Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gabe McCool. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Gabe, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
Sophmore year in high school. My mom was an art teacher, so I had that influence from early childhood and then my teacher in high school was very influential. I felt like she was the first person outside of the immediate family that looked at my work and recognized talent. Then when I got to college majoring in art was a given. I started college persuing a degree in art education, then realized half way through my degree that I was missing out on all the cool studio classes so I changed my degree and backed up a couple years to eventually finish with a degree in drawing and painting from the University of North Texas.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Growing up in a household that held the arts and specifically the visual arts in high regard, with a mother that was an art educator and a father that practiced nightly and played blues guitar in a small local band, I was encouraged and praised for all things art related. I had other early ventures, like basketball and soccer, but drawing has always been my first love. Early grade school, during recess, instead of running around, I had a sketchbook and a magazine cut out or inside cover from a cassette tape trying to draw Bart Simpson or the Guns & Roses Album cover with the cross and band member’s faces… My parents loved the Museum of Fine Arts and I understood what it meant to develop / hone the craft of visual communication.
From that point to the present I have only had jobs related to drawing, painting, sculpting or graphic design. It’s a constant source of entertainment and never gets old.
Around the time I graduated high school I went to a show at the MFA in Houston and saw a show for Dr. John Biggers. Dr. Biggers was an art professor at the time for Texas Southern University in Houston and his work, at that show, had a big influence on the style of work I produced from that moment. I searched high and low for information on him, his style, his artistic journey and incorporated a lot of his style in my own. During this period, from around the ages of 18-25 I couldn’t draw enough. I would stay up all night on pieces and really feel like I developed and grew tremendously during this time.
From the age of 25 to the present, Now I am 46, my personal work has slowed down a little, but it’s always there when I find the time to visit it. I currently work as a graphic designer / Illustrator / Fabricator in Dallas. I’m married to my best friend Monica and together we have two sons; Parker, 15 and Samuel is 14. Balancing my personal art with work and home life has been a little “off balance” but it’s something I plan on setting right very soon.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Making something from nothing and being able to share it with others keeps me in the neverending pursuit for more and more refined represenations of the ideas that float around in my head. I think what helps me appreciate what I am able to create today is remembering the struggle it was at earlier ages to unfold what’s in my mind. Endless hours attempting, only to wad it up and toss over my shoulder. I’ve always been very literal with my art and never had interest in the abstract. A TREE WITH A PATH… but in my mind I strived to produce what I considered, at least at that moment in time to be the “perfect” tree and path. Maybe a little bit of a perfectionist and definitely a payer of attention when it comes to the details. For a long period of my artistic experimentation my personal goal was to understand and draw with some level of competency, faces. I feel I have somewhat achieved that but looking back on that particular mission I feel it became slightly tunnel visioned…. but on the other hand, my devotion to one particular body part, I have learned in hindsight actually strengthened other skills, even if passively. like the ability to render forms in space and the handling of light and shadow. This example is one of the many aspects of the visual arts that continues to hold my attention and fascinate me. It’s the endless list of technique and execution and the fact that it holds your admiration by presenting itself differently every time you try and attain it.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The mission I have always held when persuing my personal art has been to achieve the closest dipiction of the image I have in my mind… of course what I have learned through time, experimentation, trial and error is that the persuit of perfection only ends in disappointment, so I have adjusted my goals in my old age… similar to the way I have adjusted my acceptance of the work I produce. It’s not that the work I make is “not right” or “bad” but, instead, just different. Once I learned to broaden my view of what is “right” this allowed my execution and visual development to grow at a much faster rate. Because, as I’m sure most others have also experienced, sessions that don’t go as orginally planned leave you feeling frustrated and those feelings end up sticking in your mind as blockers when the opportunity arrises next time to create. So I would say my mission’s definition has twisted and taken on new perspective, now it’s not just to achieve perfection but rather to recognize and allow pieces regardless of where I rank in my entire body of work to hold just as important a place. Some works might fall into the class of a warm-up or study but everything that comes out receives the same effort. This change in mind set has helped me to exhaust ideas and complete what, in earlier years would have been discarded, sitting at the bottom of the trashcan.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spillermccool/#