Page 10
October 25, 2007
Spilyay Tyrnoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
Bobb: took own path to developing artistic talent
(Continued from page 1)
“I’m not afraid whether or
not a picture makes sense to
anyone else but myself,” Bobb
said. “I have a real freedom in
that regard.”
In Bobb’s opinion, “What is
great pleasure are the freedom
to make choices, do the projects
that I want to do and the free
dom to explore and take
chances.”
An important aspect of art
is envisioning the object being
drawn, he said.
In Bobb’s opinion, “You al
most have to be able to imagine
what it will feel like and look
like.”
But that doesn’t mean he al
ways knows how a project will
turn o u t
Actually* he said, “I’m always
surprised by how well a drawing
comes out.”
And it’s a process that typi
cally ends up inspiring Bobb to
create even more artwork.
He explained, “The whole
experience o f doing a drawing
winds up generating more ideas
and more material.”
; Art is something that gives
Bobb countless methods of cre
ating, he said.
- “I gaw an opportunity for
myself as an artist to accom
plish so many o f my creative
; ambitions,” Bobb said. “Such
as making people look like the
way I saw them: beautiful, strong
and funny—like the people I
saw around the community in a
different light and gave them
more character.”
“Having a vivid imagination
gave me the opportunity to put
a face on some old Indian leg
ends such as the Tataliya—witch
woman,” Bobb said. “It also
gave me the opportunity to il
lu strate some C^my ,H^dhood
^nightmares. Tguess* For me anyr
way, it’s sort of like therapy.”
Going through school, he
said, fitting in never concerned,
him.
• “I wasn’t in the loop of so
cial or cultural peer pressure to
do what everyone else was do
ing,” Bobb said. “I’ve never had
the feeling to be wild.”
Coupled with his quiet na
ture, that led Bobb to lead the
life o f an outsider during his
youth.
“School is your first taste of
categorization and social hierar
chies,” Bobb said. “You don’t
have to ,do much to be put in
the weird category. I knew I
wasn’t a bad person and I didn’t
feel weird, yet that is how I was
perceived.”
: “It was sad, and it made me
feel like I was crazy,” Bobb con
tinued. “I can remember walk
ing around thinking, ‘W hat’s
wrong with me? They tell me
I’m weird, so I guess I must be?
In retrospect, I can see it that it
was the people who were ganged
up on and treated like freaks—
probably because people who
don’t have personal power like
to torture those who have it?’
During that time, he said, “It
was easy to project myself into
these characters.”
Now Bobb can look at his
experiences growing up in a dif
ferent light.
In his opinion,. “The more
pain you endure when you’re
young, tiie richer your adult life
will be.”
,
Halloween drawings by Travis Bobb.
-passion or ambition for them.
v>",iff1, at least, don’t learn from
the written word or stuffy class-
rooms, b u t from seeing and
feeling,and expres$jOtei|t yiM&I
form,” l^obb explained.
58i But that
some of what He Teamed didn’t
prove to be useful later in life.
2. “O de thing I hated in school
was mathematics, but now I find
out I needtit for everything ! do
in my artwork,” Bobb added.
Bobb also tries to use his ar
tistic. talents to give back to the
| community.-
. Each year he illustrates post-
;ers to advertise Pi-TJme-Sha.
i “1. like to draw them really
dramatic, like old-fashioned
movie posters,’’ he said. “It just
shows everything?’ 0 1 ■ jf.
“If resembles the old epic
movie ’grt from the golden age
, of ipotion pictures that brought
out the essence in a more dra
matic way,” he explained. "“But
it is a challenge to come up with
a completely different feel for
what is essentially an annual
event.” .
But Bobb doesn’t create art
work for financial gain.
■ “Mpney isn’t really ,a motiva
tion: for tee,” he explained. “I
just did if,out of a hobby.”
f 1 Btilgb; §xp|ajp^d, “Jt’s ;,a|wayS;
been about the actipf creating
said. “I’ve never had one goal I
was obsessed with,, and having
known people who have, I can
see it’s just a way to .set yourself
up for failure.”
In the future, Bobb plans, to
continue creating w hatever
strikes him.
The ideas are already begin-
ning-to form.
According to Bobb, ‘5 ’ye al
ways wanted to do sortie sort of
really definitive illustrations of
average, ordinary Indians with
out all the beads and feathers
but rather in a more humorôus
concept because I’ve never ,re-
ally sèeh anything like this done
before.” ■ -
For others, Bobb only advises
them to stay true to themselves.
“Art is experience with com
prehension, truth with purpose,
feelings with heart and a door
I to the heart through the. eyes,”
Bobb said. “Look at pictures
'wjstteyonr h«art4f:$bti r ni*e4 to
.in the end, the things that sus know how they will affect people,
tain you, that make you proud, listen without ego as to how
people feel about what you cre
you can’t buy with money
“It was never a goal for me ate.” / K Y ;
to seek fame or fortune,” Bobb
FENDERS by ENDRES
<(
I don’t learn from the
written word or stuffy
classrooms, but from
seeing and feeling,
and expression in
visual form. ”
Those experiences are what
allowed him to express, himself
artistically.
When a person isn’t very so
cial, Bobb said, “You Have time
to think and to be quietly angry
and emotional. And if you’re
lucky, you will develop a creative
outlet to exercise those feelings.”
Though he .took art classes
in school, Bobb said, “Art classes
didn’t turn out to be tey all time
favorite?’ -*.
Plus, Bobb said, “I kind of
thought they were boring.”
For instance, in classes stu
dents are taught to draw faces
using a graph method, he said.
Bobb taught himself to draw
faces by merely eyeing the dis
tances and measurements.
Drew Struzari and Sebastian
Kruger are two artists that es
pecially interest Bobb.,
An artist named H.R. Giger
has also proved to be influen- j
tial. According to Bobb, “He
really showed me how to do bio ;-
mechanical structure.”
He likes to learn from other
artists’ work and try to copy their
style, he explained.
However, he has never really
tried to teach anyone else, and
Bobb said that could be diffi
cult since SO mucti o f what he
does he learned on his own.
Though he oiice tried p$\
teach his brother and his cousin,
Bobb said, “It was mostly a
hobby for them. It Wasn’t a
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