The Oral History of Ted Watts
This fifty-nine year old man has painted his way into American history with illustrations of his favorite subject, sports. Ted Watts opened his own studio in 1972 in Oswego, Kansas. Since then he has been designing and illustrating for colleges, universities and professional sports teams across the nation. In this interview he describes his childhood, and how he began his own art studio.
[My parents] observed early on that I liked to draw and paint, and they
encouraged me. Believe it or not, I have thirty-nine first cousins on
my mother’s side. My father is an only child, and I have two brothers
and one sister. In my generation, on my mother’s side of the family, there
are forty-three people and I am the only artist. Neither of my parents
were artists; but they could see before I even started school, in fact,
before I could even read, that painting and drawing were things I liked
to do. They did not try to tell me how to paint, but the nice thing they
did was provide me with the materials. When I was ready for brushes and
watercolor, although they did not know much about it, they would always
get the materials to me. They both introduced me to people that did know
something about art.
I have a brother who is one year older than me; and when he went to school I became a lonely fellow. So mom introduced me to one of her best friends who happened to be a very talented artist. I would go over [to my mom’s friend’s house] and watch her work with brushes, and paint with watercolors. At that time, I was just working with pencils. I had already outgrown crayons; they were for little kids. Watching her was the first time I had watched anyone work with brushes, and I was just amazed at how she could put paint down and make it look like an object. I still have a watercolor painting she did, when I was about five years old, of a Collie.
My mom is still fond of telling a story of something I said to her about a week after I started school. I came home one afternoon and told her that I thought that there was something wrong with the other kids in my class. She asked me what I meant, and my reply was, "They can’t draw." I thought that everyone could do what I could do. [Other children] were drawing little circles, and little sticks for arms with spokes for fingers. At that time, I was already drawing the form of the arm with the correct number of fingers. I knew that the thumb was farther away than the other fingers. Mom told me that I might be at a little higher skill level than some of the others, and that I should not critique their work.
I have always tried to remember not to critique other’s work. I try to give them instructive suggestions on how to improve, but I don’t comment on their skill level because I really don’t know if they are even interested. Many parents will bring their children in here and tell me they think their child can really draw. Half the time I can see the child squirming in his or her chair. I am impressed when a kid will come in here just scared to death to talk to this big artist guy. If they come in here themselves, I know they are really interested in [art]. I will spend as much time as they want working with them; however, I don’t want to teach. Don’t get me wrong--I don’t mind helping--but I don’t want a bunch of kids around here all day, every day. I do try to assess what age they are, and tell them what their next step will be. When I was young, there were people who took the time to help me. I believe that if you have a talent you should share that with the next generation. If you do not, when you are gone your knowledge may be lost forever. However, if you share that knowledge, it will somehow be incorporated into your student’s work.
I was fortunate in the sense that everywhere I lived when I was young, I had mentors that helped me develop my talent. When I moved from Anthony, Kansas to Miami, Oklahoma, due to my father’s work as a railroad express agent, my father introduced me to one of his friends who was a nationally famous muralist. I studied with the muralist while I was in high school and junior college. During my apprenticeship, I was able to witness the creation of the murals that were created for the Oklahoma Capital building. This muralist influenced me a lot because he made me think about doing representational art instead of abstract art. In abstract art the artist will produce a portrait that focuses on only one of the disciplines of art such as line color or light. In representational art, the artist will paint something that will almost look photographic. The muralist taught me the value of the human figure, and the value of drawing and painting accurate portraits. He also showed me how to draw using the right proportions and how to look for expression. He was successful in making me think in three dimensions, even though I was working on a two dimensional plane.
When I was little I also had a few, we will call them, heroes. One of the most famous illustrators in American history was Norman Rockwell. I grew up in what was kind of like his "heyday." He did a lot of the covers for the Saturday Evening Post, and I can remember marveling at the fact that someone could, with paints, pencils, and brushes, capture the spirit. I would study those paintings. I would look close enough at them that I could see brush strokes and pencil marks. Sometimes he would make no attempt to cover up the brush strokes and pencil marks, but when you would stand back you would almost swear it was a photograph. For this reason I never tried to attempt to cover up brush strokes or pencil marks in my own work. I know artists that do, what I call, photo realism. Often times, unless you really know what you are looking for, you can’t tell if their work is a photograph or a painting. I think that photo-realism artists are probably cheating the viewer by trying to make the total interpretation for them. With my artwork, I try to allow the viewer to reach their own conclusions. There is a painting that I think represents my belief very well. It is of a couple of football players who have just finished a sprint, one of them is hunched over. I have had many people ask me whether he is laughing or whether he is in pain; it could be either one. I know what I painted, I know what the thought is; but I am not going to cheat the viewer out of participating in the artwork and tell them.
Before I began my career, I worked one summer at a dude ranch in the Medicine Bow Range just west of Laramy, Wyoming. I got hired primarily because I was a water safety instructor. The second reason they hired me was because I had just turned twenty-one and they needed an assistant bartender. During the day I was a lifeguard, and during the evenings I would help out the bartender. During my free time I got to ride horses into the Medicine Bow Range. My sketch pad went with me everywhere. Somewhere in the back of my studio I have sketches I made along the North Platte River. I also took a lot of pictures. The dude ranch had a rodeo about every two weeks, and I would always take my camera. I took a picture while I was sitting on top of the announcer’s shack. It was of a young calf roper with a can of Skoal in his pocket. He had his rope in his teeth getting it ready for roping.
After that summer, I went back to Pittsburg State and finished my degree. I then went to Oswego, met my wife, and got married. I put the pictures that I took at the dude ranch in the attic, and forgot about them.
One day I was cleaning out the attic and found the picture of the calf roper. I brought it to the studio, got all psyched up and painted it in about six hours. It normally takes me about three to four days to complete a painting that I am commissioned to do; but this was close to my heart because I took the photograph, and I knew the emotion and it brought back memories.
Career
offers for me first began before I graduated from college. A fellow came
over to interview Pittsburg State University seniors in either the art,
photography, or writing departments. He was looking for an artist that could
double as a photographer and a writer, and would be willing to fill an opening
at a recreational vehicle advertising agency in Oswego. The chairman of
PSU’s art department told the scout that there was only one person in this
department, and probably in this school that could do all three and he gave
them my name. He interviewed me, and I got the job.
I came to Oswego, and began in the graphic design department. In addition to doing all of their product illustration, I also wrote their literature, the copy of their advertising, and their press releases. When the pickup campers or trailers were manufactured, I went many different places just to take pictures of the recreational vehicles in rough outside backgrounds. I liked that part of my job because I did, and still do now, like to be outdoors.
I never moved away from Oswego because about six months after I came to town I met my future wife, Faye. She was from here, and they always say, "A son is a son until he takes a wife; a daughter is a daughter all of her life."
I really liked the creative part of my job with the advertising agency; however, I did not like the traveling part of the job. I got to see a lot of countryside, but it would bother me if I were not shooting photographs for two or three days at a stretch or writing some copy. I was always able to cover the drawing part because I could always pack a sketch pad and a few pencils. Throughout my lifetime there have not been more than two or three days that I went without drawing something. The great thing about being able to take my materials anywhere I went was I could always make a few chicken-scratch sketches to get my idea on paper before it escaped me. A lot of times I will make ten of these real crude sketches. They will tell me what I was thinking at that particular moment. Of these ten sketches, I will probably throw nine of them away and develop one. It is the same way with mine, or anyone’s photography. A good photographer may shoot ten pictures just to get one good one. The public, however, will only see that one good one, and then the public will see a dozen good pictures, and then a hundred, made by that same photographer. This leads the public to believe that this photographer never shoots a bad photograph, and that is not true. That photographer never shows a bad photograph. It is the same way with artist. I may make ten drawings and a lot of preliminary sketches that will end up in the trash can. Just like a writer only submits his or her best writing, I only show my best copy.
I knew that I was going to be an artist from the time I was four of five years old; and although I can write and I have photography skills, I never wanted to do anymore than just use those skills to supplement my artwork. I do write a lot, but my writing tends to follow my pattern of graphically thinking, and be very detailed, and often too wordy. I think of everything as a picture, and in my writing I try to describe that picture. My wife is a grade school English teacher and she helps me get to the point in my writing. At this point I don’t attempt to sell my writing. As for photography, I think the best photographers have the heart of an artist, but they just can not draw of paint. Good photographers will look through a lens and compose a picture in their mind’s eye. A good photograph and a good painting, alike, tell a story. I painted a portrait of Tiger Woods. In this portrait I did not need to paint the entire Augusta Golf Course for the viewer to understand its meaning. Good photographers will manipulate their surroundings so the viewer understand the message the photograph is trying to portray.
I think that every artist, writer, or photographer has a few things that they consider their best accomplishments. My wife always laughs at me when I say that I have a top ten list because she thinks that I have about a hundred favorites in my top ten list and that my list changes all the time. That is not quite true. I have done almost five thousand pieces of artwork, but there are certain pieces that I consider breakthrough pieces for different periods in my career. Many of my favorites are those that I believe I was most successful in capturing the person’s spirit. The largest piece I have done is the Oklahoma Football Mural; however, it is not my favorite. There are parts of the mural, such as the still life in the corner, that I think are just beautiful, because I typically do not do a lot of still life paintings. There is a painting that I did of Dr. James Naismith, the man who invented the game of basketball. I had a photograph of him with the original baskets, which were peach baskets, and I painted him with peach baskets at his feet while he is holding the original ball, a volleyball. The painting tells a story.
I think that is was a breakthrough piece for me because I loosened up. Before that my work was very structured. My drawings would have to be just right before I would do any underpainting. I did this painting in the late seventies, and I started my studio in ‘72. I had been working professionally in my own studio for six or seven years before I finally understood how Norman Rockwell, and my mentor in Oklahoma, could paint with such free, loose style, and how their style reflected the spirit of their subject. Now I just look at a photograph that I have of my subject and I ask it to speak to me, and because I know technically what to do, the drawing and painting just come naturally. I will try to get to know my subject, and put myself in his or her shoes; and by doing that, I am able to bring expression to the painting. In all my work, I do not feel successful unless I have captured the viewer’s eye. If a person can walk by my painting and not notice it, then I have been unsuccessful; however if a person walks by, turns, and glances, and then moves in for a closer look, then I know that my work was successful and I have touched that viewer’s life.
In twenty-nine years I have never experienced burn out, even during the fourteen months I spent working on the Oklahoma mural. I wake up in the morning, and I can not wait to get to my studio. The fourteen months that I spent working on the Oklahoma mural taught me how liberating it was to always have many projects to work on. When I would get sick of looking at red, I would put the mural away and get out plain black and white drawings. Doing this allowed me to stay fresh. I believe that I will always stay fresh and continue to grow as an artist. I will never retire. I fully expect that when my day comes, and God takes me from this Earth that I will either be sitting in my studio slumped over a drawing or a painting, or I will be sitting at home with a sketch pad right next to my easy chair. My work is never far away, but I do not want to bore people with it. When I walk out of my studio door, I tell myself that is what I do for a living. I love my work. I work a lot, and I work very, very hard.
I do other things in addition to work. I have a family. I love my family, and I try to spend a certain portion of each day with my family. I think that it is very, very important to take some time to relax. When I was younger, I played slow-pitch softball and basketball. As I got older I took up golf, but I found that as my golf game got good I was not paying enough attention to my business. Now my golf game stinks, but I don’t mind. I still go out there and play because it is fresh air, and I enjoy being outside.
Although I try not to bring my work home, I can not entirely claim that I am successful. There is one aspect of my work that I do bring home. I try to make time to draw and paint for pleasure, and I have a ritual that I do every election, and Olympic year. Every four years, for my wife, I paint my two sons. I started this when my oldest son was five and my youngest son was one. They are now twenty-nine and twenty-five. To add to the tradition, for the first time this year, I will have a granddaughter to paint also.
I am highly responsible to my craft, and I work on improving it. Like most people would love to do, I have turned my craft into a business. I choose not to paint professional teams because of financial reasons. Most professional teams are located in large metro areas, and in those areas are always lots of people who are willing to work dirt cheap just so they can say they designed the cover of the program for the Kansas City Chiefs. I can not compete with people who give their art away, and be successful in my business. For this reason I spend my time advertising with colleges. Most colleges have budgets for things like designing programs and painting murals. Advertising, for me, is relatively simple. I just send out samples, and a price list with my phone number, and let the colleges call me. When I receive a phone call, I already know two things: Number one, I know they like my samples; Number two, I know that they like my price. If they have a problem with either my work or my price, they would not call.
In a business, like I am in, I would advise others who are just starting out not to get discouraged. It takes a lot of time to develop the hand-eye coordination that allows you to be able to do what I do. To begin, you must learn how to draw, and to learn how to draw you must practice drawing. People who are learning how should draw every day, even if it is only for ten minutes a day. They should also associate with people who have a better skill level than they because in their mind’s eye it will make them compete when they are by themselves. They should also look at other people’s work and try to mimic it. The best thing to do is hang out with people who do what you want to do. Artists are few and far between. In fact, someone did a study a few years ago. It showed that only one out of one hundred people really have the interest and the skill level to practice art, and a lot of them give up somewhere along the way. Perspective artists should also learn about the business aspect of art. They should either learn how to be their own agent or find a good agent to gain clients. I have been my own agent, but I learned how to sell by hanging around with people who worked in the sales department while I was employed by the advertising agency in Oswego. Artists should not take learning how to sell for granted. If I am in my studio ten hours a day, five of those hours are spent doing what I like to do, the creative part, and five of those hours are spent taking care of the business aspect. Although sales is not my favorite part of my job, I know I would not be doing any of the creative part if I did not do the sales part. I love the creative part of my work so I will always remember to take time to take care of the business aspect of my work.
From
an interview conducted by Amber Hurlbut, Fall 2000
Visit Ted Watts
Ted Watts Art Studio
807 West Fourth
Oswego, Kansas 667356
Phone: 316-795-4718
Fax: 316-795-2730
Email: fwatts@usd504.k12.ks.us
Web site: http://www.tedwatts.com