Minnesota
Artist Chuck Hughes By Lisa Marie Nohner
Summer in Minnesota is a festive season. A three month
celebration dedicated to the appreciation of nature, community, and creative
expression. It is this time of year that Rochester
artist Chuck Hughes becomes a veritable fountain of imaginative ideas, spilling
whimsical illustrations and music-themed artwork in his wake.
An imagination powerhouse, Hughes
has been described as a "One-Stop Art Shop,"--He is a humble, yet
highly skilled individual capable of producing intriguing works at the drop of
a hat--Although his genuine smile and friendly disposition belie the 16 years
of experience in visual, scenic, and festival artwork hidden within his hands.
Hughes discovered his passion for
art as early as 3 years old, when he discovered the method of
self-entertainment. His interest expanded when he began taking requests from
his friends, who traded things with him in exchange for his pictures. Through
further exploration of his newfound talent, Hughes determined that a career
utilizing his gift to contribute to society would suit him best. During his
early college years, he joined the band Bone Dali (after the art of Salvador
Dali) and gained notoriety for designing the artistic fliers and posters to
promote his group.
With his long-term goal being
illustrations for children's books, Hughes received his Bachelor of Fine Arts
in Illustration in 1990 from Auburn University in Alabama,
and thus began his 16-year journey into the wide world of wall and window art.
Hughes started out as a screen
printer in Birmingham,
learning how to make silk-screen t-shirts by day, and experimenting at creating
his own by night. With much of his inspiration stemming from album cover art
and music in general, Hughes was motivated to attend concert events to keep his
creative juices flowing. Unfortunately, living paycheck to pay check does not
typically allow for such luxuries, and he was obligated to turn to his talent
for funding.
In early '92, his career truly took
off when he was busted in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead concert for
selling his own custom designed T-shirts sporting the band's name. Evidently,
luck was on his side as rather than punishment, he received encouragement to
submit his designs to the band itself in San
Francisco. The band took a liking to his work, and
Hughes signed on with San Francisco's Club Dead (Grateful Dead marketing,)
creating five venue designs for the band--just prior to experiencing what could
have been a potentially major set-back that threatened the future of visual
arts career.
During his time at Club Dead, Hughes
cut his right hand, and severed seven tendons and three nerves. He lost feeling
from the base of his thumb to his middle finger. He endured 6 months of
physical rehabilitation to regain control of his drawing hand. Ever determined
to keep himself artistically active, he successfully trained himself to draw
with his opposite hand. "The sensations are still a bit miswired in my
drawing hand, so I'm ambidextrous now," says Hughes.
After recovering from the brief
period of disability, he completed his work with their '94 fall t-shirt and
tour design (entitled "Banjo," which is still on sale through Liquid
Blue.) He would have continued working for the band, had Jerry Garcia not
passed away the following year. Between his projects for Club Dead, Hughes was
working as a muralist, and had recently begun painting amusement park rides at Fun Mountain,
in Gatlinburg, TN.
Mural business started calling
Hughes away from home, and he adapted to the gypsy lifestyle with ease.
Transforming his '72 Chevy Golden van into a studio, he spent the better parts
of '95 - '97 traveling across the pan handle of Florida
and on to Pensacola
Beach, painting funky
surf shop murals, making t-shirts, doing window art. Additionally, he was
designing shirts for Eyedye Studios, the Hog's Breath Saloon, and the Audobon
Society.
In ’98 and ’99, Hughes painted his
path to Myrtle Beach, S.C. where he plunged into theme art with
enthusiasm – working for the Sun Fun Festival, Tuscaloosa City Fest, and the Montgomery Jubilee. “Theme art is one of the best ways to get your stuff out there and gain
exposure,” says Hughes.
Shortly thereafter, he was
contracted as a resident artist for the first two franchised Friendly’s Family
Restaurant and Ice cream shops in America.
Haling from the Southern states,
Hughes may not be a Minnesota native, but for the past 7 years the heartland
has been his home, and he intends to keep it that way. If not in Rochester,
then in Minneapolis, where the majority of his contacts reside.
Rochester became home in 1999 when
he brought the mural company to Minnesota on Halloween night, after Hughes
found his Muse – a former Disney-on-Ice skater and award winning photographer,
who has family ties to Mayo Clinic. Finding the area full of potential for
further expansion of his artistic vision, Hughes started off painting window
murals at Struve’s paints, from which spawned a variety of similar jobs.
If Chuck Hughes (Or C. Hues, his
alias,) isn't familiar, then his artwork surely is. His style is very
versatile, and yet unmistakably recognizable-- in his own words, “A playful
combination of Disney, Dr. Seuss, and M. C. Escher but with a defined edge.”
Local works to his credit include
the sign and awning for Rochester's Semva Art Gallery, the waterway at the
Barlow Plaza, and both the sign and fantastical dragon mural gracing the south
wall of Infinity Tattoos on North Broadway, where Hughes assisted in managing the
shop for 2 years.
“Pat [the owner] let me paint
windows and signs when I couldn’t find other work,” Hughes said. He apprenticed
at the shop for a brief time, but the murals kept calling him back to the road,
and he was clambering back up his ladder in no time. In addition to the
multiple murals he has done for hospitals and schools throughout the
South-Eastern U.S, he added giant wrap-around scenic murals for various water
parks in Wisconsin Dells through Lone Willow Studios.
With his roots in the music world,
its no surprise that Hughes has been doing artwork for bands consistently over
the course of his career. Currently he is working with artists in the “jam
band” genre – such the up and coming Northwoods Band, Moe, and Minnesota’s own
Wookiefoot.
Hughes' mastery of various artistic
tools allows him to transform a sketched idea into wide array of items. From
t-shirts, posters, and stickers to larger, more complex projects including
window art, site-specific murals, and backdrops for musical events--such as his
most recent, and decidedly final mural project: The 10 Thousand Lakes Festival
(10KLF) back drop.
The 10KLF is a world music festival held in Detroit Lakes, MN. With 4 stages
and 35 bands featuring artists such as Phil Lesh (originally of the Grateful
Dead), Trey Anastasio (of Phish), and String Cheese Incident, and 10KLF
recently celebrated its 4th consecutive year as one of the most anticipated
events of Minnesota's summer.
Hughes hopped on the project in 2005
and created an original backdrop for the main stage, to which he will
progressively add to over the years for the following festivals, creating a
giant panorama from the original single panel.
Hughes has also had a yearly booth
at the festival, where people can purchase his wildly unique t-shirts known as
Psyca Doodles, which depict strangely enchanting scenes and characters –
usually concealing a secret metaphor. The beauty behind these psychadelic
doodles is the lack of intention with which they are drawn, as Hughes’ style is
based on working in a slightly backward fashion. He prefers to allow the
drawing to take on a life of its own before he assigns a meaning to it, thereby
strengthening its overall effect on the viewer. These shirts can also be found
on sale at Infinity Tattoos, or Hughes website: seehuesarts.com
"I'm turning in my ladder, and
trading in my brush for the pen, the wacom tablet, and photoshop," Hughes
said, and it would seem the appropriate time to do so, with the culmination
of his work at 10KLF, where his t-shirts
and murals meet for perhaps the final time. His career in festival and theme
work both started and ended with music (ironically enough, it also started and
ended with Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead.) This mural artist and parttime
T-shirt guy is ready to start changing lanes and make the transition from
general “Art Guy” to full time Graphic Illustrator.
“The freelance world doesn’t offer
the security that having a family demands – And mine plans to grow in 2007. It
hasn’t been all smiles the whole time. Sometimes the bills pile up and business
that you’re counting on misplaces itself just as those bills come due –But
there are good months, too! I’ve been extremely lucky to have benefactors and
great supporters along the way.”
A member of CBIG (Children’s Book
Illustrator Guild) in Minneapolis, Hughes is working diligently toward his goal
of Children’s Illustrations. Back in 1991, his work was published in Dr. Louis
Josof ‘s book entitled Chistopher’s Miracle,
Having always been drawn to
whimsical, children-geared artwork, Hughes would like his ultimate artistic
contribution to society to involve using his illustrations to spark the
imaginations of children. For Hughes, it has been 16 years of “one wild ride,”
which is now bottled up and eagerly waiting to creatively pour itself into a
company, in an effort to positively influence the lives of today’s youth.
To contact Chuck Hughes and learn
more about his incredible visual
creations, please visit www.seehuesarts.com.
Lisa Marie Nohner is a published
journalist/short-story author, and a Creative Writing Major at Southwest
Minnesota State. She has been writing for fiction for 8 years, with her prime
focus divided between drama and fantasy. Her aspirations after college include
attending graduate school at CalArts in Valencia, wherein she plans to get her
MFA in Creative writing and go on to write for Children’s Programming.
Lisa
loves to meet new people as much as she loves to write. If you would like to
collaborate with Ms. Nohner, or simply to contact her, please visit www.myspace.com/miraclegoodnight
or e-mail her at LisMarie123@aol.com
