago / Minneapolis who is currently an art student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. You can just tell by the quality and professionalism of her work that she is destined for great things with her art. Below is an interview I was fortunate enough to have with her via DeviantArt notes.

Our Interview...

How long have you been working as an artist? Have you been schooled in art at all?

I have enjoyed drawing for as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until high school that I started to consider art -- specifically graphic design -- as a career option. I took graphic design classes in high school and started at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design this fall.

I can see from your gallery that you work with a number of different media/mediums with your art, what is your favorite to work with and why?

I love experimenting with different media and having as many options as possible in creating my art. I think at this point I'm most familiar and comfortable with digital media, especially PhotoShop. As someone working primarily with print and web-based material, an understanding of Adobe programs is very important for me. However, I definitely don't neglect traditional media. I really enjoy acrylics and oils, though I don't have many finished paintings due to the time and money required to make a piece. I also used charcoal for the first time just last week, and fell in love with it; I definitely plan to do more charcoal work in the future.

Can you remember the first image you displayed publicly online or in real life? What was the general reaction?

I was only fourteen when I first started posting my art online, and the work was pretty terrible. The amount of attention it got was accordingly slim, but just having a few people pay attention definitely encouraged me to work harder. The main appeal for me with public art websites like deviantART is having much more advanced artists to look up to, and I truly believe my artistic growth was directly correlated with that influence.

What does art and the creation of it mean to you? Do you work fully as an artist, or do you do something else to pay the bills?

I think that art offers people the opportunity to more fully appreciate beauty in life. This works in two slightly different ways, depending on whether you're referring to fine art or design... I think that fine art calls attention to the beautiful things in the world, whereas design enhances it by bringing beauty into the sterile, man-made objects we fill our lives with. Keep in mind this is only the most shallow analysis of art; there are also emotional and conceptual issues involved.

I'm still in school, so that's my priority right now. But the majority of my income right now is from design and illustration based commission work. After college I hope to work in a design firm and not have to worry about piecing together a living from freelance work.

Your album art is especially eye catching. How did you get into illustrating and designing CD/Album art?

None of the album art on my deviantART page is published work, it was all just for my own enjoyment. However, it has resulted in multiple commissioned CD designs, some of which I'll be posting online fairly soon. For the most part I've been lucky enough to have very open-minded clients, who usually give me some direction as to what they want but leave the details largely up to me.

How would you describe your art? How have you developed your style over time? What influences helped get you to this point?

Since I like to try as many different mediums and styles as possible, I don't feel that I have a set stylistic identity at this point. However, I continually draw upon nature imagery such as trees and animals, and all of my work tends to have a soft and feminine color palette. My style has changed drastically over the past two years, as I spent the majority of my high school years focusing on an anime style of drawing. Though I no longer draw anime, I feel that the time I spent developing that style taught me a great deal about proportion, line quality, color, and many other elements which remain important in my work.

Are there any other artists you draw inspiration from, living or dead?

My favorite artist is realist painter Andrew Wyeth. However, I think that my inspiration comes more from artistic and cultural trends than the work of individuals. Art nouveau is a good example, and other than that I tend to be most inspired by contemporary art and design. The sort of stuff you find in magazines like Juxtapoz or CYMK.

Tell us about one of your favorite accomplishments as an artist and why it is so important to you.

I'm most proud of the typography I've done recently; I have two freeware fonts, Peach Sundress and Clementine Sketch, which are available on most major font sites. I never expected them to become as popular as they have, but they somehow have tens of thousands of downloads apiece, and I get tons of emails from people asking to use them for everything from school assignments to corporate logos. It's a good feeling to know I've made something that so many people enjoy and can actually use.

Do you have a website or etsy account where we can find you online? Are you open for commissions?

My official website is http://geocities.com/teagan.white/ but I update my deviantART account most often. I am currently open for commissions; the best way to contact me for commission work is by emailing teagan_white@hotmail.com.

What are your goals as an artist, short term and long term?

Where do you want to be with your art 5 or even 10 years from now?

I want to continue to explore as many types of art as possible, and also polish my design and illustration style. My long-term plans are to use my graphic design work in a design firm, and hopefully still have time to do traditional and personal artwork on the side. No matter where my future leads, I'm sure that art will be a very large part of it.

Contact Information...