DS Art :: INTERVIEW

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"Sometimes they get a little out of hand," Stewart says. He points to the Golf Bag, his most popular piece, and several others, including Ship Shape, and Deer Diary. Each is made up almost entirely of puns. "If they get too complicated, they come with a list of ingredients." For some pictures, the list is absolutely essential. Golf Bag includes a badminton birdie, a mouse trap, and a quarter of a deck of playing cards - all clubs. The remarkable thing is that the final composite image looks like nothing so much as a fully outfitted, well, golf bag.

Paradoxically, the technical success of the designs can sometimes be a disadvantage.

"I often have a hard time getting people to stop and look," says the artist. "At shows, folks will glance at the pictures, and their brain says 'Oh. A bird. A fish.' Then they move on. I try to get them to look again, to find the humor." A second look usually brings a smile, then the questions:

You do these with just a pen? That pen? Are you crazy? Yes. To all three.

Why a pen? I've had a ballpoint pen in my hand since high school. The classes I took required a lot of note taking, and the pen became second nature. Later when I started drawing, I saw no reason to change.

When did you start drawing? Sometime in my premed training I got bored. Bored with lectures and lab work. I needed a change. So I signed up for a basic drawing course.

This was in college? Yes. At Birmingham-Southern. I thought the course would be an easy A.

Was it? Hardly. The class was taught by the head of the Art department, a tough old guy from New York. He told us we had two weeks to drop the course, or get a C on our transcript. This was a real threat to us pre-meds and pre-dents. We counted on a four point average.

So, did you quit? No. It was too much fun. And I learned a lot. Over the course of the semester, the professor, MacMahon was his name, pulled me aside and said I should think about art as a career. He encouraged me to take more courses.

Did you? Yes. Three in all, the basics: drawing, painting, and design.

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