Mahon, Mike and Cynthia 2011-12-01
Mike and Cynthia Mahon talk about how Mike Got introduced to fine art, after they ran their own Design company out of Amarillo. Mike goes into Details about how he perceives art, and how he Approaches his own pieces of art
General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Mike and Cynthia Mahon
Additional Parties Recorded:
Date: December 01, 2011
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Interviewer: Andy Wilkinson
Length: 01:40:05
Abstract
Mike, 6-19-1946, Lubbock, Texas, Cynthia, 10-10-1946, Lubbock, Texas, Mrs. Garber’s Latin, Where Andy first met Mike, High school, Interests- Mike, Main passion as young as he can remember, He just wanted to draw, Throughout teenage years, he would learn from, Books, self taught mostly, Few community art classes, No thought of fine art, he was going to do commercial art, Studied pre law, junior at Texas Tech, summer job selling, Bibles in Tennessee; revelation, he changed his major to Art, Went into commercial art, Studied cartoon animation, TV commercials, Art director at an advertisement agency, Eventually went off on his own, Did that for about 6 years, Learned how to draw really fast, First job: Bird Advertising, Thayer Brown, Got fired, John Christman advertising, He quit, Self business, Cinegraphics, The title of their business company, Highly labor intensive, Amarillo, Lubbock’s decision makers didn’t live in Lubbock, Amarillo’s people were there, Though hard about working for the oil companies, Animation jobs, Banks, Savings and Loans, Muffler shop, Packaging company, Just random companies would want animation work done, He had the only studio between Albuquerque and Dallas, Happy Couple, Cynthia went to Hutchison Middle school, And Mike went there too, Dated through high school, Broke up and reconnected in College, Cynthia, Always had an interest in art, They got married in 1977, She said it was easier to marry an artist than become one, She likes to write poetry, For the past 10 years she has written about 40 poems, She would like to publish them, Partners in Art, Cynthia wanted Mike to go into fine art, she gave him the push, Fine Art, Late 80’s early 90’s, Started painting his kids, His passion was always landscapes, Portraits are easy to him, The mouth is a difficult area, All the other features are anchored by bone or cartridge, Subtle changes, It is just flesh, Tendency is to paint it like it’s carved out, You have to learn how to “suggest” the mouth, To make a suggestion, you have to know it better, Color Appreciation, Painters struggle with value of color, You learn if a colored picture will reproduce well into black, And white, Difficult to judge value, He starts from lights to darks, to make sure he doesn’t miss, The colors, Professionalism, You cannot be a good artist until you learn, How to critique your own work, Student to teacher, Had to sell the business, 1998, Moved to an apartment, Started painting full time, Had a show and sold a lot of his paintings, Won best of show, 1st place in pastel, 1st place in photography, 1st place in watercolor, Calling, Rethinking God’s thoughts as he is recreating what he see’s, A variety of things, Re-interpret in his own way, There is nothing more important than what you are doing, As an artist, Teaching, Painting full time, makes sure you enjoy the process, Or you will get burned out, when all you want is the finished, Product, Andrew Liomus – illustrator, Design, illustration, value, shapes, structure, All the different aspects- basic principles to master in a piece, Of art work, D-V-S-E-T-U-P, Divine set up, The way you set up your work, Turn Off, He did not like what was going on in the world in the late, 60’s early 70’s revolving around the art, It seemed fake to him, it was a competition, every year, To have a new trend each year, they styles were changing, But it was not genuine, Fashion, Paris ruled the fashion world, They discovered that if they could through their influence, Change the fashion every two years, they would continuously, Make money, Same concept was going on with the art world in galleries, It shifted from skill and novelty to just being a novelty, Understanding, The failure is not on the lack of communication, Fine art is different than music for example, You have to develop a skill and a craft before playing an instrument, Rather than in art, anyone can do that “self expression”, With out skill its “self indulgence”, Duraward, His uncle- George, Congressman, Becky Kowalski – Mike’s niece, She put a collection of George’s letters, She lives on John Connally’s ranch, Uncle:, Dignified, but unreserved in terms of telling stories, Singing hymns, quoting poetry, His family was real poor, three books, The Bible, Works of Shakespeare, O’Henry, George was always visiting LBJ
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