This interview is a must read! We
are thrilled to be able to talk with Professor Robert Barrett of BYU.
Being the head of the BYU
Illustration
Area he has nurtured a prestigious program with his fellow
faculty, which has fed all of the artistic industries with fabulous
artists. To name a few companies/jobs his alumni work for/as are
Blizzard, Riot Games, Pixar, Disney, Cricut Games,
university Art and Design Professors,
winners of national illustration competitions and children's book
artists. He is a veteran artist of 30 years plus, he works with oils, acrylic, pastels among others. He masterfully pioneered the pastel painting figure drawing and the pull out technique. He has illustrated numerous books, some which are children's books and a book about President Barack Obama, entitled Obama: Only in America, written by Carole Boston Weatherford. He has exhibited at numerous art museums, galleries, and universities - what a treat to get his perspective, advice and insight.
Kim: Hi Robert Barrett, we where wondering if you could answer some questions for our students.
Bob: Yes, sounds good
Kim: What are the main things that inspire you as an artist. What gives you ideas?
Bob: Well there are a lot of things
probably. I do like drawing a lot and life drawing. Nature is great and
looking at the work of other artists. That can be very inspirational or
discouraging!
Kim: Yes!
Bob: It depends on which artist you look at right!
Kim: Definitely, I can relate to that! What are somethings that you consider that makes a good teacher? A mark of a good teacher in art?
Bob: I had some good teachers along the way and some that were not so great but,
first of all, I think
that a teacher has to be interested in you and your progress. One of big
influences that I talk a bit about in my book is a teacher that I had
at the University of Utah called Alvin Gittens.
He was willing to be in the
class with us all the time when a lot of other teachers were not. And he
demoed a lot and he would give us demos that he had done you know,
which were inspirational. And he was great, he painted
dignitaries up and down the Wasatch front and members of the first
Presidency, a couple of Apostles and some Presidents of the University
of Utah. So he wasn't a slacker in terms of his own skill set but he was
very interested in students. He kind of considered
teaching a moral act and if you shouldered that burden then you had to
give it your very best. But I think some of my teachers looked at it
(their teaching jobs) as their
own kind of meal ticket to do their own art work and they weren't so
interested in the students but they were very interested in the
paycheck.
Kim: So do you think some of the qualities of teaching is to be really invested in teaching the students?
Bob: I think so and I think you have to asses where they are and what they need. And,you know, provide the right opportunity to them so they can become
motivated, if they are not, or
to stay motivated if they are motivated. And so, at least at BYU, we have been trying to bring in guest artists and we have been really blessed in the last few years to have
a lot more revenue and resource to bring in 7 artists this past academic year. There are some pretty top names
artists too - both in illustration
and figurative painting. We had David Wiesner here. He is the Caldecott
Award-winning artist. We had
Zhaoming Wu who is a Chinese figurative painter and Heather Thuerer who is an amazing
LDS artist who we had up from Las Vegas. We had some other great figurative painters and illustrators and sometimes we bring in an art director like Soojin Buzelli who talked to the students about how to promote themselves. We also have a really great group of former students - alumni - who we can choose from. We have some like Michael Parker who has been with us for several years, and,more recently, Chris Creek to teach our professional practices class - he did well in that class. We tell all our adjuncts that we really appreciate all their work because we don't pay them what they are worth. But they are all more interested in teaching and giving back than they are in a paycheck so that is nice. We take them out to lunch or we bring lunch in and we invited them all to the Christmas party in December with their spouses. So little things that show them that we really appreciate them. But anyway I think if you want committed, interested and motivated students you have to be that way as a teacher.
LDS artist who we had up from Las Vegas. We had some other great figurative painters and illustrators and sometimes we bring in an art director like Soojin Buzelli who talked to the students about how to promote themselves. We also have a really great group of former students - alumni - who we can choose from. We have some like Michael Parker who has been with us for several years, and,more recently, Chris Creek to teach our professional practices class - he did well in that class. We tell all our adjuncts that we really appreciate all their work because we don't pay them what they are worth. But they are all more interested in teaching and giving back than they are in a paycheck so that is nice. We take them out to lunch or we bring lunch in and we invited them all to the Christmas party in December with their spouses. So little things that show them that we really appreciate them. But anyway I think if you want committed, interested and motivated students you have to be that way as a teacher.
Kim: So going back into your history a little bit, what first made you want to become an artist?
Bob: Well I grew up in a home where I had
parents who both drew and painted. My dad was an engineer, actually a
mining engineer, but mid-career switched into the aerospace industry.
His drawings were always
a bit technical and he would copy old master drawings
and paintings. He passed away just 6 weeks ago and we
are just going through the home and
my siblings kinda tasked me with rounding up all the art. So I have a big portfolio sitting on the sofa that has 60
+ water colors and several
pastel and pencil drawings that my Dad did. So I kind of grew up with
them and my Mom was very creative. They both were but my Mom encouraged
us to be very creative. I grew up in Moab,
Utah, and my Dad was involved with
the uranium/mining part of that, but my mom would go out plein-air painting. We had oil paintings stacked in our front closet, and
I remember opening the door to that
closet and thinking that those kinds of things were magical. My mom taught what was called Cultural
Refinement lessons in Relief
Society back in those days, and she taught about Mark Twain
and Shakespeare, and other great authors and she would enlist my dad and
they would do illustrations for the lessons. And sometimes
these were pretty involved you know. My dad I remember him
doing the Witches of Endor
from Macbeth and Hamlet holding Yorick's skull. My mom would do different ones like characters from Love's Labour's
Lost and Measure for Measure, different plays like that. Other kids in
the family also grew up around the art making - my older brother is a
mathematician so he didn't really pursue it, my younger brother that
went into computer science and he can draw pretty
well, and my sister also draws and paints.
Kim: So you have a very diverse skill set in your family.
Bob: Yeah, I was reading a letter
that I came across of my Mom's last night and they moved in to a home in
the country up in Salt Lake when she was 14. They moved in to the home
when it wasn't finished and there was a wall in her
bedroom and she was so thankful that they let her draw all over the
wall. I remember her telling me that but I actually saw an old photo of
the wall and it was literally covered from ceiling to floor with
drawings. She wrote in this letter that she appreciated
parents that would allow her to be that creative.
Kim: That is awesome, maybe I should let my kids draw all over their walls!
Bob: I was collecting up some of her
drawings and paintings and, oh my gosh, there were just piles and piles
of construction paper and all kinds of materials, paint brushes,
acrylics and she did ceramics for years and things like
that. There is a ton of that - she has 23 grand children and 13 grand
daughters so I said going through her watercolors that if anyone is
interested you can have 2 or three of her originals and you can frame it
how you want to. My daughter just got here from
New York last night and I told her we would likely give her a couple of
those watercolors - she thought that would be really special.
Kim: That is amazing
that it runs in your family and you have such a wealth of things to
share with one another. I was going to ask you what do you think has
contributed to your success as an artist? What
kind of qualities do you think you have?
Bob: I think you have
to have good ideas and then I think you have to execute them well. You
have to pay attention to craftsmanship and attention to technique and
composition. But I think having skill is
great - we can teach students to draw but then they have to come up
with interesting ideas. Tell stories in interesting and compelling ways.
Know how to light them, using value, work with all the principles and
elements of design which allows them to convey
their stories or ideas in powerful ways. Probably not unlike a musician
or writer who want to communicate their ideas. In a different form they
have to have skill I think and its my bias because I know some
conceptual artists don't put that much value on skill
but my bias is that its really important.
Kim: Is there anything through school or meeting people that has helped you move forward in your career?
Bob: I think
you have to have persistence - right? I think you have to have a vision
of where you want to go. I have a friend called
Sam Adoquei who wrote a book “How
Successful
Artists
Study”. He
is from Ghana where there was no opportunity to study art, but he was
able to go to Paris and study art there and then came to America where
he could hardly speak English. He settled
here and started teaching at the National Academy. Its a really a
remarkable story and embodies a lot of elements of persistence and
vision. At the beginning of the book Sam says every student has the
ability to become as successful as they can envision themselves
becoming. Which I think is probably true for other disciplines as well.
What drives someone to become an Olympic gold medal winner? What's in
it for them? - It's not always about the money - they are driven by a
vision of excellence and by seeing what they
can achieve. So I think you have to have some kind of desire and
conviction. You have to also not be worried about making mistakes and
realize you can say "I will move forward." I
remember when I was in undergraduate school,
I was in a class where we were going make it or break it on the
completion of one large painting. I had worked on it for 3 weeks -
there will be 3 models simultaneously posing. I was working along on the
painting and thought things were working pretty well
and our instructor came along and tore it out from underneath me. He
just said, "Everywhere I look, all I see is over-modeling - It's
over modeled horribly." I remember being so upset that day - but I knew
he was right
and I really had faith in his judgement but I realized then it made me
very uncomfortable! I remember thinking to myself I would not do that
again. - make the mistake of over- modeling.
So I worked really hard not to do
that again. I think sometimes being uncomfortable is more beneficial
than being patted on the back and being told how great you're doing.
Right after I started teaching at BYU I went to a work shop in the
Caribbean with great illustrators like Robert Peak
who did all those amazing movie posters. I had the chance to show my
portfolio to him and he "cut me off at the knees" but it was really good
in the end. I remember going back to my hotel room and writing down
what he had said. He didn't pull any punches and
I thought "good for you" - "thanks for your honesty!" and I tried
really hard later to incorporate things that he said into my work.
Learning how to group things together, learning how to be a better
designer. I don't think I was really that aware of shape,
so after that critique - man, did I start thinking about shape.
Kim: If you had a young person in front of you and they were just starting out as an artist, what would your advice be?
Bob: First of
all, I might ask them why they want to be an artist. Secondly I might
ask what they want to do with their art. What do you want to say? Do
they want to tell stories or do they want to be more
expressive, more intuitive, and I would try to point them in some
directions that I think would be helpful. I have students come in all
the time who want to get into the Illustration Program and you know what
its like. It's a very competitive program and we
turn a lot of students away but the ones that get in are often the ones
that have the drive and the motivation to keep going. And often our
best students are those who come back and try a second time. I might say
that you have to love art but I would say you
have to put a lot work, passion, and drive into what you do.
Kim: Definitely - this has been wonderful. Thank you so much Bob, this has been so fun to catch up and get some of your insight.
Robert T Barrett currently heads up BYU BFA Illustration Program. He lives in Utah with his family
You can take a look at his work further here at www.roberttbarrett.com
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