When we were introduced to Shawn Huckins work we became instant fans. It pops aesthetically and just looks cool. Describing art as “looking cool” might sound a little elementary, but trying to be too articulate about art is a peeve of ours. Art doesn’t always need to be over defined, it can just be cool. You see a lot of Ed Ruscha in Huckins work; it’s a nice modern day head nod to one of our all time favorites and a big influence in Huckins style. Maybe our favorite thing about An American Revolution Revolution is how the whole concept came about. Read on for a great interview with Shawn and how his love for 18th century portraiture and insecurities about his ability to paint a proper face resulted into stellar originality.
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Serial Optimist: Where are you currently live and work?
Shawn Huckins: I recently moved from the east coast (Connecticut) to Denver, Colorado. I’ve spent my entire life on the east, being born and raised in New Hampshire going to college in Keene, NH and then getting my first job in Connecticut where I remained there for five years. Finally, my partner and I took the plunge and decided to move to some other part of the country to experience something new for at least a few years. So far, we both are enjoying it.
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SO: How would you describe your journey of becoming an artist?
Shawn Huckins: As a young kid, I had these small sketch books where I would draw what interested me at that time; which being a kid was Disney characters, my favorite sports players, and characters from video games. When my Grammie Huckins passed away in 1993, I was given her oil painting kit and I remember how much I enjoyed the smell of the paint. My first painting was of a New England style barn set in front of some trees and a blue sky. Of course it came out awful and I remember becoming so frustrated because I had no idea how the medium worked. At the time, I didn’t have the patience to wait for the paint to dry to do the next step. Drawing was much more productive and less messy. I didn’t really paint again until early college years when I tried oil paints again as it was required for art majors. Luckily, I had great, supportive teachers that showed me the ins and outs of painting and I started to really enjoy the medium. I switched to acrylic paint a few years later and haven’t turned back since. The only drawing I do now is the preliminary sketches for my paintings. For now, I’m exclusively a painter.
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SO: How this series come about? Really interesting work.
Shawn Huckins: This series American Revolution Revolution was a challenge brought indirectly by my cousin who called me out and said that I was very skilled at painting most things, most things except faces. And he was right! In my early work, I would always place an object that blocked the entire face because I was intimated by painting a face or any anatomical feature that revealed flesh. To prove him wrong, I started to practice by copying 18th century American portraiture because the faces were painted in a way that I found traditional, realistic, and monumental. Plus, I have an obsession for that time period in American history. Of course, the first few dozens were garbage and I would place them aside in pile and start another. One of the paintings that I threw out happen to land under a piece of tracing paper that had the acronym “LOL” written on it and beneath that piece of trace, you could see the crap reject painting.
Seeing that sparked an idea of not only how neat that looked visually, but also the juxtaposition of two completely different worlds—one that relies on hand written letters, formal communication, and a civil way of life versus our technology driven, priorities in the wrong places, obsessed with a Snookie kind of society. So I started painting text acronyms over the parts of the face I could not get right or got too frustrated with and it just evolved into something much greater. I like to think my face painting skills have grown since I started, and now I’m a little more confident to reveal more and more of the face.
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SO: Who inspires you artistically?
Shawn Huckins: I think it’s pretty evident that Edward Ruscha inspires me the most. I just love, love, love his work and although my work may appear to be similar in aesthetics, I believe it stands by its own with its own statement. But also, other artists that inspire my work are John Singleton Copley with his life like portraits that could come to life at anytime, and also works by Wayne Thiebaud for his brilliant use of color.
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SO Note: All works are owned by Shawn Huckins. For more information and more work from Shawn, go to his site shawnhuckins.com.
