Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyrell Cannon.
Tyrell, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Like a lot of visual artists, I remember drawing from a very early age. I’d carry around little notebooks or pads of paper and always be drawing cartoons and movie scenes. I’ve been reading and making comics since I was 11 years old, after my dad took me to the comic book store for the first time. I was immediately hooked. As I progressed through school, art became a bigger and bigger part of my life, taking extra drawing and painting classes whenever I could. I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for my BFA, focusing on drawing, print media and film while I was there. Over the years, comics have remained the primary medium that I am constantly drawn to as a maker and audience member. I’ve been very fortunate to find a home within the Chicago comics scene, which is full of talented and diverse creators that inspire me regularly.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My overall goal is to create comics that are thoughtful, well-crafted, diverse in subject matter, and push the comics medium forward. More specifically, I’m primarily an illustrator. I create work on paper with pencil, pen, ink, brush, etc. Many of my works take their final form as a printed comic, art print, or digital booklet. I try to channel my visual influences into every illustration and comic I make, while also exploring different ideas and themes that are interesting to me at any given time.
Visually, I connect with everything from traditional sources (Albrecht Durer, Michelangelo, Rodin) to work created in my formative years (80’s-90’s movies and comics; films like Alien & Predator, early Image Comics, Calvin & Hobbes) to current independent comics (Liam Cobb, Anders Nilsen, Simon Roy). There’s tons of other influences like heavy metal and hip-hop music culture that seep into the work as well.
Thematically, every project has had its genesis in topics I’m reading or thinking about. I’ve created work about serial killers (Gary), philosophical ideas about creation and life (Simon), love (Speculative Relationships), human communication (Victus) and violence (Eris). I think the most central idea that flows through every piece is human connections and how they shape our individual experiences.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
The role of artists is still the same in the most basic sense: create work that causes the viewer to think critically and gain a deeper understanding of some aspect of the human experience. That of course changes over time as the issues facing us change.
What is really interesting to me currently is the proliferation of information and communication. I don’t think we were quite prepared socially for the internet. Every person is bombarded with more information than ever before. Differing opinions, tragedies across the globe, things to want, things to love, things to hate, things to buy, things to sell, places to go, images to see…
And none of us seem to be doing a very good job of regulating how we engage with this information. I’ve recently been thinking about how, as humans, we literally aren’t capable of taking in that much information and processing it in a healthy way. At least, not yet. It’s hard enough for most of us to deal with a sad day in our own lives, but we feel a pressure to care about and engage with sadness (or joy) from all over the world. On some level, we have lost some of our connection to our more immediate community, it’s well-being, and our place within it.
I guess this is all to say that perhaps the current task for artists is to help process the deluge of information at our fingertips in a meaningful way.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I am very active on social media: Twitter, Instagram, and (very soon) on Twitch- @tcannoncomics. I usually table at 3-5 comic conventions every year all around the country. My next two appearances will be at CAKE (Chicago, IL, June 2-3rd) and Rose City Comicon (Portland, OR, Sept 7-9)
My printed comics are available at many stores in Chicago such as: Quimby’s, Challengers Comics & Conversation, Chicago Comics, Graham Cracker Comics. You can also order most of my comics and prints from my website: www.tyrellcannon.com. I will be starting a Patreon soon, which will have new comics, live stream drawing events, tutorials, and audio podcasts.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tyrellcannon.com
- Email: tcannoncomics@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tcannoncomics/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TCannonComics
Image Credit:
All images by Tyrell Cannon
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