DS Art :: INTERVIEW

He Finally Hung Out His Shingle

You turn off a wide street in south Charlotte, NC, into a small colonial looking office complex, the professional digs of dentist and orthodontists, therapists and CPA's. Park next to a cozy row of red brick buildings, each labeled conservatively with a shingle out front. This shingle is the artist's only lingering connection to a past life - once it might have read: Donald B. Stewart, General Surgeon. Today it says simply, DS Art.

Come on in. Sunlight pours through a profusion of greenery: vines, violets, orange trees grown from seed, and a seasonal variety of sprouts for the garden - Stewart's other passion. The only other source of color in this black and white artist's shared studio is the work of Don's wife, Sue Ellen Brown, whose paintings in acrylic, oil, and colored pencil light up the otherwise stark surroundings.

Here white desks and drawing boards nudge tall black bookshelves crammed with volumes of reference material. Humorous themes in word and image fill the walls from floor to ceiling, Stewart's own drawings mixed with small framed quotations: 'If at first you do succeed, try not to act too surprised.' 'Beer Then, Done That.' 'Before a person does something truly great, they must look foolish to the crowd.' The stock room is labeled with a picture of the trading floor on Wall Street; the restroom marked by a portrait of W.C. Fields (WC for water closet). Even the thermostat is framed, decorated with a tiny Dr. Seuss cartoon.

Dr. Stewart, clean-shaven in wire-rimmed glasses, wears a button-down shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, looking more the part of a nineties dot com entrepreneur than the stereotypical artist. He sits comfortably, elbow resting on an older model typewriter (only recently replaced by a PC), and responds to a question regarding the future of hand made art in an increasingly electronic world:

"With art - with creativity in general for that matter - it really makes little difference what medium you choose. You get an idea, you want to get it out there, whether you use a pencil, a brush, a computer or a camp stove. We're decidedly lo-tech around here. Cut and paste still means scissors and glue. It may not be glamorous, but for me drawing is simpler, more direct. Head to hand to paper."

Simple does not describe the artist's work, however. Stewart's composite drawings are elaborately planned and carefully executed, often taking months to complete. Dozens of related items pile one on top of the other to create each larger composition. Some follow a simple theme: flowers for the Hummingbird, antiques for an old locomotive. Other drawings are visual puns, the cornerstone of Stewart's art. His Dragonfly is made of dragons - twenty of them. Trombones is a lesson in skeletal anatomy. Fast Food, an edible motorcycle.

Continued >

Click Here to Listen to the Radio Interview with WIST Radio, New Orleans from 12/05/09!