A Substantial Conversation with Dean L. Mitchell
Photo Credit: Connie Mitchell
Dean L. Mitchell is an American visual artist and painter. Mitchell is well known for his figurative works, landscapes, and still life. In addition to watercolors, he is accomplished in other mediums, including egg tempera, oils, and pastels. He graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio
Mitchell has been featured in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Artist Magazine, Art News, and more. His art can be found in corporate and museum collections across the country, including Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama; The Rockwell Museum, Corning, New York; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, Kansas; The Autry National Center, Los Angeles; The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas; Gadsden Art Center Quincy, Florida; Canton Museum of Art, Canton, Ohio and the Library of Congress.
He has received the American Watercolor Society Gold Medal, the Allied Artist of American Gold Medal in Watercolor and Oil, the Thomas Moran Award from the Salmagundi Club in New York, Remington Professional League, and for three years in a row, the Best in Show Award from the Mississippi Watercolor Society Grand National Competition. In 2004 and 2007, he received the Autry National Center Award for Watercolor at the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale. Mitchell is a member of several professional societies, including the American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society.
Mitchell has also illustrated US postage stamps, such as the 1995 Louis Armstrong stamp in the Jazz Musician series.
The Marie Brooks Gallery in Quincy represents Dean L. Mitchell, FL Mac-Grader Gallery in New Orleans, LA, Astoria Fine Art in Jackson, Wyoming, Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in St. Augustine, FL E&S Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky, Hearne Fine Art in Little Rock, AR, J. Willott Gallery in Palm Desert, California, and The Red Piano Art Gallery in Bluffton, South Carolina.
I had the honor and pleasure of asking Dean about his most recent exhibit, what is the role of an artist as a storyteller, what artists helped him pursue art full-time, and so much more.
UZOMAH: Which do you prefer, oil or watercolor, and why?
DEAN: I prefer watercolor because of its transparent quality, unpredictability, and challenging medium to master. It forces you to think quickly, and there are many different approaches to using it.
It is hard to correct, and that's good because sometimes the imperfection of a work makes it more interesting.
U: What makes figurative art something special to create?
D: I've always looked at art as relational; it is always about relationships and people. People are the most intelligent creatures on the planet, so in that way, it's how we connect in a space. We are voyeurs; we love watching each other. By telling or painting our history, we can immortalize in the physical world through images, place ourselves in historical narratives and tell our history of evolution, what we made, sort of like a mirror. Art can mirror your existence; it's empowering to see yourself in a space, and you can create something, a likeness of yourself in the physical world. It's challenging, so it's interesting. You can experience deeper human emotions and empathy for one another through figurative art; we can see our limitations as creatures. For example, when I painted my grandmother and other people I know, I felt like I was searching for something more profound, not just with them but also with my soul. It's challenging to try to look at another human being and to know it's not just about a likeness, but I try to capture something elusive and spiritual.
U: You have illustrated US postage stamps, such as the 1995 Louis Armstrong stamp in the Jazz Musician series? How do you incorporate the people's lives in each stamp, and what makes them notable?
D: First of all, I'm not sure I can incorporate their lives because lives are complex, and I never met any of these people in person, so what I was after was to try to capture them as artists and what they contributed to American Society in regard to their art form. In that sense, I had to go through a lot of materials and read about them. I knew about some of these artists growing up because they were famous figures in American culture. So, I tried to pull from that sensibility. I've never been interested in being an illustrator. Still, this particular job was interesting to me because of what these men of color had accomplished against the odds and how some traveled to Europe to get recognition for their art form, which appealed to my sensibility as a painter. I had no problem seeing their lives through my own life and some of the battles that I was going through as an American painter, so perhaps our lives were interconnected in terms of struggling in American society and trying to find a voice through our creative process.
U: In your most recent exhibit, "Looking at America and Painting How I Want, What I Want and How I See It," at the Albany Museum of Art, how did you use art to explore the pressing issues in society through art?
D: Art is all about communication and relationships. Society has different challenges for different groups of people. As I said earlier, I think it is perhaps the way I grew up in the segregated South and saw the struggles of people of color and not just people of color but people in general. People of color were more oppressed within the power structure. The American power structure had and, in some ways, castrated them, and because I grew up in the American South, I am also a part of that system. No one chooses how they are brought into the world, so when you're born into a world with rules and regulations that limit your opportunity and mobility, and you're in that physical space, you're constantly reassessing it. I was continually reassessing how to overcome a power structure that had not created a space for me to achieve, so I've used my work and my talent as a way to level some position in the culture so how I place a figure or how I paint a space can inform people about the history. Not only the past but can also give them a window into how to navigate through those spaces to make their own lives successful. I think I've done that with my work, reflecting the issues of poverty that are related to not only economics but it's also associated with your health and your sense of feeling empowered in space, but at the same time, I also give those people a voice and a sense of power because I feel power is always at the center of everything, particularly in a capitalist Eurocentric society.
Carrie Mae watercolor 20 x15 c 2016
U: What is the most vital lesson you have learned about life through creating art?
D: I've learned that life is fragile, and art has informed my life on a deeper level outside of the physical space I occupy. Art can move you out of depression and inform you about the evolution of human existence, how we relate to each other, and our sense of history. It has pushed me beyond my limitations regarding relationships with other human beings. Art is a window into our creative process. You look at the world differently when you're creative. There's something that stimulates curiosity about your existence, and using raw materials to make things beautiful can enhance your life in so many different ways. It has mine and many interesting people. Because of art, aside from the fact that I earn a living from it, I learn a lot about human behavior. I've learned about how it can also disempower you. People can use it as propaganda. I look at ways where people made a lot of money, and being an artist is much more empowering than even having money. There's something about it. There's a certain amount of freedom and power about it. Sometimes people say well, that'll never sell, you won't sell that, and maybe I won't, but it was empowering to have the ability to do it on my terms.
U: Your artwork depicts untold stories and faces of what it means to be black in America. How are your inspirations formed, and from where?
D: Most of my inspiration comes from my childhood and neighborhood; it's all back to relationships. Television and other media informed me as well. Most of the things that moved me were what I witnessed with my eyes, like watching my grandmother struggle to pay our bills on our front porch. I could see the distress in her body language and the anguish in her gestures. I could feel the world's weight on her, and at the same time, I also saw a lot of strength and power in her. There was a lot of alcoholism in my community, which informed me about people trying to escape a hard life. I worked in tobacco and got paid very little money. We got rewarded very little for our work and efforts, so these things have informed my life, and I am pretty relentless about painting what I want because I saw a lot of people with very little freedom. They did what was necessary to survive, but those survival skills led me to work harder and find the freedom to express their struggles because they are my struggles.
Bob Ragland 12 1:2 x 13 1:2 x c 2014
U: What is the role of an artist to be a visual storyteller in society?
D: It depends on the artist.
Some artists are more imaginative and create imagined worlds; that's a different kind of creativity. Then some artists are not only historians but the gatekeepers of history. That gatekeeper has to be honest no matter what may or may not happen to them in the physical world. It's essential, to tell the truth, because people form their existence around those stories. If someone hears a story they know is not true and they have been eliminated from the narrative, they have been castrated of any contribution in history. Their record of achieving anything has been destroyed from all the transcripts, erased from all the visual aspects of the physical world. By doing this, you begin to dismantle the person's whole existence. They begin to be disconnected in some way, easily manipulated, and easily controlled. But Art brings truth to life, empowers all human beings, and does not segregate based on social constructs.
U: Who are some artists who helped you want to pursue art as a full-time passion?
D: Mr. Harris, a junior high school teacher, inspired me, and there was a kid my age, Pete Hinson. Pete was successful very early, and he inspired me very much. My first gallery in Panama City, Florida, Bay Art and Frame; the owners, Zoltan and Vicky Bush, were Hungarian immigrants and didn't understand the racial issues in America, so they had no problem taking me on as a young artist. They inspired me very much. Of course, artists in history have inspired me: Jacob Lawrence, Andrew Wyeth, and Edward Hopper, both of which my work has been compared. But to make a living from art or to pursue it full-time was a personal choice because it is a place in which I feel the most comfortable as a human being. When creating something, I feel empowered and have some control over my existence in the world.
Art became a place where I was totally free and felt empowered to see other artists who were successful at it. I don't mean successful in terms of making money but the legacy of history and the depth of their work that they left for people to witness our humanity. People like Thomas Eakins were a big inspiration because of his works America did not want to see. They did not want to see the brutality of their own existence, even through medicine. His painting, The Gross Clinic, was just extraordinary. Still, people didn't want to see it because a man was trying to figure out how to live long, and they were doing these things through medicine that seemed grotesque at the time, but it showed the raw, real struggle of the evolution of man in medicine. I really admired that even though people didn't want to see that at the time, he still created it.
I think artists should take risks, and their risks shouldn't be predicated upon social constructs or on becoming wealthy or money or any of that. It should be predicated upon what it is to be a human being, what it is just to live and to be in the real world and to struggle and to survive, the artists that accomplish those things I admire. They find their voices and use them fearlessly, like Lucian Freud. I love his work, too. Those artists inspire me.
Hazel watercolor 20 x 15 c 2018
U: What are some of your favorite brushes to use?
D: I'll use anything that will hold paint well. I don't care what brand of brushes they are, flat brushes, round brushes, etc. I don't have a particular brand of brushes.
Melanie watercolor 30 x22
U: You have been a juror for various art competitions. What is the universal trait you look for in the artists and their artwork regardless of the theme? Do you have any advice for artists submitting to competitions?
D: I look for basic things like composition, brushwork, and fundamental things. And then I look deeper in terms of does the work grab you, does it hold you, do I want to keep coming back to it and learning from it, does it challenge us in some way, does it create empathy, does it create anger. I want to be able to react to the thing, not pass by.
The best advice I can give any artist is to be a great observer of life because that will inform your work and ensure that whatever you're doing, you try to find some truth in it. Not just in work but in yourself, and ask yourself, why is this interesting to me, and will it make a difference in some way? Will it stimulate conversations? Will it enhance my intelligence about my existence? Will it challenge me in some way to be a better human being? Is there something there that can move people and change people? Challenging work is what makes you feel alive, not what's comfortable. There is something about the struggle. Painting has always been a struggle for me.
Mom at the Manor watercolor 22 x 30 c 2019
U: If you could describe your studio to someone unfamiliar with art studios, how would you describe it?
D: My studio is an unorderly open space with large windows filled with objects, paints, books, research materials, and anything with interesting elements that help me challenge my sensibility about the world.
U: What is next for you in regard to art projects?
D: I have invitational shows I'm involved with annually, and I have a couple of museum shows coming up in 2024-2025. I'm working on incorporating more collage materials in some of my work, moving into nonobjective observations. I want to work more with my children on some projects because they are very creative, and we can learn from each other.
For more information about Dean’s artwork, please visit his site. Please also give him a like on Facebook and a follow on Instagram.
