My Vantage Point: A retrospective through the eyes of illustration

Description: A retrospective portfolio of the art of illustrator Troy Brown spanning his early career and education at the Art Academy of Cincinnati to his most current work as a freelance children's book illustrator. The book focuses primarily on his institutional and children's book art created for various clients, such as Fifth Third Bank, The Perfect Brew and The Powers Agency. The book also takes us on a journey through Brown's early career as a freelance illustrator in his native town of Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as the later work that was created in North Carolina.

This Art Book stems from a workshop and lecture titled Illustration and Beyond: The Hybridized Tool of Communication, which I gave at Maryville College at the seat of the mountains of Tennessee. A fellow artist and friend of mine, Carl Gombert, had for two years been asking me to visit the college when I would see him during our summer excursions to Utah to facilitate the AP Studio Art Reading via Education Testing Service (ETS). After we completed reading for the summer of 2018, I thought I should give Carl a call. To my surprise, he was slightly unsettled. He told me Maryville's proposed artist-in-residence had dropped out and the college was entertaining the prospect of someone else being offered the spot. It seemed I had called at just the right time.

The exhibit that would accompany my lecture featured about forty works that spanned a good part of my career to date. Since I was going to be giving the workshop for primarily illustration students, we decided to make the exhibit a type of retrospective of my illustration practice. So, about forty works in two galleries became the task, with a limited edition print to commemorate the school's bicentennial celebration.

While planning this exhibition, I thought of how illustration has transitioned over the decades from an artform known as a distant cousin of fine art to a highly skilled tool of communication. We see its impact from early notables like N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish to the more contemporary figures of Seymour Chwast and Brad Holland. This exhibit demonstrates the many genres that illustration spans while giving the viewer a hint as to the thinking of a visual communicator. The works move from familiar genres like children's books to more conceptual topics that are research based. The exhibit demonstrates the flexible nature of illustration and its ability to communicate, from the simplistic to the complex. Today's illustrator has morphed to remain relevant in a world inundated with imagery. The discipline itself has become a hybrid of sorts, giving practitioners the opportunity to forge new genres in the industry and to adjust to suit its demands.