For those of us who work year-round and no longer have the entire summer to goof off or spend at camp, this interview series is here to hopefully brighten up your day and bring some beauty into your inbox. Lexington is fortunate to have multiple art galleries full of beautiful and diverse art pieces. This interview series will feature one local artist a week, where we'll talk about their inspiration, their drive, and even their advice for anyone looking to let their artistic passion take form.
This week we get to talk to Corey Egbert. He's from California and had his first illustration job in 2001 and has been doing full freelance illustration since 2020.
What kind of art do you create?
Mostly illustrations for graphic novels. I've written books and I also do mixed media art.
What inspired you to start creating?
I was a nerdy kid that liked to read books and watch cartoons. My favorite books growing up were 'Where the Wild Things Are' and the Narnia series. I loved watching Cartoon Network shows.
I've always liked to draw. My mom kept my early scribbles and stuff. She said, from a young age I didn't do crazy scribbles, I would draw neat little things. I majored in art at Snow College, then I came here to Southern Virginia University and then I did the graduate program at Syracuse University.
What motivates you to keep making your art?
Fear. (laughs) No, that's a good question. There's a lot of crazy psychology there probably. I don't know, it's always kind of felt like part of my identity, kind of how I express myself. I like to think it's fun; sometimes it's fun. You know, I try to get to the place where it's fun and enjoyable and I'm doing it for myself but it is also my job, so there's kind of the commercial aspect of it and so paying the bills is part of it.
But I also get excited by new ideas that I have. I want to try those out. It's kind of how I work out my thoughts and feelings sometimes too.
Are there any artists you take inspiration from?
Well like I said, Maurice Sendak, the author of 'Where the Wild Things Are' – big inspiration to me. Other visual artists, I mean, there's a lot. Hayao Miyazaki is a big inspiration for me. Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. And then fine artists like Matisse and Picasso.
What sorts of feelings or ideas do you express in your art?
Well, with my illustration work, you know I'm expressing the feelings of characters in stories and stuff. In my graphic novel, 'Visitations,' it's a memoir so I'm literally expressing my own feelings and kind of working out issues with my past and my mom and stuff. This stuff that's on the wall, I'm kind of thinking about the passage of time, death, religion and stuff. So, spirituality. Birds are, like, a symbol I've gravitated towards, like human-bird hybrids and stuff.
How does it feel when someone buys your art?
Um, good? (laughs) No, it's great. I do Mountain Day and Rockbridge Festival and stuff like that. People will come and look at my art, sometimes they'll talk to me about it or I just overhear them talking to their friends and families and say, 'oh, this is cool.' So yeah, that feels good. I especially love [when] people are like, 'oh, this really speaks to me.' Even if they don't buy anything, that means more to me than just buying something. Hearing that somebody resonates with my artwork is a really cool feeling because I think art is kind of a way to connect, especially for me who's kind of like a quiet person. I'm not extroverted at all. Hearing that somebody relates or connects with my art feels really good. It makes you feel like I'm not just a loner weirdo. Because sometimes, you know, what you have to express is non-verbal. So if somebody can understand what that thing is you're doing, it's cool.
Do you have any advice for aspiring artists, at any stage of their lives?
I guess I would say, and it's something that I'm still trying to learn myself, is just do the work, just keep making it. I can be a perfectionist, you know? Sometimes I get so caught up in making something great or something that other people will like or be impressed by, and that's actually paralyzing. So being in that mode, don't know like, …
There's a story. It's like, this pottery teacher divided his class into two parts. One half, he told them, 'You will be graded on the amount of work that you do.' To the other half he said, 'You only need to make one piece, then you will be graded on the quality of that one piece.’ According to this story, the people on the side who made lots of stuff actually made better pieces than the ones who were only graded on one piece. So I guess my advice is just make a lot of stuff. The more you do it, the better stuff you'll make. And yeah, you'll make some crappy stuff but that's all part of the process, you know? And that's advice for me too. I need to get out of my head and just make stuff, you know?
