Whitney Sherman

Among her awards and exhibitions, she has been recognized by AIGA, the Society of Illustrators (New York and Los Angeles), American Illustration, Print, and Communication Arts.  Her work has been shown in the US and abroad [London, Tokyo, Jerusalem and West Germany]. Sherman has the ability to transcend boundaries, both in her visual correspondence, and in her involvement with the industry. She likes to break boundaries in her work exampled in projects like her painted ceramics and recent one-of-a-kind vinyl toy for the Vinylmore show at Atomic Pop in Baltimore this March. Talking with her feels at once like talking with a good friend as it feels like discussing art theory with one of “the greats”. Her humility is charming while her straightforward opinions are notable and honorable. This month, Sherman shares her ideas, passions, and opinions with the same kindness and clarity used to discuss her industry, her craft, and her time spent giving back with Design:Related.

Please define the term, “designer” and how it relates to your artistic identity and your work.

Well, the word designer, if looked at broadly, talks about someone who orders things randomly or by a rationale, someone who may creates sensibility, and hierarchy and so on. If I look at aspects of work I have made, I see design done for print or graphic design. I also see the design aspect of making an illustration, from the 2D design or composition of the piece to integrating letterforms. In my photography work, I see design happening in the observation through the “lens”; This means not just how the world is cropped down, but when I choose to push the shutter, what moment is captured.

How do you find inspiration?

Inspiration is a funny thing. I don’t think I have a constant source that I go to for it. In the introduction for my retrospective show, Venn Diagram, I wrote that I am inspired by things like hardware stores. This is probably because first, I like hardware stores and second, because they are a place where a number of disparate parts exist together. I love the functionality of things you find there and the beauty of common objects. I also like to work with my hands, so the materials there also represent manual work as an inevitable part of any purchase made there. In terms of the more rarefied influences, I like way too much to select one or two.
I will say that I am becoming more sensitive to landscape work, in all media, because of my husband. Before we met, I couldn’t have given a wit about them, but when we would go to museums, me to the figurative work and he to the landscapes, I thought “why not try to find out what is so fascinating to him”. So I stood next to him in front of a small Corot and asked him to tell me what he saw. This really opened my eyes to a new world. I think this process would work well with a number of other things human’s do.

You trained as a photographer but are self-taught in illustration and design – do you feel that this unique background sets you apart from others in your field? If so, how?

I hope it does. I believe I have a very strong sense of 2D design. Framing up imagery “through a lens” requires a good bit of fine attention to relationships and to an overall sensibility. That said, sometimes my awareness of photography and love of specific photographers work can cause me to think of photography as a solution (because it feels right for that situation), rather than illustration. Years ago, when my illustration work was more realistic, I relied on photography as research for accuracy. Now I feel I have a good library of images in my head and my drawings are less about proportional accuracy and more about dynamics and visual puzzles.
I do think that having training in one area, then working in another helps draw out the similarities and differences. It makes you relate things [in ways that] you wouldn’t without that exposure.

Your work is concept based and is complimented by retaining the sensitivity of the human connection. Please describe your creative process.

I like to look at pretty pictures as much as the next person, but when it comes to one’s own work, each of us is driven by forces only we can determine for ourselves. These are the things we have to work with. I’m driven by a desire to make sense of things, to sort out meaning from things. I have to come to an understanding. With me, this process of sorting out actually brings rise to a lot of unusual juxtapositions. The parts that come out of the sorting need to be put back together, and in that process, I puzzle out how shapes can go together, what kind of shorthand I can use to convey an idea or message.
To solve image problems, I usually read a manuscript, choose words or phrases that strike me as either significant to the story or ring in my ear. Then I look (in my head or other place) for imagery that relates and I begin building my image. Some things stay, others go. It’s really a lot of monkeying around because I find the best unintended stuff there. Those unusual or unexpected things are joyous. I can get really excited about this part of the process.

One example was doing the Breast Cancer Research stamp, where I had done a good number of sketches, none of which was exactly right. I’d been focusing too much on showing femaleness and modesty of the breast. When I had to chuck it all and start fresh, I started thinking along [the] lines of economy of figure to make it as large as possible, on saying more with less and on a deeper message. The first stage work shed away a lot of the debris to get to this kernel of an idea. When I struck on mythology as an archetype, I got not only the femaleness, but much more cultural meaning [;] stuff that didn’t need a lot of explaining. The need for visual economy helped me decide on a posture, which was inspired first by a drawing of a relief of a Greek women dancing, playing with tambourines overhead, but then was inspired by women doing breast self-exams. The convergence of these two things created a strikingly simple yet powerful image.

I’m not sure why I like the figure, perhaps because it broadcasts more emotion. It’s said that our primary focus as babies is on images of the faces. So I guess I’m still stuck in this primary stage of interest.

You are extensively involved in the creative community. Please describe how you feel this informs your role as an artist.

I’m a real believer in volunteerism, I like to get out of the studio to be around people and teach what I know. It wasn’t always like this. I can recall saying I would never teach, but that was before I had done it, so clearly I had no idea what I was talking about. I’m curious about how things work and perhaps this curiosity drives me to get into things I know nothing about to see how it works, then after a while I find out how much I love it. There’s never been a real plan to all of this, but now I think I do volunteer because I can recognize a direct benefit to myself. For this reward, I’m willing to work. So my selfish act becomes selfless because in the end someone else also gets something out of my efforts. Volunteering also gives me a network of people with whom I wouldn’t know otherwise. The Illustration Conference ICON5 and Society of Illustrators Educators Symposium are like doing professional networking “weight training”. Builds strong muscle. MICA is not volunteering but I get to fulfill my autocratic tendencies, have my finger on the pulse of young aspiring talent in my department and brush elbows with professional grade artists from all disciplines. I also get to collaborate on projects.

How has the industry has changed (for better or worse) throughout your career?

If it didn’t change it would be dead. Change is inevitable. Once you take the worry out of whether change is a good or bad thing, then you can get on with your decision of whether you want to be involved. When I first started out I had about 5 different ways I would make images. It happened naturally and the different “eyes” made sense for where they were being used, so I was happy with this. I also felt I wouldn’t get pigeonholed or type cast. These days I have fewer directions I go in. It’s just the way things have worked out. I do tend to get a certain kind of work, serious humanistic or psychological subjects like death, relationships, depression, psychosis, and esoteric subjects like law, language, and financial issues. I’ve been told by art directors that they can rely on me to make great images for their hard-to-illustrate stories. So I guess even though I have worked in a lot of different areas professionally, I’m a specialist of sorts.
One way the industry has changed is the force of authorship embraced by illustrators. Illustrators are carving out markets for themselves and taking the driver’s seat in producing. This initiative is empowering and has set a new standard for up and coming artists. They’ll be using that platform and the economic and technological influences to make something we can’t really see right now. I’m pretty excited about the future, because we are in a vast revolution. The arc of which we are barely able to see now.

As an artist, how do you identify success?

Success happens on a lot of levels, depending on the day. Sometimes it is a survival level as in surviving a project I generated myself or was given to me by someone else. Surviving the pitfalls, just like in everyday life. Other times success is the contentment of exceeding my goals. Being able to generate income that allows either material goods or time to make more of whatever I want is certainly another success mark for me. My success is only tied to others like clients being happy which means I got their communication and they got mine. This happens when my clients and I click on things that are important to me: enjoying our work together, feeling inspired by the collaboration, compelling ideas. That makes a difference.

• More on Vinylmore
• A Podcast with Whitney Sherman on Illustration Mundo