Interview with Young Artist Shannon Corgan
By Renee Childs
Youth Be Heard interviews inspire young artists and writers to share their stories. In a recent Instagram poll, Shannon was selected as one of our audience’s favorite young artists. I learned a lot from a fun deep-dive into abstract painting.
YBH: Where are you at in life?
I’m a fun cat mom. I’m 21. I live alone in my own home with my two kitties. I paint and I plant my flowers and I put my gnomes outside. I clean and work on the windows and vacuum and all that. I write. I’m a very scheduled person.
I’m in my senior year of my bachelor’s degree at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. But I took a semester off because of COVID. I also manage a restaurant in town.
YBH: Wow, that’s a big job. How is managing a restaurant?
I really enjoy it. I feel calm at work. I know what to do and what has to be done, and there isn’t anything else to worry about. When I’m off work and I don’t have a plan, I get anxious because there are endless possibilities at all times.
YBH: Tell me about you as an artist.
I’m into drama and am in the theatre club. Very theatrical. I’ve used comedy as a coping mechanism for sadness. I was always the class clown. I’ve always been the loud one that said weird stuff, that made people laugh. I’ve gotten in trouble a lot as a kid for making inappropriate jokes. I’ve always been a jokester. And I am very influenced by modern-day stand-up comedians.
Being an artist is about more than painting something or creating a mug. And if I was on this Earth and I woke up and there were no more canvases or paint, I would freak out. But I would still be an artist. I would still bring that artist’s perspective toward everything. When I listen to music or watch a show, I pick it apart and think about the production and how they shot it, and you bring the artist thing to whatever you’re doing.
YBH: You mentioned that you work hard on color theory… how do you use it?
If I were speaking to someone who doesn’t know much, I would say just take out of your brain that people say there are colors–“red, blue, green, pink…” there are so many colors that they cannot be described as the ones we say every day, as everyday colors. I would say to people, get the connotation around color out of their head. If you want to create a space and a feeling and an atmosphere, the colors are what’s going to do that for you. It’s not just color. It’s the brilliance and brightness and value and general pigmentation. The way the color is, if it’s matte, shiny, or glossy… what medium you put in your paint–and I’m talking about oil paint. I think you never stop learning about color theory. I think it’s just like any physical theory. I use a limited palette now. Throughout the years, it seems I have used way too much color. It’s hard to explain, but I guess I’m a little too critical of myself. I never used to limit my palette, but now I’m trying to create a more cohesive atmosphere and a distinct color palette to me.
But I don’t think I’m there. I don’t think I’m close even. I think I’ve gotten a lot better. It’s something I’ve really worked on and thought about a lot. There are a lot of podcasts: mindfulness in abstract expression. The artists that I look up to generally have a distinct color palette… this distinct style. I think it looks professional. Everything is cohesive. Whenever you look at this particular artist’s work, you know what you’re going to get. For an audience member, if they like you they like you. It’s not just “they like this piece.” I try not to worry about that too much, and just create. But I do think about my color palette.
YBH: How limited is your color palette? What is an example of limiting your color palette?
Sienna, yellow ocher, sap green, cambium yellow (only in small areas), titanium white… I don’t use black unless it’s a pencil or some type of line work. I don’t use black paint. If I want to create a dark color, I mix complements of the other colors I use. For example, if there’s a living room with a lot of different colors and you turn a light off, but then you turn a pink light on and everything has this pink hue, everything has this similar color going on. Whenever you create that on a painting, if you have even a tiny color that doesn’t make sense, you would just look at it and just know it doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t fit with the atmosphere of the rest of the painting. That can be cool though if you want it to stand out.
YBH: What materials have you tried and liked/ why?
I use everything. String, fabric, fishnets, spray paint, wall paint. I really like house paint on wood, I like the texture. I learned a lot about different mediums in school. And I am a big fan of texture and pattern so I really like fabric, string, and nails. Pretty much, I’ll try anything.
YBH: What’s your favorite medium?
Oil. I don’t think anything compares. The intensity of color that you can create, the number of mediums. A lot of paints are water-based… so watercolor is the same as acrylic, except acrylic is way more pigmented with less water. Spray paint you experience fast drying times… oil paint, you have a very large variety of things you can do with the mediums you put in and you have a long period for drying so you can work on it and create textures on top of one another. My paintings are usually layer after layer after layer. Oil paint mediums are like liquin, linseed oil, and modeling oil–all the different things you can mix to have glossy or a faster drying time. It’s just way livelier on the canvas than acrylic. But I use acrylic as my base for my paintings as my initial wash.
YBH: How do you know when you’re done?
You just kind of know. When I step away from it and I think that’s all I needed to do. I can definitely tell when a painting’s not finished.
YBH: What percentage of your art are you happy with?
I always could have done better. I always learn from every single painting. I am satisfied with probably 50%.
YBH: What do you do with the art you don’t like?
I’m still happy about it, I share it with the world. I don’t hide it. Well sometimes I do and I say, that painting is trash and I paint over it. A lot of people have liked the paintings that I absolutely hate.
I’ve found that having a background in realism is almost detrimental to abstract.
YBH: Who are your favorite contemporary artists?
My top guy is Post Modern Tony B. I found him through Instagram. I reached out to him on IG and he keeps up with me. He creates these weird messed-up cat drawings and they are absolutely gorgeous.
Deborah Bowen. She’s not very well known… but her work is very similar.
Sarah Gayle Carter… she’s a very big landscape inspiration, I really love her color palettes and abstract landscapes.
It’s good to see where people are and what they are doing because that inspires me.
Do you sell your art?
I sell originals on Instagram and I’m featured in the Contemporary Art Gallery in St. Louis, where paintings are for purchase.
YBH: How did you get set up with being in a gallery?
That is a fun story. I was just walking in the Delmar Loop in St. Louis and I saw this old fella in a director’s chair smoking a cigarette outside of an art gallery, and I said: “that guy is an artist. I need to go talk to him.” He was sitting near a woman who said, “oh go in sweetie, we are doing some renovations, but go ahead.” I saw this painting that I loved so much that I started crying in my mask. She saw me and said, “oh sweetie you’re an artist. Let’s talk about it.” She invited me to be part of an art fair they had outside and I’ve been in their gallery ever since.
YBH: What advice would you give to other young artists?
Don’t get so mad at your art teacher. Your art was probably bad and you needed to know.
I’m so thankful that I had art teachers that were bold and were not afraid to make me cry, because I needed to cry about it. And I needed to be emotionally triggered by it almost. One of my art teachers told me if you haven’t cried in art school, you aren’t doing it right. And it was helpful to hear that because there were times that I was crying my eyes out and I wondered if anyone else felt that way. It was helpful to know I wasn’t alone. But you’re going to get through it.
But you can’t just rely on your teachers, you have to be your own teacher. You have to create your own lectures and be critical of yourself and teach yourself. You’ve got to be able to make some decisions for yourself.
YBH: Tell us about painting “Instrumentals of home”… it’s incredible.
It was at the very beginning of corona. It was the week of lockdown. I started the painting and it was very blue and very colorful and this huge mess of color and garbage. I wasn’t feeling the greatest because my parents were out of town, but I had to move back in with them because my partner and I broke up. So I started painting this huge canvas. My parents have this huge empty house… well at least it feels that way when no one’s there.
The strings were the sounds I was hearing around the house. I just kept working on it. That painting took about two months.
YBH: How long do you paint for in a session, and how do you stay motivated and overcome challenges?
I sit down and paint for like eight hours. But I also have periods where I’ll do a little something while I’m passing it and I want to fix something real quick. I keep paintings in a place where I pass by them a lot, in the dining room so I can look at them and be critical of them. I’m very organized with my materials.
Challenges happen with every painting, but you get through it and paint over it. Or you take your anger out on the canvas and that’s fine too.
You can always sand down the paint and start over… put gesso on top and sand that down. I use sandpaper a lot for texture.
What’s your dream right now?
My dream right now is to be a stand-up comedian, interior designer, musician, actress… hopefully I will have music out next year. But just being able to express myself in a way where someone else will be inspired.
Instagram: @shannoncorgan
