It's one thing to develop precision as a painter, but it's an entirely larger undertaking to translate that into words and teach others that expertise. However, many of the greatest painters have also been formal and informal teachers, which is part of why you may be on this website right now. Shawn Powell's paintings have a dizzying level of precision, requiring him to draw from both natural talent and countless hours of practice. As an assistant professor of painting at Kent State University's School of Art, he passes along his knowledge of the hints and skills required to make a mark in painting's timeless dialogue. In anticipation of this summer's Kent Blossom Art Intensives, of which he will be the resident painting instructor, we wanted to learn more about his story as an artist and teacher. 

Powell Shawn Beach Balls

Juxtapoz: Your work seems to be inspired by classic illustrations, what art were you into as a child? Do you have any vivid memories of visual art that struck you?
Shawn Powell: Growing up in rural Missouri in the 80's and early 90's, I didn't have a lot of exposure to art. I went to my first art museum when I was about 18 or 19 years old, so the visual information that I was influenced by when I was a child were videos games, cassette or c.d. covers, movies, and television. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years making drawings by copying the comic books I would find at my local grocery store, so my illustrative roots start there. I was always drawn to the images on Magic the Gathering cards, too. I suppose this type of mainstream imagery is subconsciously part of my aesthetic since it was the extent of my visual vocabulary during my formative years. Even today I always have comic books or graphic novels lying around the studio.

I still vividly remember the first trip I took to an art museum-the St. Louis Art Museum-while in community college. I recall Gerhard Richter's "Betty" and "November, December, January." I was mesmerized by how one artist could make such vastly different work. They have a Kay Sage painting there, too, which I marveled at, and to this day revisit each time I'm back in St. Louis. That trip really shifted the way I thought about art and artists, laying the groundwork for my exploration into painting as a profession. While at the Kansas City Art Institute I often went to the Nelson Atkins Museum to look at Caravaggio's "Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness," along with an early 19th century Sebastian Pether painting titled "The Eruption of Vesuvius." The Richter, Sage, Caravaggio, and Pether are quite different paintings made in very different times, but I think one of the things they all have in common is the mystery each of the works possesses and proposes to the viewer, something that I investigate in my paintings, too.

Movies have also always been really influential to me. I research Cinema often and I've taught classes that investigate painting through the lens of cinematic imagery. I wrote a condensed screenplay in tandem with a recent body of work, and am working on a new narrative to accompany my current paintings. I think about cinematic devices when I construct my paintings. I consider camera angles, depth of field, and the camera's point of view when I create compositions. I also believe that movie posters can be very sophisticated. With a movie poster, you have to grab the viewer's attention, give them a sense of the narrative and the experience, while not giving away too much information. Those posters have to make a heavy impact on the viewer in a very short period of time so that the passerby remembers the film in such a way that they are willing to spend two hours of their time to go see it, and all of this is done with one static image. Paintings in a gallery setting are really no different, and at their best, function in a similar fashion.

Slow Dissolve

When did you start using airbrushing techniques in your work? What prompted that?
When I was an undergrad in the early 2000s, I landed a job for a company that painted theme park rides, haunted houses, laser tag arenas, and dark rides. I worked with them as a freelance artist for several years and traveled around the world painting immersive spaces. After I was introduced to the basics of the airbrush, basically just how to turn it on and clean it, I taught myself how to use it. It was such a fast-paced profession that I had to figure it out on the fly, and later used it in my own work during graduate school. I airbrush more sparingly now, but it's still a part of my practice. I guess I brought it into my paintings because I was working with gradients and it seemed a little silly not to use these tools and techniques I had in my repertoire, and I couldn't conceptualize a reason that I needed to make the gradients by hand anymore.

How long have you been teaching art? What's something you enjoy about teaching art that you can't get from just making it?
I've been teaching art at the university level for about eleven years or so. It's a very rewarding activity, and it keeps me sharp. The conversations I have with my undergraduate and graduate students continuously reinvigorate my interest in the creative process. It forces me to keep up with contemporary theory, criticism, and the everchanging landscape of the art world. It also holds me accountable. When I go to my studio after a long day or week of teaching, I have to practice all of the things that I have been making my students do. I feel it keeps me young (ish). There is something about seeing a young artist struggle, and then have that “aha” moment, and it constantly reminds me where I started, and how those little discoveries must continue to be a part of my own studio practice in order to keep my work from becoming stale or complacent.

Squiggle Bend Glide

What topics do you focus on in your summer intensive course at Kent State? How is the class set up curriculum-wise?
The Kent Blossom Art Intensives are a very unique educational experience. I'm the resident instructor for the Painting: Individual Investigations section this summer and will be working with undergraduate students, graduate students, and artists wanting to take the intensive for non-credit. It's a two-week intensive where participants will be in the studio working on their own ideas and processes. It's a mix between an artist residency, individual tutorial meetings, and graduate seminar. For the undergraduates, I really try to cultivate their own voice and help them find clarity in their work even if that's just helping them figure out what they like and why, along with improving their technical abilities. For the graduate students and non-degree seeking artists enrolled in the course, it's more about asking them complex questions regarding the motives and processes they are utilizing and trying to get them to focus while also experimenting. We achieve this through individual meetings, in-progress critiques, group critiques, and through lectures and demonstrations that investigate the history of painting and contemporary art. The participants are required to be in the studio 9 am-5 pm every day including the weekends, and they have access to the studios outside of those times as well. An important part of the Blossom Intensives is the gift of undistracted time in the studio. Without other class obligations or job responsibilities getting in the way, they are able to make a large body of work investigating their own ideas and concepts. It's going to be an energetic and immersive experience that allows participants to see what it's like being a professional studio artist. There is a wide range of students in the intensive, which makes for a great community.

We will also have two visiting artists coming in this summer, Holly Coulis and Patrick Berran. They will be here to give lectures on their work, meet with students on an individual basis, and provide group critiques of student work. It's an excellent opportunity for students to receive advice and have intimate, candid conversations with successful artists working in the medium of painting. There are plenty of other lectures taking place in ceramics, jewelry/metals/enameling, glass, textiles, sculpture and expanded media, and printmaking that participants can also attend. I'm also planning on taking the participants to the Akron Art Museum to see the Mernet Larsen exhibition on view there, which will be an excellent opportunity to speak about painting in front of paintings, which is always a must.

With Hallucinatory Precision

What was the last show you went to that left an impact on you?
I went to EXPO Chicago this past fall and was able to catch the Hairy Who? 1966-1969 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was a really refreshing show. I've been a fan of Jim Nutt's work, but seeing his work alongside Gladys Nilsson, Suellen Rocca, Karl Wirsum, and the rest of that group, was quite remarkable given the scale and scope of the exhibition. Their work is so wacky, yet considered and brings together pop, abstraction, illustration, humor and the abject. I think I'm drawn to their work partly because of how eclectic it is.

How do you think living somewhere like Kent, that's less metropolitan than, say, New York, has helped you grow as an artist? You still show all over too, have you found the change to be easier than you may have expected?
I only just moved to Kent, Ohio last July, and we moved from Brooklyn after living in New York for thirteen years or so. The pace is certainly different, and I think the slower pace has helped my practice and has allowed me the time to really focus in the studio. And it's really inexpensive here. I feel like most of the conversations I had with artists while in New York was about how hard it was to be there: how everything was too expensive, how you have to have multiple jobs to make it all work, which gave you less time in the studio, that you had to move from studio to studio every couple of years because the space was going to be torn down or the rent was doubled. I don't have to worry about that now and can focus on spending my energy researching and making work, which the university is really supportive of. I'm able to work at a very large scale here, which is something that is more difficult to do in New York. I think I have about thirty canvases started in the studio now, so I have a lot of energy in there. However, I do miss that banter a bit. There is an energy to New York, even in how difficult it is, and every artist should live in a place like that for a certain period of time.

I try to go back to New York every couple of months to keep in touch, see friends, and visit galleries and museums. That's the great thing about Kent's location, I can drive to New York or Chicago in about six to seven hours. There are also great things happening in nearby Akron, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, which are all a short drive away. I was worried that having access to great art and fresh ideas may be an issue, but, if anything, the time and lack of economic constraints has allowed me to have more quality encounters with art and the art world since I've been here. Plus, I have really great colleagues here at KSU that are very well in tune with the art world, and have provided me with the level of criticality that I need to keep my work moving forward. Acclimating to life outside of New York has been a lot easier than I expected, but that's also because I still try to get there quite often, and when I do it's like I never left.