Today we’d like to introduce you to Wyatt Grant.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Wyatt. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve made art from a very young age, so from a social and personal sense it’s always been a part of how I function. As a young person, I was always looking for ways to stay creatively occupied. I started as an artist making drawings and comic books for friends when I was a kid. It was always challenging to me and gave way to interesting and fun conversations. This kind of engaging exchange still seems familiar to me, as most of what I do today is both communicative and interested in staying in the “creative state”.
It’s safe to say that I had excessive enthusiasm for art/ making when I was a kid, which I find I have in common with a lot of art peers. All the way through high school I sought out ways to extend the reach of what I could do in this vein, so I made zines, started bands, compiled tons of sketchbooks, etc. Looking back, the way I started making work was a bit nonsensical and kind of “roleplaying” what it would be like if I were a Dadaist, or a graffiti writer, or a zine publisher, or a type designer, but in reality just living with my parents in the Memphis suburbs..
After high school, I moved to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, interested in their emphasis of encouraging an “interdisciplinary” art practice. Outside of school, living in Chicago has exposed me to so much, specifically events and institutions in the community like Brain Frame, LVL3 gallery, DIY art galleries and music venues, Quimbys, the Chicago Poster community, etc. These people and places helped me gain my footing as an artist and majorly shaped my perspective.
It’s been a journey in itself to gain roots as an artist outside of school. The “real world” learning curve seems to be very common in pursuing this career path, but of course it varies from person to person how the rubber meets the road. At the moment, I’m regularly taking commissions, doing design work, and staying busy in the studio practice… which is more or less what I’ve always done, it has just gained momentum and scaled outwards. It doesn’t make for an incredible story, but I’m happy to have stuck with it and gained a lot of support over time.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been challenging at times for sure. In a practical sense, it can be an uphill battle to keep things rolling, especially while working a day job and juggling multiple opportunities. There’s also the internal struggle of managing your efforts, taking risks, accepting and moving on from failure, etc. I’m lucky to have a lot of positive examples in my life, art and non-art peers and role models who help me tremendously. These people have helped me overcome any crisis from “no one needs my art” to “am I an artist or a designer” and so on! At the end of the day, I’m a pretty optimistic person and feel very lucky to do what I’m doing.
Wyatt Grant – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am an artist who works between a variety of mediums; usually painting, drawing, and print media. Sometimes my work is seen more in a “fine art” realm, and sometimes a “design” or “illustrative” realm which is cool, too! I have recently been commissioned to design murals, posters, shirts, prints, album covers, etc., but I also maintain a studio art practice, working between paper, canvas and sometimes sculpture. Having a practice that extends to design applications opens up room for frequent collaboration, which puts me in increasingly unique scenarios.
For example, in the studio I’ve been doing a lot of line drawings in India ink. I was recently asked to do a design for a t-shirt and ended up scanning parts of these drawings to create a larger scene that ended up being the final product. The relationship between the “end products” when working on my own vs. working with someone else has become more of a singular holistic practice. I’ve started approaching commissioned/ collaborative work with a studio art approach and studio art in a way that I’m prompting myself before a project much like a client would.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Finishing a recent mural up at the Warbler was a very good one. I’ve known them for a while and it was really gratifying to add something to their new venture, especially on Lincoln Avenue.
Contact Info:
- Website: wyattgrant.com
- Phone: 901-517-7219
- Email: wygrant@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wygrant/?hl=en
Image Credit:
Kerri O’Malley
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