Tristan Hilliard, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 42nd 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed super talented artist Tristan Hilliard who I met at the awesome Frameworks Gallery. I really admire Tristan's art and videos and his Instagram is a lot of fun. He has lived many places and has a unique perspective. I think you will enjoy his answers! Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @tristanhilliard) (All images courtesy the artist)

Jackson: Did you have a specific experience that made you want to be an artist? Did you always draw or was it something you learned how to do?

Tristan: Hmm, I don't know if there was any specific experience that made me interested in art. I've just been drawn (pardon the pun) to create for as long as I can remember. Art definitely runs in my family's veins. My paternal grandmother, Judy Kusinitz, was a calligrapher and watercolor artist. My dad is a musician. Both my parents, immediate, and extended family have always been incredibly encouraging of art. I think as soon as I could hold it I grabbed a crayon/pencil /pen/whatever and have just been going ever since. It's something I'm definitely always continuing to learn. 

Jackson: Do you think living in several different places has impacted the way you make art?

Tristan: Interesting question! You know, I never thought about it that way before, but I would say - yes, living in different in different places has definitely impacted my art.  I've lived in five different states at this point, and in each one I've focused on a different style of art (or creativity in some way). In Rhode Island, where I was born, I grew up drawing constantly; when I lived in South Carolina, I was heavily into photography and video production; in college at the Art Institute of Atlanta in Georgia I studied digital art and animation; when I lived in California I learned the art of design consulting and framing; and now in Minnesota, I've gone back to more traditional art - painting in watercolors and acrylics. I think I am very much inspired by the community and art I observe around me - and in seeing people excited about certain types of art, I can't help but want to dip my toes into that realm of creativity. Over the past five years working at Frameworks Gallery and meeting many Minnesota artists, such as yourself, has been immensely motivating in that regard.

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Tristan: Oh, I think I'd go with one of my all time favorites: Salvador Dali. The twentieth century surrealist painter and big personality most famous for painting The Persistence of Memory. I enjoy his brand of weird so much that I dressed as him for Halloween last year. I remember as a kid and young teen I had little to no interest in artists or art of the past (despite loving to draw and make art myself). I didn't care much for what had come before and was only interested in what was going to be created in the present or the future...but one year, probably when I was about 16, my family was visiting my grandmother in Florida and we went to the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg where I saw many of his incredibly unique, masterful, and surreal paintings that were explained in detail through curators. I had no idea so many metaphors, ideas and meanings could be packed into single visual mediums and Dali very quickly became my gateway into a deep appreciation of the world of art history - an appreciation that I've only learned to love more and more over the years. Plus Dali was just a really strange and unique individual - I bet he would have been very interesting to encounter.