Wayne Thiebaud Interview (page: 3 / 6) Painter and Teacher	Print Interview

Going back to your childhood and school years, were there particular books you read that were important to you?

Wayne Thiebaud: Lots of books, but I wasn't a great student or a great reader until quite late. I was bored at school, so that wasn't something I could get any interest in, to the disgust I think of my teachers who were always sending notes home. "Wayne is not dumb, but he won't do anything." So that was a real misfortune actually, and to my disgrace, I came to learning very late, in the sense of literature or all the things I later began to treasure.

But not too late.

Wayne Thiebaud: Hopefully.

When did you first begin to see yourself as an artist?

Wayne Thiebaud: Never. I don't like the term "artist." It's a term which I'm uncomfortable with, but I love the idea of being a cartoonist, a draftsman, a designer, a painter -- those other things which we make clear objective information about. So the idea of being a fine artist came very, very late, and came by way of examples of people who I became aware of, their extraordinary achievements.

Like who?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Wayne Thiebaud: It began really with cartoonists. A great example would have been George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat. Extraordinary man and extraordinary artist. When you use the term "artist," then you're talking about the highest achievement within each of those categories. But then, slowly, all of the painters. I read a book which meant a lot to me, Van Loon's Artists' Lives, talking about Rembrandt and those kinds of people. I never imagined myself ever even getting to a point where I might be able to pursue those things. But I still had this awe of artists. And again, you go to museums a lot, read more, particularly biographies and artist biographies. So as I said, I came to it quite late.

You studied at a trade school.

Wayne Thiebaud: Yes, it was called Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles.

How old were you when you studied?

Wayne Thiebaud: I was still in high school actually. But I found out about it and went up actually to study sign painting. They taught cooking and sign painting, carpentry, plumbing, mechanics. But it was a great trade school, and they taught these kids these opportunities, and among them were a couple of really lovely former commercial artists, one a women's dress designer, a fashion illustrator, and another old guy that had been kicking around art service groups, commercial art groups. Both of them very patiently would take us kids and show us how to do things. And it was a marvelous, marvelous chance. I think I was 16 at the time.

What do you think the trade school experience did for you ultimately as a painter and craftsman?

Wayne Thiebaud: Well, it just showed you very practical ways to do things, how to put a hat on a head, how to find the sole of a shoe and build the shoe up from that, or to think about advertising posters and all of its consequences, very exciting stuff. I just wanted to be a red-hot advertising art director from then on.

You worked for Rexall drugstores for a while, didn't you?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Wayne Thiebaud: Worked for quite a number of advertising agencies. Rexall was the main one, until I went to New York. And that was a great opportunity. And that's of course where I met a very important person to me, Robert Mallary. He was pursuing fine art, even though he was working as a commercial artist. And he's the first one who showed me how dumb I was, and how I better get myself together if I was going to take seriously the idea of doing anything. But, as I expressed an interest in fine art at that time -- because I had been going to museums -- he really gave me my first serious critical confrontation with how hard you had to work, how you had not to expect much, because you were dealing with a tradition which was an extraordinary community of excellence. So you prepared yourself, and you should say to yourself, "I'm lucky to be in this community of excellence," and you may not do very much, but it should be serious, well-intentioned and highly critical. And he was one of the most extraordinary, foremost critics -- to this day -- I've ever met.

You've said in previous interviews that he helped expose you to the life of the mind.

Wayne Thiebaud: Right, exactly.

Your daughter is named for him, is that right?

Wayne Thiebaud: Yes, Mallary Ann.

That's lovely. It sounds like you did eventually take school more seriously, when you went back to college.

Wayne Thiebaud: Exactly. Yes, I did.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I was lucky, because in some ways the state college systems at that time were just sort of forming, and they gave me credit by special examination for the portfolio I had developed. So I sort of got through the art part sort of uneducated, but the other part, the literate part, and the kind of fundamental college courses were very important to me, and that's what I sort of concentrated on to get a degree, with the idea that I could then maybe become a teacher. I gave up the idea of becoming a commercial artist and began to become a teacher and a painter.

Wayne Thiebaud Interview, Page: 1   2   3   4   5   6