Career Area: Professor

  • Philip Mullen

    Philip Mullen

    “It’s a very fortunate blessing to find something in life that you like enough that you do it before you’re paid for it.” 

    Philip Mullen is a painter and professor emeritus. Philip Mullen reflects on decades of artmaking and mentoring and why South Carolina and a bathtub shaped his creative life. 

    Interview

    Transcript

     Nora Smith 00:00 

    Alright, to start. What do you do for work, and where are you currently working from?  

    Philip Mullen 00:07 

    Well, I’m a painter of large acrylic paintings, and I have a studio in Columbia. My studio is designed for large paintings. It’s 1300 square feet made as a studio for that. Actually, when I first built the studio in 1989 and when, right after I built it, a national magazine was running this…It was called, The Artist Magazine, and I think it may have had the biggest circulation of any art magazine at the time, because it was, it was aimed at a really clever group, and that was amateur artists who think they’re pros, a very large audience. But it’s, you know, it’s a great audience. It’s a wonderful thing for people to go into. But they used mine as an example of how to set up big paintings.   

    And the two, the two items that kind of got them interested was, I needed a big sink. Big sinks are really expensive, but mobile home Bathtubs are really pretty cheap, and you can mount them up high, like a sink. Of course, the guys who installed it kept saying, what are you going to have a ladder to get into this thing? No, no, guys, it’s a sink. It’s a sink.  

    And then during the time I did, it was, I was represented for 35 years by David Finley galleries in New York.  And those shows, you know, I had, like I said, 14 solo shows with them over the 35 years. And those shows often would have 40 to 45 pieces, half of which have six-foot dimensions, or half of which just had a four-foot dimension, and maybe a few larger ones included. And because the way I do my edges, I can’t set them down, but I’d have a lot of paintings collected up at any one given time. And I designed a very simple rack that I could hang 46-foot paintings on without the edges touching anything.  

    More of an answer than you probably needed. I warn you, I was once interviewed on the radio, and after 10 minutes, the interviewer said, Mr. Mullin, I was kind of hoping to ask a second question. 

    Nora Smith 02:45 

    Okay, well, this one kind of wraps in with the first one. How long have you been working there, and what is your official job title?  

    Philip Mullen 02:53 

    Well, my only official job title now is artist. And I guess I have a sort of official job title as distinguished professor emeritus from USC. I had a very good arrangement with USC. I taught there from 69 to 2000 and, but I took nine, I did not teach in summers, and I took nine years of leave during that time. So, I taught 22 because those New York shows took an enormous amount of time to put together. You really put it this way, my art gallery friends were very suspicious of my teaching, because they said, if you teach, you can’t paint enough. And my teaching friends were very suspicious of my art gallery’s success because they said, “You can’t sell without selling out.” And each of those things probably has some basis in possibility, but there’s certainly things you have to watch out for.  

    Nora Smith 04:06 

    Yeah, well, you just do, you do it all. 

    Philip Mullen 04:10 

    Well, I was a bit of an obsessive worker for decades and decades. It didn’t make me socially very interested, but I got a lot of artwork done. And the teaching, you know, the teaching like that, was wonderful, because I didn’t end up doing it quite, it wasn’t like I was doing it all the time. You know that one period where I literally was taking half, where I had 12 years and only taught during fall semesters, yeah, and so it made my teaching much more exciting for me, and it was like a chance to talk to bright young people about the only thing I knew anything about. And it, you know, while I’m sure there were other teachers that were more talented, as teachers, than I was.  

    The one thing I could bring to it was especially like the graduate students might see me working on a particular painting and then end up seeing that painting reproduced in Arts Magazine, for example. And so, it brought the sense, I think, to students, that it could be something bigger. That was especially  true before I built the studio in 89 because I had a studio at the university furnished and, you know, graduate students and undergraduates were in and out of that while I was down there. 

    Nora Smith 05:40 

    That’s so cool.  

    Philip Mullen 05:42 

    Well, I tell you, it’s, you know, its a very fortunate blessing to find something in life that you like enough that you do it before you’re paid for it. You do it if you’re paid for you do it if you’re not paid for it, you know people, they said, “Oh, man, you’re so disciplined, you’re always in the studio.” I wasn’t disciplined. I was self-indulgent. I was doing what I, you know, that’s what I wanted to be doing.  

    Nora Smith 06:11 

    Yeah. Super cool! Okay, so this is more of a question specific to your area, okay, in the creative field in South Carolina. What is one thing you love about working in the creative field in South Carolina? 

    Philip Mullen 06:29 

    Well, one thing that was that I found really great at first, when I was young and needed to get grants for something, was that while there may not be as many grants here as there are in a bigger city, when you stop to think about how many artists are per grants available, it’s pretty rich here. When I got with my gallery in New York, I’d had the good fortune of being included in a show called the Whitney Biennial. It’s a show at the Whitney Museum in New York, and in 1975, and I knew I wanted to have a gallery in New York, so I wanted to take advantage of that.  

    I took a year off of teaching, moved to New York, and did that, I did have sabbatical money that time. Most of my leaves were unpaid, but I went on sabbatical money.  I spent all of my own money, but got what was at the time, a quite large grant from the Arts Commission to go there. Rented three fifths of Andy Warhol’s old factory, lived and worked in that. Of course, lived illegally.  

    Nora Smith 07:42 

    The commitment, a lot of commitment there.  

    Philip Mullen 07:45 

    Yeah, I learned a couple of very important skills there because of living illegally, you know, because if you’re in a place that is selling commercial in New York, they only have to give you heat six days a week. Oh yes. And so first we crank the heat up, you know, very high on Saturday night and hope to survive till Monday. Later I learned two of the skills I developed was how to hotwire a locked elevator and how to start up a furnace in a big building. And none of the other tenants complained, and the building manager didn’t like the building owner. So, I’m sure he figured it out when he came in every Monday and the furnace was on.  

    Nora Smith 08:29 

    That’s so funny.  

    Philip Mullen 08:32 

    The art world, the painting world, has changed a good bit since then. Now I loved, absolutely loved the notion of earning money, selling paintings in New York and spending money in South Carolina. You can see where that might function. Of course, one of the things I did learn is, if you’re going to do that, you’re not just making paintings and somebody else is doing stuff for you. You are pretty constantly working on business things as well.  

    Nora Smith 09:06 

    For sure, for sure. Yeah. How would you describe your local professional community around you?  

    Philip Mullen 9:16 

    It’s a lot like most places. There’s a few people who are, who are, you know, real top-notch pros to deal with. There’s a lot of people who it’s a hobby for, and it’s a wonderful hobby to take up, you know, I mean, I was reading one time about in different professions, what age you peak at. Or you don’t want to be a female gymnast, you know, you peak very early in life, but being an artist was actually the thing that you the people peaked at the latest in life. Yeah, you know, it’s sort of something that you can do for a long time.  

    So, I would describe most of the community as a sort of normal hobbyist community. But one of the funny things, you know, in certain areas, there’s sort of funny things that occur in terms of how people develop, like, if you want to learn yoga real well, pretty quickly, you end up going into yoga teacher training. I mean, even if you don’t want to teach, you go through yoga teacher training, and all of a sudden, then you’re a trained yoga teacher.  

    Nora Smith 10:33 

    Yeah.  

    Philip Mullen 10:34 

    So, you’re out teaching yoga. If people go and take a painting, go into it. I mean, very quickly, way too quickly. Generally, they feel like they need to get out and start selling their stuff. And I’m a little suspect that was certainly not me. Now, when I did it, I got, I was obviously really serious about it, because, you know, I’ll tell you that year in New York, while it was professionally very important, it was very lonely, I’m going around to galleries, trying to get into galleries. They’re being approached every day by artists. Many of them are not very polite to you. You know, it pretty gruesome thing. You know, to be an artist, you’ve got to have it in one seat. You’ve got to have a big ego. I mean, the idea that, the idea that you can make something and somebody else should actually take time looking at it, is pretty amazing.  

    That they should actually pay you for it is incredible. But myself, like most artists I know, have very fragile egos. You know, it’s so getting out there and trying to do that part about promoting it is something.  

    Now, I did, you know, I lived in New York.  I did not want to raise a family in New York, like South Carolina, that way. You know, in 69 when I was looking for a university teaching position, I very specifically looked at the south, it’s one of those, you know, I didn’t know where I was raised. I went to nine schools before I was out of high school. You know, when I went to college, I thought I’d settle down, and most of us in states in the north, but for three years, it was in Texas, and that was the only place that the weather made any sense to me. So, I focused on South Carolina, and the position I got here worked out so so well for me. Fortunately, I never really had any reason to not want to just stay. 

    Nora Smith 12:55 

    That’s great. That’s great. How would you define success personally? 

    Philip Mullen 13:06 

    Well, I think one of the wonderful things about being a serious artist in an art is that we define other artists’ success in terms of the work they make. We don’t define it in terms of how well they do business. Mm, hmm. We all know people who have who are just out of the out of this world, sensational painters, lot of depth to their work, and all who never get any recognition. We also know people who are just hacks who make tons of money because they’re great business people.  

    Nora Smith 13:45 

    Yeah. 

    Philip Mullen 13:47 

    In a way to me, success has to do with putting together a life in which I could do, spend a lot of time, making paintings. Now, there were parts to that that were, you end up doing some other things in order to make that happen. You know, in my case, one of the things I did was I did an academic PhD, which was, boy, not my forte. I was, I mean, that was three years of struggling, but it gave me a wonderful way to get into a really good academic position, which gave me a basis of support and encouraged me to do a lot of painting early on. In those early years, I used to send a lot of shows around the state, including one to Coastal Carolina, probably back in the early 70s. 

    Nora Smith 14:50 

    How lovely! 

    Philip Mullen 14:51 

    It might have been later than that, because actually, one of my students ended up as a theater professor at Coastal. 

    Nora Smith 14:58 

    Really! Are they still here? 

    Philip Mullen 15:00 

    I would Imagine not, and they must be retired by now. I cannot remember her name. 

    Nora Smith 15:09 

    That’s alright. 

    Philip Mullen 15:10 

    She did have it. Have you ever seen the movie sleeping with the enemy? 

    Nora Smith 15:13 

    No, but I’ve heard of it.  

    Philip Mullen 15:16 

    Yeah. Well, it’s almost just a two-person thing, but she’s a big part in that.  

    Nora Smith 15:21 

    Oh, okay, that’s super cool.  

    Philip Mullen 15:23 

    If you ever watch it, she’s a nurse and she was a professor at Coastal.  

    Nora Smith 15:27 

    Oh, that’s super cool. Okay, great to know. I find out so much doing these interviews with people, yeah, so kind of going back to the beginning of starting your career. What was your biggest fear when you decided that you wanted to do something in the arts? 

    Philip Mullen 15:41 

    My biggest fear, well, I certainly had no encouragement. I’m not going to say the words online that my dad said to me when he realized I was actually going into being an artist. It’s not something you want to publish. So that was, that was a big challenge.  

    Nora Smith 15:58 

    Yeah, I’m sure, I’m sure.  

    Philip Mullen 16:00  

    Fortunately, I ran across people who gave me enough encouragement. One thing that helped me a lot was that I graduated in the lower half of my high school class.  I did not want to go to college. I didn’t know what else to do. I got to, you know, I went to the University of Minnesota. I had been such a poor student, I realized I’d never get through college, so I figured, and I was not an art major, so I figured I’d go hang out with my buddy Mike, who was an art major. And I got over there, and I realized that the beginning art classes were not much fun, and the art majors had to take them, but I didn’t. So, I sort of had to talk this professor into letting me start in that upper level, middle level, I should say mid-level painting course. He did not want to do it, and I was kind of persistent. And he finally said, okay, okay, I’ll let you in and under his breath, he said, “In the other guy’s section.  

    And it turned out the other guy was Ed Corbett, who back when abstract expressionism was getting going, and the Museum of Modern Art did a show of 16 of the young abstract expressionists. Ed Corbett was in it.  So, my first teacher was an absolute top run guy, and I thought, and I had had really very little success in life. So, failure was like, was getting pretty, if not comfortable with it, at least used to it. I just think this is wonderful. These guys get to spend tons of time just making paintings. What could be better? You know? Yeah, I still feel that way. That didn’t go away. And that’s amazing. That’s amazing to have it last that long. You know, I mean, and I was, what was 18 years old, then I’m 82 years old. Now, it’s great to have something stick with you that long.  

    Nora Smith 17:55 

    Yeah, that’s amazing.  

    Philip Mullen 17:57 

    It is, it’s, I don’t feel like taking credit for that so much is just being very thankful that I stumbled upon the stuff that made me want to do that, you know. 

    Nora Smith 18:10 

    Right. So, what would you say is the best and worst advice you’ve ever received about going into the field or being in the field, just some things you’ve heard? 

    Philip Mullen 18:22 

    I can’t think of anything, anything that I really think was best or worst advice. I think a person needs to be realistic about what they’re willing to put into it and what they want out of it.  

    Nora Smith 18:35 

    Yeah. 

    Philip Mullen 18:36 

    I had some wonderful art students over the years, some that I’ve you know remained long term friends with. I don’t know you might, you might even see above my head one of my ex-students works if… 

    Nora Smith 18:46 

    Oh, no, I can’t. 

    Philip Mullen 18:49 

    I pride myself in the fact that my student’s work does not look like mine. It, you know, there’s something important to all that. 

    These two guys are guys that are like me. They’re driven to make this stuff. They can’t help themselves. They’re quite different in terms of how they handle their business around it. Now, that’s one way you can go into it. Now, there’s a lot of other art students who really got a lot out of it, but I’d see him afterwards, and it’s, I always hated this one as subjective. “Well, I hate to tell you, I’m really not painting anymore. I’ve gone into I’m doing something else.” Well, the point wasn’t that everybody becomes a painter.  It’s, you know, you took a sociology class, you took a history class, you took a math class. You can become a mathematician. You know.  

    It’s a lot of that’s about rounding it all out for yourself. Actually, in a way, when I get done with it, a class that I invented that I taught, not for the art department, but for the Honors College, is probably the class that I am most proud of having come up with when I was teaching at the university. It was called the artist experience, and only 15 people could be in it, but you’ll see why as I tell you. It was, it’s basically an art history class, I don’t know, an art appreciation class.  However, you never saw a slide in it. If we learned about ceramics, we went to a ceramic studio. Graduate students there taught each person how to how to make, how to throw a pot. Two weeks later, we go back and do a Raku firing. Say, learn it from the inside out.  

    We visited artists studios and went to art shows. Now, what the purpose of this course was, is not to develop artists, but the purpose was to develop people’s appreciation for the Arts. I think art departments should be doing way, way, way more of that. It’s not so great for the egos of the professors who want to teach graduate students and the people who are really going into it, you know, sure, and I value, you know, these guys work, obviously, who were former students, and I value the kind of careers they put together, but I think as a general service.   

    And then what we would do is we would end the course with a three-day trip to New York. And that was when I had, when I had a lot of good New York connections. My former Los Angeles dealer had moved to New York, and she would lead the trip some. She would lead a day of the trip. Sometimes my own gallery would always do a wonderful thing. Oh, we go to, went up to Peter Finley gallery and his son, Josh, who worked there. And he was young, and the students kind of related to him, you know. And he, I remember, one year he’s passing a sculpture around. It’s about two and a half feet high, heavy pieces going around, gets a halfway around the circle, and he announces that it’s a Dega, with a kid holding it. I mean, he’s probably still clenched in this position, you know? And Josh says,”No, no, no, no. We’re not a museum. We’re trying to sell this piece.” People touch it. I mean that opportunity to, like, hold something like that.  

    I remember going to the Museum of Modern Art, and one of the girls in the class who probably hadn’t gotten too far out of South Carolina Previously, she calls me over to Van Gogh’s Starry Night was up, which calls me, and she says, Dr. Mullen, is this the real Starry Night? Yes, this is a real Starry Night, you know. And my gallery would always take them in the back room and pull out all the paintings for them and stuff. So it was, that’s why I called it the artist experience? We didn’t do it by teaching about art. We did it by experiencing. I didn’t have to worry. I didn’t have to worry about grading. I mean, this is honors college class. They’re all “A” students all the time anyhow. And so, what I did, I did the grades were simply based on attendance and a certain amount of projects they did, they would have to do. I mean, I’d have them do. I don’t know, are you a visual artist at all? 

    Nora Smith 23:53 

    No. 

    Philip Mullen 23:55 

    Okay, well, I had them do an exercise called negative shape drawing.  

    Nora Smith 23:58 

    I think I know what you’re talking about. 

    Philip Mullen 24:00 

    Okay, it’s sort of a, it’s a beginning, it’s a beginning drawing thing. But they would not, and we, you know, we’d spend not the time that an art major would spend on it but would spend a period on that. But they would never grade it on the quality of the work because that’s not the point. The point was to get to the head of it. And, I mean, that is where I would really like to see training in, not just in visual arts, but in the arts in general. Because being an artist does what we imagine, you just make this art and people buy it. That’s like, it’s like being an athlete who plays for; it’s a pretty small percentage of folks that that works out for. And the commitment is just, it’s more than most people really want to make to it and more than we. It makes sense for most people to make, 

    Nora Smith 25:03 

    Yeah. 

    Philip Mullen 25:03 

    And interestingly enough, of any classes I ever took taught, I still, I mean, here I am, 25 years away from having retired to university, and within the last year, I’ve still gotten some correspondence from some of the people who took that course. I mean, it was, you know, it was something that, it’s something that offers a kind of art, art can enrich, enrich everybody’s life. 

    Nora Smith 25:34 

    I agree. I would take that class. I would take that class. 

    Philip Mullen 25:38 

    Oh, whenever they opened it up. It started with seniors, you know, I mean it, it was filled the first day it was opened up.  

    Nora Smith 25:47 

    That sounds awesome, yeah. 

    Philip Mullen 25:51 

    And it was a very simple idea of art appreciation. But whoever got interested in art by looking at slides, I don’t know, you know, whoever got interested in music by memorizing composers? 

    Nora Smith 26:06 

    That’s such a great idea for a class. And I can imagine how amazing that was, teaching that, and the students experiencing that, such a great take on it, because now it seems so distant when you’re looking at slides of how to do things, instead of experiencing it like it completely distances it from you. And it’s, it feels impossible, almost in a way. Yes, yeah, that’s so cool. I love that.  

    Philip Mullen 26:34 

    What is the area that you’re studying in?  

    Nora Smith 26:37 

    I’m in English, in English. So, everything you’re saying, I’m like, it’s going to be my writing, because I would like to be a writer, and so I totally understand the artist. The whole it’s, yeah. 

    Philip Mullen 26:52 

    Every Wednesday, including today, almost every Wednesday, I have lunch with a writing friend of mine. And one of the things that I like about talking with him is it’s so nice to talk across disciplines, because you tend to talk about the bigger picture, as opposed if you talk to people in your own discipline, it can kind of get into, you know, how do you compose this sentence? How do you make this color transition and things like that? And we find that there are so many things about how we work that crossover. 

    Nora Smith 27:44 

    Yes, exactly. That’s so cool. Yeah, everything you were saying, I’m like, yeah, makes complete sense, even to me. So, yeah. So, I’ll keep you updated. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. If you have any questions, just send me an email, send me a text, but I will keep you updated.  

    Philip Mullen 28:06 

    Good. Well, it’s nice to talk to you, Nora.  

  • Fran Coleman

    Fran Coleman

    “Anything is possible. Anything is possible. You just have to be creative”

    Fran Coleman is an associate professor of voice and choral activity at Francis Marion University. Fran’s teaching spans from voice lessons, directing choirs and any other coral activity. Fran is located in Florence S.C. and currently teaches but is also a performer as well as producer with a regional party band called Emerald Empire band.  

    Interview

    Transcript

    0:03 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, perfect. So, to start off, what do you do for work and where are you currently working from? 

    0:09 | Fran Coleman 

    I do a lot of work. Currently, I work at Francis Marion University. I am an associate professor of voice and choral activities there. So, I teach voice lessons. I direct all of their choirs. I arrange any kind of Choral Activities that might be on or off campus. I arrange any kind of vocal recitals, anything like that. I arrange. We also have a couple of other vocal groups. We have a jazz ensemble and a music industry ensemble. I don’t direct those, but I do work with most of the singers that are in those groups, just by default music.  

    1:03 | Emma Plutnicki 

    How long have you been working there? 

    1:05 | Fran Coleman 

    This is my seventh year. Yeah, this is the end of my seventh year. So I’m also a performer and a producer with a regional party band. So I obviously sing and perform with them, but I also put together events with them. I work with our, with our vendors, with our, with our, obviously, with all of our clients. I work with them. I’m kind of like the third party between them and the vendor and the band also. So I kind of wear multiple hats when it comes to them, because when I am dealing with them before the event, I’m the producer, as far as helping them to plan the event, plan out what the band is going to do, how the band how the band is going to fit into their event schedule. When I get on site, I am kind of the band manager, as far as advocating for the band, making sure the band gets their breaks, making sure that they can, especially like last summer, when it was super duper hot, making sure they, you know, get water, make sure they get their dinner break and all that kind of stuff.  

    2:16 | Fran Coleman 

    And then when I’m on stage, I am the performer.  I wear lots and lots of hats when I’m with the band as well. And then I’m also a classical singer. That’s kind of a freelance thing. I sing with a lot of different churches in the area for weddings, funerals, Sunday services. I sing with the symphony in the area. I also sing with the Long Bay symphony at Myrtle Beach. I do a lot of regional work just with other events in the Carolinas and Georgia. When it comes to the arts, I always like to say that you have to wear a lot of different hats. You have to be willing to have a kind of piecemeal life together. You have to be willing to, you have to be willing to have lots of different side hustle. And if you’re willing to do that, you’re going to be fine. But it’s like understanding that you have to know where your passion is, if to know why you’re doing it, you know. 

    3:24 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, amazing, yeah. It sounds like you have a lot of things pulling you in different directions. But what is one thing that you like specifically about working as a creative in South Carolina? 

    3:40 | Fran Coleman 

    You know, moving down here, I moved from Richmond, Virginia, which is a fairly different size city, you know, then particularly Florence, which is where I’m at, but even Conway, or Charleston, for that matter, I mean, Richmond’s a pretty, pretty decent sized city, which I wasn’t, I really wasn’t ready to realize until I moved, but it was really nice to move to an area that appreciated the arts as much as they do. This area really appreciates the arts and and they’re willing to pay for it.  

    3:40 | Fran Coleman  

    You know what I mean? Like, I feel like in Richmond, I was constantly advocating for artists to be paid for what they do, constantly, constantly advocating. When I was in Richmond, the hustle was even more real when I mean I was, I wasn’t a full-time professor up there. I was an adjunct professor, which is what’s called a part time professor. Where I was, I was part time at several different universities around the state. Some were a couple hours away. Some were less than, you know, an hour away.  

    4:58 | Fran Coleman 

    But either way, I was trying. Traveling a lot. I was working with several different nonprofit organizations to advocate for the arts. And I was working with Virginia opera, which was a couple hours away. I mean, it was just, it was a lot a lot of driving, and a lot a lot of hustle, and that was and the basis of all of that hustle was advocating for the arts, advocating for the artists to be paid, you know, and to be such a cosmopolitan area, it’s amazing how little they wanted to pay for the arts. So, to move down here and to come to an area where the arts were so appreciated, the very second question after you know, what can you offer? Is, what is your fee? And I was just dumbfounded, because I was like, wow, okay, let me think about it, because I didn’t know. So, so that I really do love is how appreciated the arts are around here. 

    6:00 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, amazing. And have you been able to find a professional community within South Carolina that you kind of meet with, or how would you describe your local professional community? 

    6:14 | Fran Coleman 

    Well, you know, through the band, through the band that I work with is called Emerald Empire band. And Emerald Empire band, excuse me, I have a frog in my throat. Emerald Empire band is part of a larger organization called the International Musicians League. And so that International Musicians League is literally International, and it spans across the world. And so I was with them in Virginia as well. Up there, they were called the Bachelor Boy Band. And so when I moved down here, I was able to transition over to Emerald. And so they really helped me to find a large entity of professional musicians that I wanted to be a part of and through them, I was able to branch out and kind of find a little bit more of that, like classical entity that I was looking for. But also in working with the Florence Symphony Orchestra and the Long Bay symphony orchestra, and then also through working with some of the other musicians in Emerald, I was able to meet some of the some of the other crossover musicians like myself that do classical as well as contemporary music, that work in the Charleston area and as well as in the Columbia area. I also sing with a nonprofit in Columbia called Palmetto Opera. 

    7:40| Fran Coleman 

    And so I was able to meet some of the other classical players in the Columbia area. So through all of those entities, I feel like I’ve been able to really like I’ve been able to really dig into the contemporary pool of players. I’ve been able to scratch the surface when it comes to the classical players. I know there are so many more that I would love to get in touch with and start collaborating with. There’s a fantastic woman in the Florence area who is doing some work with the Met, the Florence Masterworks Choir. She’s doing some work rebuilding their website and helping to build their database, and she has created an organization called the Ladies Who Lunch, and that is a group of ladies, all who work within the arts community in Florence, whether it be through visual arts or performing arts.  

    8:40 | Fran Coleman 

    And we all try and get together at least once a month, just to kind of talk through things that are happening, things that are, you know, things that need to happen, things we like to see happen. And so that’s a great, great way to try and keep things moving. And so that’s been happening, and so that’s really good. Things like that are what need to continue to happen, right? Just having conversations, and just knowing who to have conversations with, right? Yeah, particularly within the female community, you know, because even in 2025 we’re still so subdued, yeah, so yeah, yeah, 

    9:27 | Emma Plutnicki 

    No, it sounds like a great community, and hopefully it continues to grow. And with all the hats that you wear, you know, how do you define professional or personal success in such creative fields? 

    9:44 | Fran Coleman 

    Oh, I used to put dollar signs on it. I don’t anymore. I really define success in how full my heart is. You know, if I’m waking myself up and putting myself to bed? Every day with music, then that’s how I define my success.  

    10:03 | Emma Plutnicki 

    That’s great. It really is great. So have you had a kind of major project in your life, or, I don’t know, like a defining moment in your creative journey that’s made a significant impact on you, or something that you have produced or sang, or project that you’ve worked on that has really showcased your creativity? 

    10:36 | Fran Coleman 

    So many things. I try and keep the creative fires burning as much as I can. This particular semester, I’ve got, like, next week, we have an event happening at a little restaurant in Florence called Victor’s. And so, through the Palmetto opera, I was introduced to a kind of dinner, a dinner theater type event called up, called, what they call it, Villa Tronco. And Villa Tronco is just a restaurant in Columbia, and excuse me, it’s like a it’s like a dinner theater where two opera singers get up and they just sing a few songs, and then they take a little break, and then they sing another few songs, they take a little break, and then they get up and they sing a few more, and then they take a little break all and all of it is paired with meals and then within those pairings are like little mini sets. And those little mini sets include some backstory behind the areas. And there’s always a duet within each of those mini sets, and there’s an explanation behind it.  

    12:00 | Fran Coleman 

     Anybody is invited to these dinner theaters like you don’t have to be a world-renowned opera buff to understand. I kind of borrowed their idea, and I took it to Victor’s, which is a restaurant in Florence, and I said, I’ve got this great business model, and I would love to bring it to Victor’s. Victor’s is like one of the classier restaurants in Florence, and they have a great back room, like, a kind of conference room area where they could kind of create a nice little dinner concept and sell reservations. And so that was a great success. We did that a couple times, so it was really successful. And we’ve got another one coming up in February, and so far, it’s been really successful. We had one scheduled for October, and it was the day before Halloween, and it didn’t sell like we wanted, so we had to end up postponing that one.  

    12:55 | Fran Coleman 

     That was, unfortunately, not as great, but the one we had coming up in February was really successful, so that was great. I did an event on campus last year with where it was called singing the legacy of black female composers, and I paired that with some of my current students along with some of my alumni students, and we did a whole concert where we sang nothing but music of black female composers, and we talked about the works of these women and all of the great all of the great information, all of the great things they did. We talked about all sorts of amazing things they brought to us as composers, as women, and that was really cool. Back home, I worked with a couple of nonprofits where we built a Mozart Festival every year in different parts of the city.  

    13:55 | Fran Coleman 

    That was amazing. I mean, every year it was, and it was almost all completely female run. You know, that was amazing. Every year, I am the only female that helps to put together this event called FSO Rocks at the end Florence, where it’s the Florence Symphony Orchestra, and we do all classic rock music. So that’s really amazing. Anytime I can help build something new and exciting that is even the slightest bit different. I always like to say that, you know, I kind of like Winnie the Pooh. I’m not your average bear. Yeah, you know, yeah. Anytime I anytime I can, anytime help out, like, with something that’s slightly different, I try and get involved. So great. 

    14:47 | Emma Plutnicki 

    And when you decided to go into a creative profession, did you have any fears about that? Like, what was your biggest fear? 

    14:55 | Fran Coleman 

    I mean, I’m always fearful of the unknown, but ultimately I. Um, I let anybody who says they don’t think I can handle it fuel me, like anytime I’ve ever had a professor to say, I don’t know if this is for you or you might want to try something different. I let them. I let that fuel me to say, oh, really, really, watch me, you know, and I let that kind of feel me. And so that’s what’s gotten me to where I am. Any negative feedback has been what’s got me to where I am? Yeah, it’s not, it’s not pulled me down. 

    15:37 | Emma Plutnicki 

    What’s the worst advice that you’ve ever gotten, or the best advice? 

    15:45 | Fran Coleman 

    Well, when I first got to undergraduate school, I was so in when I was a senior in high school, my dear and bestest friend from, like, literal infancy, um, she, she and her dad and my dad were like, best friends. They like went to military school together. They were stationed in Germany together. They like, we were born two months apart. Like, we were raised together, you know. And she died in a car accident when we were, like, 17, just boom, two months before graduation, gone. Dead. And it was just, I mean, it just, it shook your world, you know. And so, I didn’t go straight to high school. I mean, I didn’t go straight to college straight after graduation. I just moved out after high school, and just kind of like, got a couple jobs and started singing in bands, and started going to open mic nights and just kind of sewing my musical oats and deciding what I might want to do with my life. I just didn’t know. I just knew that if God could take Kim at 17, he could take me too, you know, and so, so I just knew that I needed to explore what, what the world had to offer me. And so that’s what I did. And so, one band led to another, led to another, led to another, until eventually I started getting into some, some significantly successful bands, and we started doing some touring up and down the coast, and things were doing really well, until eventually that van broke up. I was about 24 at that point, 23 maybe, landed back in Richmond, and I said, okay, now what do I do? And so, I decided I would go back to college.  

    17:38 | Fran Coleman 

    And I started, you know, taking some like, gen ed classes at community college. And then by the time I was 24 I decided, okay, I’m going to go back to Virginia Commonwealth University, which is kind of like the USC of Richmond, you know, big urban campus. They’ve got a great music program, and I was going to learn how to really sing, right? And they are a very, very traditional school in 2001 which was at the time when I decided to go back to school. They had removed their jazz voice program, which in 1994 when I originally auditioned for the school, they had they didn’t tell me, they dropped it, right?  

    18:24 | Fran Coleman 

    So, like, when I re-auditioned with the exact same two songs that I auditioned in 1994 for, they didn’t tell me, they dropped it. So when I got in again, I was like, Okay, well, I’m going to be a jazz voice major. And I was, I was alerted very, very, very staunchly in the middle of theory class, that I was not a theory, that I was not a jazz voice major, but I was classical voice major. And so, so that was a little daunting and so that was eye opening to know that I was going to spend the next four years singing classical music when I’d never sung a note of classical music before. And so I spent the next at least two years fighting that tooth and nail and so many, many of my teachers in undergraduate school were not pleasant to me.  

    19:19 | Fran Coleman 

    They basically compartmentalized me and said, oh well, she sings rock music, so she must be an alto or a mezzo. No, I’m really not. I’m very much a high soprano. But they didn’t give me the benefit of trying to listen to me or understand me at all because they didn’t want to. So that was very frustrating those first two years, so and so, and that’s really the negativity that fueled me, but at the same time, I needed to find an outlet, because I knew I couldn’t just in classical music. So that’s when I started. Kind of moonlighting, so to speak, with the jazz department at school. And instead of just singing with the madrigalists, which was like the very traditionalist a cappella group, I sang with the small jazz ensemble, and then I was invited to sing with the large jazz ensemble, which was like their big band, you know.  

    20:19 | Fran Coleman 

    And I really fell in love with jazz music. And then I started, you know, studying like Jazz, Jazz vocal pedagogy, and I was able to do an independent study with them, and, and I was able to study with one of the best jazz drummers that this country’s ever seen, you know, and, and I was able to make some fabulous connections that I still have to this day, and that have stuck with me for 20 years, you know, and it’s just, it’s, it’s been phenomenal. And they, they really are, who got me through undergraduate school. Now, mind you, I fell in love with classical music in the meantime, and I ended up getting a doctorate in opera. And I love classical music. 

    20:58 | Fran Coleman 

    And like I said, I you know, both of the nonprofits that I worked with in Richmond were both classical. One of them was the Classical Revolution, and the other one was a small nonprofit opera company that I helped build from the ground up. And so, I love classical music, and I will sing classical music till the day I die, but I’m never going to not sing other things either, you know what I mean, I can’t, I can’t just sing one thing. That’s not who I am. I’m somebody that has to have my hand in lots of different cookie jars, because that’s just the world we live in, and that’s the person I am, you know? So, um, so that’s, and that’s also the teacher I am as well.  

    21:39 | Fran Coleman 

    That’s, that’s who, in my opinion, we need to be as singers, is, is somebody that is diverse in what we sing, in what we represent as performers. Because there’s just, there’s too much talent and there’s too much to say, you know. So, if you want an active job as a performer, you need to be able to say a lot of different things and in a lot of different ways. 

    22:11 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, wow. That’s been an incredible journey for you. Thank you for sharing all that. So nowadays, what does your typical workday look like? What’s expected of you daily, 

    22:25 | Fran Coleman 

    On Mondays and Wednesdays…Mondays, I have voice lessons in the morning and then we have studio in the afternoon, meaning, like either recital, like with the whole voice department, or the, excuse me, the whole music department, or just my voice studio in the afternoon, and then I have my women’s choir in the afternoon after that. And then on Tuesdays, I have voice lessons in the morning, and then I have my University Choir in the afternoon. On Wednesdays, I just have voice lessons. On Thursdays, I have voice lessons in the morning, University Choir in the afternoon, and then my men’s choir after that. And then on Fridays, I generally try and keep that free for you know, personal like if I have makeup lessons, or if I have doctor’s appointments, or if I have personal appointments, or, you know, interviews, things, whatever need to happen. And then on the weekends, you know, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday is generally set aside for gigs and things like that too. 

    23:37 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, amazing. So how do you create that kind of work life balance when you have a busy schedule, where you’re able to kind of have professional creativity, but then also have some time for personal creativity? 

    23:50 | Fran Coleman 

     Last semester, really, last year 2024, was probably the busiest year I’ve had in probably a decade, and it was, it was so busy for me. I mean, it was great. Everything was great. Like all of them, all the work I had was all good work, but it was so much. It was so demanding. And last fall in particular, I was supposed to be teaching four classes. I ended up teaching seven classes because my part time professor resigned, so I had nobody else to teach but me. And instead of telling anybody that I can’t help them, I just say, no, I’ll do it. I’ll just take another class. I’ll take another student. And so, I ended up overloading myself by like, three classes, right? 

    24:45 | Fran Coleman 

     And then the fall is always busy with the band, so I ended up in triple overload academically, and then I ended up with over 70 singing engagements on me. Calendar, and between that, between all of the teaching and all of the singing, I ended up by December and then, so with not being able to find a healthy work life balance, I ended up getting sick constantly. I mean, I was sick constantly last semester, from the end of September until the middle of December. I think I got sick at least five times. It was like, every time I got better, I’d get sick again. It was like, it was just this constant roller coaster of like, you know, it was like a sinus infection, and then it was a cold, and then it was an upper respiratory infection.  

    25:45 | Fran Coleman 

    Then everything just sits right here, when you’re a singer, you know, it’s just and it was just horrible. And so, I would get better long enough to, you know, regain my voice for the next gig, and then, and then I would get sick again, and then I would sing through illness, and then I would get better enough to sing for the next gig. And then I would, you know, lose my voice. And that, you know what I mean, and that the window of time that I would have to get my voice back was getting wider and wider and wider until eventually I was getting really worried, and so I went to my otolaryngologist, which, if any vocalist is having a challenge with their voice, I would say, don’t just go to your standard ENT down the street, because God bless them. If you have a cleft palate, if you have a deviated septum, if you have chronic sinus infections, if you have you know concern of laryngeal cancer. 

    26:44 | Fran Coleman 

     You know any standard ENT issue go right, but anything else that is pertaining to the singing voice, please go to an otolaryngologist that is who is trained to know things about the singing voice, and I went to go see mine. And I had, I had a vocal injury, you know, and so I had to go on strict vocal rest for two and a half weeks. And for the very first time in my entire adult singing life, I couldn’t sing for Christmas. I’ve never been able to sing for Christmas, and it was heartbreaking, you know.  

    27:23 | Fran Coleman 

    And so that was really, really sad. And that was, that was, that was the result of not knowing or not being able to find a good work life balance, you know, yeah. And so that’s sad. And so that’s that, that’s, that’s how I had to find that. That’s how I had to know, unfortunately, a better, that’s how I had to find a better work life balance this semester. You know? 

    27:55 | Emma Plutnicki 

    So just as we wrap up, are there any, is there anything else you want to add, or any questions you wish I may have asked that I didn’t? 

    28:21 | Fran Coleman 

    I can’t think of anything right off the top of my head. Um, you know, like I said before, it’s like, you know, the life of an artist is not one for the faint of heart. You know, I certainly don’t deter anybody from it. If you have a passion for anything, if you have a passion for singing, if you have a passion for painting, if you have a passion for set design or costume design or makeup or arts administration, or, you know, sound work or production or anything, you know, I mean, anything in the arts is going to be challenging. Anything, anything that does not live in a box, is going to be challenging, right? But if it is what makes you happy, then do it right? Because think about how many times you go out into the world, whether it be to the grocery store or to pick up you know, your food order, or your, you know, your dry cleaning, or whatever it’s like.  

    29:25 | Fran Coleman 

    And you deal with miserable people who want to be miserable. Nobody wants to be miserable. Be happy and spread happiness. And the only way to do that is to find what brings you joy. You know, so the best way to find, the best way to do that is to is to do what brings you joy, and if that is not ultimately lucrative upfront, then you have to find ways to bring the funding. You know what I mean. Anything is possible. Anything is possible. You just have to be creative. 

    29:49 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, that’s great advice and a great perspective. Amazing. So last thing. Do you have anybody that is in your life that’s a creative working in South Carolina that you would like to nominate or think would be beneficial for us to talk to?  

    30:23 | Emma Plutnicki 

    I could also just have you think on it and send you, yeah, if anybody comes to mind, we have a nomination link where you can input somebody. 

    30:34| Fran Coleman 

     Yeah, yeah. Let me think on it, and then I can maybe send you, like, a list of a few people. 

    30:37 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, that’d be great, amazing.  

    30:41 | Fran Coleman 

    I’m always the type of person that likes to think of a bunch of things since I walk out the door. 

  • Terry Roberts

    Terry Roberts

    “There’s always something new to learn, if you really believe in yourself then something will happen.”

    Terry Roberts is a conductor, professor, and lifelong musician in Florence, South Carolina. He leads with passion and perseverance across every stage.

    Transcript

    Emma Plutnicki | 00:01 

    Okay, so first, what do you do for work and where are you currently working from?  

    Terry Roberts | 00:06 

    I’m the coordinator of music at Francis Marion University, and I’m a professor for various different classes and ensembles, and I’m also the music director of the Florence Symphony Orchestra. So, this is all in Florence, of course. I’ve been here, I’ve been a conductor since 2003 and with the University for about 16 years. I believe.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 00:31 

    Amazing. So, what is one thing that you love about working in South Carolina, specifically?  

    Terry Roberts | 00:37 

    Well, normally, you can play golf year-round, but not now. Well, I was raised in the South mostly. I’m from Oklahoma originally, but, yeah, most of my life I’ve lived in the South. It’s a lot nicer, calmer. I had friends, one friend of mine, who’s a soloist, said “The only reason to go to New York is to get the check and leave.” So yeah, I was in Europe for a long time. When I moved back, people asked why I didn’t move to New York. I said, “Well, I can get to New York real easy. I don’t need to live there.” So yeah, and I get up there to do some gigs. But, yeah, one week’s about all I can stand in there.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 01:25 

    Fair. So, what does South Carolina bring to your work? Does it have any unique influence on your work compared to working anywhere else, working in New York?  

    Terry Roberts | 01:37 

    Well, like I said, I’ve had, I’ve had the good fortune to live in several different places. So, I’m more like trying to bring what I’ve learned culturally in different countries, different places in the United States, to impart that information, if you will, to my students and also to the public, and culturally speaking simply. South Carolina obviously has a lot of history. One of my professors was a famous composer from Latta, just up the street here, Carlisle Floyd, and I studied with him when I was in Florida State University, and I played some of his works and things like that.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 02:28 

    And how would you describe kind of the working community in South Carolina? How is your local professional community?  

    Terry Roberts | 02:38 

    Oh, well, Florence especially is sort of booming. To be quite honest, when I moved here, I wasn’t going to stay, but things change you know. That’s fate, as they say, and this particular community has really just blossomed. I mean, we have two major hospitals, several major companies have moved here, and culturally, it’s just a gold mine. There’s a lot of culture going on here, and there’s a lot of talent within the community. So, it’s great. I mean, it’s very refreshing, and everyone loves to partake in the arts here, which is great. And I try to be diverse as possible, which is a hard thing to do anyway, but to include as many people as I can in the arts. So, I mean, when I had hair, long hair, I played in rock bands and all that stuff. So, you know, I’ve sort of done everything, if you will, so just a classical player.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 03:46 

    Amazing yeah, so within your working in a creative field, how do you define personal success and professional success?  

    Terry Roberts | 03:57 

    Oh, wow. Well, for me, personal success is being able to learn more every day. You never stop learning in music. There’s always something new to learn and to hopefully to grow a bit every day. Professionally, I’ve been blessed to have done a lot of different things. I’ve played in all the major, I played French horn, solo horn in Europe for 16 years, and I played in all the major opera houses, concert halls in Europe and the United States. And that was, I was very fortunate. I was able to learn two more languages, you know. So, all those things are because of music. I got to see a lot of the world. So, it, I’ve been very fortunate. And it wasn’t easy at first, I have to admit, you know, but I think everyone who’s successful has to persevere.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 05:08 

    Yeah, amazing. So, you said it was difficult. Were there any fears that you had when you first decided to step into a profession in the arts?  

    Terry Roberts | 05:18 

    Well, my father has a PhD in music education. He was a chairman of music for years at universities, and so I was sort of raised in that environment. And I thought about actually becoming a pilot, that really intrigued me. But then I would have to stop playing, and I really wanted to play. And I mean, I’ve been playing some instruments since I was six years old, so, you know, and playing music is almost mathematical too, so that sort of tied in. I thought about piloting or architecture and things that, and my father encouraged me to do that because he didn’t want me to be a poor musician. But, but anyway, it worked out. So, it was hard at first. I mean, when I got to Germany, I was going to study for one year, and I had like, $250 in my pocket and a horn and two suitcases, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. And it just sort of blossomed from there. So, I was very fortunate. Right place at the right time, so to speak.   

    Emma Plutnicki | 06:24 

    Yeah, it’s great how it works out that way. Were there any people in your life giving you advice? Do you remember like the best advice or the worst advice that you ever received?  

    Terry Roberts | 06:39 

    Well, I mean, gosh, there’s so many different people. My teacher, he was very famous horn player, Erich Penzel in Germany. He gave me a bunch of tips about how to handle conductors and now I’m a conductor, so it’s funny. And I would talk to a lot of different conductors, I worked under some very big names, and I would ask them how they went into the field. And all of them, all of them, talk about perseverance, and talk about, when you’re starting out, how hard it is, and it is. You just have to be at the right place at the right time. You know, there’s, there’s plenty of people out there that can do my job, but I just happen to get lucky, you know? I tell my students, “There’s always someone waiting to take your place.” You have to think that way. You have to, you have to practice. You have to always continue to get better. You can’t just sit and do nothing. And that, I believe that still to this day. I mean, the orchestra could say one day, “oh, come on and get someone else,” you know, with different ideas, you know.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 07:46 

    Makes sense. And within your career, has there been one particular project that has made a significant impact on your life or a project that you think really showcased your creativity and kind of was the pinnacle of your career?  

    Terry Roberts | 08:15 

    I don’t think I’ve reached that yet. To be quite honest. I hope I haven’t. I’m very proud of some of the works I’ve commissioned to be premiered with this orchestra, and I’m doing another work next fall, in October, that a former student of mine is writing. So, I’m always very proud when former students are successful. It makes me, you know, it’s like having your own children be successful. You know, which I do have children, they’re somewhat successful to me.  

    Terry Roberts | 08:58 

    I mean, it’s always good, when you see someone succeed and you’ve been nurturing them and sort of mentoring or whatever, you know. So, yeah, I mean, I like helping out young people, and I think that’s probably one of my best things around.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 09:18 

    I love that. So nowadays, what does a typical workday look like for you? What’s your work process and what’s kind of expected of you on a daily basis?  

    Terry Roberts | 09:32 

    Well, one thing about the arts, it’s never the same every day. I mean, obviously at the university you have your schedule. But, like, I’ve just done three days of rehearsals with three different ensembles, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And today, I gotta regroup. I’ve gotta get ready for a different ensemble. Yeah, so and then I’ll teach a bit. I always have one day, and this is my day actually. I always have one day during the week where I try to regroup, and that’s Thursday this semester. But normally I come into the office, I start answering emails, which there’s plenty of, and stuff like that, and then I’ll start studying whatever music I need to be studying for the next concert I’m doing, or next project I’m doing. And at the same time, I’m doing budgets for the orchestra, budgets for the music program, things like that and people are asking me for money and all that neat stuff, a lot of paperwork. I mean, everyone goes, “Oh, so it must be so great be a musician.” I say, “Well, you know, when you spend 75% of your time doing the other stuff, so you can be a musician, yeah, it’s really great when you make music.”   

    Emma Plutnicki | 10:53 

    So how are you able to keep that work life balance where you’re able to work on your professional responsibilities, but then also have time for personal creativity?  

    Terry Roberts | 11:07 

    It’s, actually not that hard. It’s all about time management. And, you know, teaching my students about that, that’s the one thing that you know, ever since I was, gosh, since I don’t know “it,” or whatever. The first thing I do every day is do some music. You know, whether it’s practice, listen, study or something, that’s the first thing you want to do every day. That sort of like, gets you going, then you can take care of all this, other things like that. So, I don’t think it’s hard to balance it out. I like to play golf, I like to watch sports, crazy about the football stuff right now and, you know, I try to have other interests. And everyone you know, sort of, you know -I hate saying this. Everyone thinks that I’m just focused on music. I said, “You know, I have a normal life,” you know, and that’s what you have to have, is a normal life.  

    Terry Roberts | 12:10 

    So, you have to shut it down sometimes. And I get, you know, nervous or excited, whatever. But you have to learn how to turn it off, too. And that’s, that’s difficult, and some days I’ll get pretty perturbed, you know? But you always have to look for a solution. You can’t stay perturbed. You have to figure out what you can do. After every rehearsal, I like to sit down for a second and just think about what I can do to make something better. You know, after when I teach something, did I teach it correctly? Or can I make it better? Make it more understood, if you will. So, it’s, it’s a, you know, different lifestyle. It’s not going into the office, clocking in, do your work, there, go have lunch. It’s not that. You’re sort of married to music, but you have to, just like with your spouse, you have to spend a little time away from it.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 13:20 

    That’s a great perspective to have.   

    Terry Roberts | 13:23 

    I once told someone, I’ve known my horn longer than I’ve known my wife.   

    Emma Plutnicki | 13:27 

    Yeah, there you go. True. Perfect. So just as we wrap up, are there any other questions you wish I would have asked, or anything else you’d like to add about you, know, your career and your life.  

    Terry Roberts | 13:43 

    I think the most important thing for anyone in the arts doesn’t matter, music, art, theater, whatever, that you cannot become discouraged. And that’s easy to say, very easy to say, because I have been discouraged many times. I’ve done auditions all over the world, and, you know, been disappointed, gotten almost there, and you feel really disappointed afterwards, but you have to persevere. You can’t just stop, you know. If you really love what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter. And I used to say, “the money will come later.” Yeah, you have to pay bills. Yeah, you have to know how to do a budget and all that stuff. But, if you persevere, if you really believe in yourself, then something will happen. It might not be exactly the way you thought. I mean, I didn’t think I was going to be a professor. After growing up that way I swore, I’d never do that. Here I am, you know. So you just never know the path, you have to be flexible and persevere.   

    Emma Plutnicki | 15:22 

    Well perfect. Do you have any other creatives in your life that you think would be good for us to interview? Can you think of anybody?  

    Terry Roberts | 15:40 

    My wife, she was a prima ballerina in Pacific Northwest Ballet in France and we met in Monte Carlo. We were both working there, and she does the ballet here. She’s artistic director of the South Carolina Dance Theater.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 15:58 

    Okay, amazing. If we could get her contact information, or I can send you the link to nominate an individual.  

    Terry Roberts | 16:05 

    I’ll just email you her email address and whatever.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 16:08 

    Okay, amazing. That’d be great.   

    Terry Roberts | 16:11 

    She’s seen more of the world than me. She has literally been around the world. But she’s from Wilmington, North Carolina, of all things. And she went to North County School of the Arts and studied. Well, she’d been dancing since, professionally, she started at 17. Dancers have a short lifespan, you know. Then she went into teaching, so I never saw her dance. I met her when she was finished dancing, so.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 16:41 

    She’s got to still be dancing a little bit these days, right?   

    Terry Roberts | 16:44 

    Well, she demonstrates. And sometimes she says, “I shouldn’t have demonstrated that.”  

    Emma Plutnicki | 16:50 

    Yeah.  

    Terry Roberts | 16:53 

    So, she choreographs and runs the ballet here.  

    Emma Plutnicki | 16:57 

    Okay, amazing. That would be great if you could send that over.  

  • Tori Hord

    Tori Hord

    “The more you push yourself out of your comfort zone and out of the box you’re used to, the more confident you get.” 

    Tori Hord is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. She grew up in Loris, S.C., and earned her bachelors in graphic design at Coastal Carolina University. She continued her graphic design with a  Master of Graphic Design M.G.D. at North Carolina State University.  

    Interview

    Transcript

    Tori Hord

    My name is Tori Hord. I am from Loris, South Carolina, so very close to Coastal [Carolina University], like 30-ish minutes. And I currently teach graphic design at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

    Emma Plutnicki

    So how long have you been working there?

    Tori Hord

    Seven years.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Wow. Amazing. And your official job title, would that just be graphic design teacher?

    Tori Hord

    Associate Professor of Graphic Design.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Amazing. So how did you get into that? How did you find that job? And how did you just end up in that field overall?

    Tori Hord

    That’s an interesting, so I started when I started Coastal. I went to undergrad there, I started as a biology major. About a semester or two semesters in, I decided to switch my major to graphic design without telling any of my family and made them all have a small heart attack when they found out.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Oh my gosh.

    Tori Hord

    But it’s always something that I’ve loved. So it was a really good change for me. And from there, I just, I was just very passionate about it. And when I graduated, I got a job in the field. And I worked there for a couple years and then decided that I wanted to pursue my masters in graphic design. So I went and got a masters in graphic design from NC State. And then when I graduated from NC State, there were, y’know, lots of applying to jobs, and I landed here in Fayetteville at Methodist University.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Amazing. So what made you switch from biology to graphic arts? Was it more hating biology? Or was it more a passion for graphic arts?

    Tori Hord

    It was more passion for sure. Always loved it growing up, but just never considered or thought of it as a turning something I loved into the career. And once I figured out that I could do that, I was like, “Absolutely. Let’s do this.”

    Emma Plutnicki

    Yeah. More fun, probably. So can you walk us through a typical work day? Like, what’s expected of you, what your work process looks like, what kind of things you work on?

    Tori Hord

    Yes, absolutely. So for me, I think being, teaching design and being a professor, you kind of get the best of both worlds. So my initial attraction to teaching it, you know, other than just loving the subject and wanting to share more was that it has a great schedule. You have time for, you know, it’s a great work life balance for the most part. And that also gives you lots of time to continue to work in the field, which I was adamant about not stopping, I didn’t want to stop my design career to teach, I wanted something that would allow me to do both. And that’s what the shop does, which I love it, you get a great schedule, you get a, you know, it’s a steady, it’s not like you’re freelancing all the time, it’s a steady income. Day to day, it depends on what classes I have offered, but I teach anywhere from two to three, like studio length classes a day. So I’m in the art building, in the studio, working with students. And then when I’m not teaching I’m in my office, you know, doing housekeeping things and preparing and also working on my own work.

    Tori Hord

    Amazing. So the classes that you teach, are those different levels of graphic designer, or do they have specialties within them?

    Tori Hord

    Yes, I teach at all levels. So I teach the freshmen their first semester, on up to the seniors in their last semester. And everything in between. So I see a little bit of all of them all the time.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Yeah, that’s great. So can you describe a defining moment in your, like, creative journey so far? So maybe it’s a specific project that really showcased your creativity or had a significant impact on you?

    Tori Hord

    The one, this is ironic, but the one that really comes to mind as being most memorable for me was actually at Coastal at the Athenaeum Press.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Oh, really?

    Tori Hord

    Yes, we worked on the Gullah Geechee project. And there was, we traveled out to these different places and took photographs and did interviews and then the project itself won an Addy Award at the end. So it was kind of like a, a quintessential moment for me. I was like, “this is actually going to work. This is neat. We’re getting recognition for work that me and my friends have, you know, kind of poured our hearts into.” So that was a big moment for me.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Yeah, I’ve seen that work. It was great. So I’m sure that was a really fun time to work on. So do you think this career path is challenging? What challenges have you faced and how have you been able to kind of overcome those challenges? Because being in a creative career as a whole is pretty challenging, but how have you kind of worked through this?

    Tori Hord

    It is, I would say it was challenging. And it’s um, it’s like with anything you do, the more you do it, the more you push yourself out of your comfort zone and out of the box that you’re used to, the more confident you get in it. I do remember my first year teaching anything, I was terrified, right? I’m standing up in front of this group of people. And you’re suddenly faced with like, “I know nothing,” right? “I am not qualified to do this, I should not be here. Why did these people give me a job.” But the more you do it, you realize, “okay, I’m equipped, I have the knowledge, I’ve done the education, I have a passion for it.” So for me, it really was just making sure I was getting out of my comfort zone, and putting in the effort… and it was fantastic. But the more I was in those classrooms with the students and got to know them, and saw their excitement for it, everything just came together.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Yeah, that’s amazing. So within your specific field, can you think of any skills that you possess that helped you land that role, or any skills that you think an applicant should have to increase their chances of getting that role? I know, like you’re in teaching, so is there any like connection with teaching that you had to help you or was your skill in graphic design, like the driving force to lead you to teaching, or just in general, like any skills that helped you?

    Tori Hord

    Obviously, to be able to teach art or graphic design or anything, you have to have a certain level of knowledge, but especially for art design, you also have to have a certain level of skill, right, you have to be able to get to that point. So a portfolio is still a big part of this job, even though it’s not a, the focus is not necessarily all design, you know, work all the time, you still have to have a great portfolio, you still have to make sure that you’re paying attention to the detail, because it matters when getting these roles. And I think the other part of it is, is communication, being able to talk about what you want from that job, but also be able to talk about your work in ways that ties it in to people that might not necessarily be in your field. Which is a great skill for designers have anyway, because there’s lots of contact with people outside of the art world. So being able to communicate those ideas and your thoughts and passions to those people is really important, too.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Yeah. It’s a very important skill. And so, you studied in South Carolina, and now working in North Carolina. Are there any like organizations or programs or events that you recommend for people who are trying to get into that field? Is there any like conferences you went to that helped you network to figure out, like, gain more connections within the creative world or anything like that in the area?

    Tori Hord

    Yeah, I’m a big supporter of AIGA [the Professional Association for Design] I’ve been a member of AIGA since I was an undergrad, and continued that. But more so than that, I found a lot of helpful was these kind of like open houses for different schools. So when I was pursuing my master’s or thinking about going to get my graduate degree, I looked into these different kind of open houses, kind of meet and greets. And I met a lot of really great people and lots of great networking opportunities just from doing that. And that had no ties to it. You didn’t have to, no commitments, you’re just kind of going and exploring and learning about what your options are.

    Emma Plutnicki

    That makes sense. So AIGA, you said?

    Tori Hord

    Yes.

    Emma Plutnicki

    What does that stand for, do you know?

    Tori Hord

    American Institute of Graphic Arts.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Okay, awesome. I’m sure a lot of people know that. I didn’t know. That’s amazing.

    Tori Hord

    The chapter here is in Raleigh, the closest one. But a lot of universities have like local student chapters. I know Coastal used to have one, whenever I was there. And we have one here. It’s just a great opportunity for professionals and students to kind of connect.

    Emma Plutnicki

    Yeah, that’s amazing. So great. Thanks for saying all this. This is such an interesting field. I’m sure you have fun with it every day. But just as we wrap up, do you have any advice for current college students or just people who are looking to get into these fields in creative professions?

    Tori Hord

    Follow what you’re passionate in. That was a big thing for me. So I went along with, like I said, the biology doing what I thought I was supposed to do, and what, you know, everyone was like, “Oh, you’d be great, at you know, XYZ, you’d be a great doctor, you’d be great at this.” And in the back of my mind, there was always something like, “Maybe but I don’t know that I want it.” And just listening to that little voice, and you know, going after what you do want, regardless of what other people might think which, I mean is, you know, life anyway right?

    Emma Plutnicki

    Yeah. No, that’s great advice. I definitely need to listen to that too.

  • Marius Valdes

    Marius Valdes

    “Everyone’s got their own journey, and you have to find your way. I would never discourage anyone from a journey in the applied arts or the creative arts if they have the drive and the will to do it. Because that’s the biggest part of it: just being disciplined.”

    Marius Valdes is an artist, illustrator, and professor of Studio Art teaching graphic design and illustration at the University of South Carolina. Valdes received his BFA in graphic design from the University of Georgia (UGA) and his MFA in visual communication from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Valdes is originally from Charleston and lives in Columbia.

    About

    “Being a professional creative is not for the weak of heart,” said Valdes. “You need to be patient and persistent.” He recalled the first time, as a college student, that he told his father he wanted to major in art. “I remember driving with my dad and telling him, ‘I think I’m going to be an art major.’ I was waiting for him to say, ‘What are you thinking?!’ but he just said to me, ‘Well, if you do something that you love, you’ll never really work.’ And I feel like that. I do work, but I work on things I care about. And that, to me, is one of the most important things.”  

    Valdes didn’t set out to be a university professor. After graduating from the University of Georgia (UGA), he worked as a graphic designer for several years and allowed his creativity to determine his next step. 

    “I was exploring illustration and enjoying it more than graphic design. I wasn’t very good about talking about my work, and I thought grad school would help with that, as well as allowing me to refocus my work and make myself more marketable,” said Valdes. Valdes earned a scholarship for his MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and part of that scholarship included teaching a class.  

    “I just loved it,” said Valdes. “I found that even though some of the students were in some ways more talented than I was, I knew more than them because I’d been doing it as a professional, and I really enjoyed it.”  

    In addition to teaching, Valdes works as an artist creating work for area organizations. “The past couple years I’ve been working with the Medical University of South Carolina children’s hospitals,” said Valdes. “I created some murals for them, created some kids’ activities books for therapists to use, and that’s been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. One day, a man I work with came up and said, ‘My kid is obsessed with your frog mural. It’s made a real difference.’ So it’s sad because seeing that mural means you have a sick kid, but it’s also rewarding to know it had an impact.”  

  • Jim Craft

    “The importance of learning the craft, learning the principles and elements of art and design and really understanding how to apply them, cannot be overstated. Design theory ends up being the currency of whether or not you can develop a particular visual way of expressing yourself, whether it’s sculpture, ceramics, architecture or another field.” 

    Jim Craft, who lives in Greenville, was a studio artist for ten years and then transitioned to academia. He was a professor of art at North Greenville University for 16 years and then moved to West Palm Beach, Fla., teaching at Palm Beach Atlantic University for 10 years. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from Bob Jones University and his MFA at Clemson University. 

    About

    As a studio artist, Craft worked in nearly all traditional media, including drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, and printmaking. He marketed ceramics, sculpture, and art to galleries and designed and produced ceramics for the High Point, N.C., furniture market. Craft secured commissions for paintings, murals, and architectural installations, including one at Our Lady of the Rosary in Greenville, S.C. 

    “It was really fun having a studio and being an artist, getting up every day and making stuff, showing my work at exhibitions,” said Craft. “But, it’s just not a realistic long-term goal. Even my friends who were wildly successful as artists had to supplement their income with other things, and it’s good to have those kinds of things in your pocket. So, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from getting a degree in graphic design or advertising or any of the design areas.” 

    Craft had also earned a degree in education, and making the move to academia was the best fit for him and his family. Teaching allowed him to mentor and guide aspiring artists, and the range of their career journeys was vast. 

    “I had students who have ended up in retail and selling in galleries or auction houses, traveling internationally even. Keep your alternatives lined up and be realistic about a career in the arts. You don’t have end up in a studio to stay in the arts. I had a student who ended up being an international buyer of fine rugs from all over Europe and North Africa and the Middle East. She was a painter, and she understood artistic principles and elements. You can focus on that and keep that, but keep a number of alternatives in your pocket just to be more widely marketable. It’s all the same – whether you’re looking at a Persian rug or a really nice ceramic vessel.” 

  • Tori Hord

    Tori Hord

    “The more you push yourself out of your comfort zone and out of the box you’re used to, the more confident you get.” 

    Tori Hord is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. She grew up in Loris, S.C., and earned her bachelors in graphic design at Coastal Carolina University. She continued her graphic design with a  Master of Graphic Design M.G.D. at North Carolina State University.  

    About

    Tori Hord’s path to graphic design was not always clear. She began her studies at Coastal Carolina University as a biology major with thoughts of pursuing a medical career, her family remarked that she would make an excellent doctor. After a couple of semesters, she changed majors without telling anyone, giving them “small heart attacks” when they found out.  

    Upon switching to graphic design, she went all in, joining the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and working at The Athenaeum Press, Coastal’s student-driven publishing lab. Specifically, she worked on the Gullah: The Voice of an Island with the Athenaeum Press and recalls the joy and excitement of getting recognition for work that she and her friends poured their hearts into — work for which they earned an national American Advertising Award, or ADDY. 

    Working as a professor is a career path that has allowed Hord to pursue the “best of both worlds.” She enjoys sharing her graphic design expertise with college students as she continues cultivating her own artistic skill. “I didn’t want to stop my design career to allow me to teach,” Hord said, so she leads two to three studio classes per day while carving out time to focus on her own projects as a freelance designer and consultant. 

    Professor Hord encourages other aspiring graphic designers to join professional groups like AIGA (American Institute for Graphic Arts) and to get some pre-professional experience. Her essential advice for college students is, “Listen to that little voice and go after what you do want, regardless of what other people might think.” 

  • Rick Sargent

    “I actually got turned down twice when I applied to medical illustration school. I took time off, reassessed, and just drew and drew. When I finally got in, I was excited, and I have been doing this ever since.” 

    Rick Sargent is a professor of art at The Citadel, where he teaches drawing, painting, animation, and illustration. He is also a seasoned freelance medical illustrator specializing in medical-legal illustration. A native of Columbus, Georgia, now based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Sargent holds a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Georgia and a Master of Science in Medical Illustration from the Medical College of Georgia (now Augusta University). 

    Interview

    Transcript 

    Rick Sargent 00:00 
    I am Rick Sargent. I’m originally from Georgia, Middle Georgia, a smallish, mid-sized town called Columbus, Georgia. And right now, I currently reside in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. 

    Sara Sobota 00:12 
    What do you do for work? And where are you working from right now? 

    Rick Sargent 00:16 
    I am primarily a college professor at The Citadel, and I teach art. I teach drawing, painting, animation, and illustration. What makes me suitable for that is my other career. My other gig which is being a medical illustrator. When I’m teaching, obviously it’s in person, not online. As a medical illustrator, I work from home. 

    Sara Sobota 00:43 
    Okay, next question. How long have you been working there, and what is your official job title? You have two of each of those? 

    Rick Sargent 00:50 
    I do, yeah. I’ve been at The Citadel for 10 years. I have been a medical illustrator for 22 years. 

    Sara Sobota 00:59 
    Okay, wow. How did you end up in the field? We kind of went over that already, but if you could just give us a recap? 

    Rick Sargent 01:06 
    Yeah, absolutely. So, I ended up becoming a medical illustrator from the inspiration and advice I had from my high school art teacher, who knew a medical illustrator and thought I would be a good fit.

    I changed my major at the University of Georgia, earned an undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, and then went on to get a Master of Science degree in Medical Illustration. From there, I started practicing medical illustration in New Jersey, came down to South Carolina, and had a colleague who was teaching at another school who turned me on to the idea of teaching. He eventually left the program, and I took over his role and fell in love with teaching. I have been a teacher ever since. 

    Sara Sobota 02:08 
    Wow, that’s great. So, your graduate degree was an M.S. in Medical Illustration? 

    Rick Sargent 02:15 
    Correct. 

    Sara Sobota 02:16 
    Wow, that’s fantastic. You don’t often hear or see that. 

    Rick Sargent 02:21 
    Yeah. Different programs offer different degrees. Some, like Johns Hopkins, offer a Master of Arts program. At the Medical College of Georgia now Augusta University they wanted to provide a stronger scientific foundation, so they offered a Master of Science degree while teaching the arts. 

    Sara Sobota 02:49 
    Forgive me, I don’t know what’s the Medical College of Georgia’s name now? 

    Rick Sargent 02:56 
    It is now Augusta University. 

    Sara Sobota 03:00 
    Oh, I didn’t know that. 

    Rick Sargent 03:01 
    It changed maybe five years ago. It used to be Georgia Regents University, but they were absorbed into Augusta University. 

    Sara Sobota 03:10 
    Got it. What background helped you land your roles? 

    Rick Sargent 03:16 
    Yeah, for sure. For being a professor, it was a real-world experience plus having a master’s degree, which is the terminal degree for medical illustration, since there is no Ph.D. in the field. 

    Sara Sobota 03:34 
    Are there any medical illustration programs in South Carolina? 

    Rick Sargent 03:40 
    There are not. 

    Sara Sobota 03:40 
    So you need to go to another state? 

    Rick Sargent 03:46 
    Yes. There are about six schools across the country offering a master’s degree program. Some, like Rochester Institute of Technology, offer a bachelor’s degree in medical illustration. 

    Sara Sobota 04:01 
    Can you walk us through a typical workday? What’s your process and what’s expected? 

    Rick Sargent 04:08 
    Sure. I’ll focus on the medical illustration side. I specialize in what’s called medical-legal illustration. I work for attorneys who need to explain in layman’s terms and visually what happened in an accident or a procedure.

    A typical day involves reviewing operative reports and radiology films, then making a proposal on the best way to present their case. That gets reviewed by a medical expert. We usually schedule Zoom meetings to clarify the case, and once I have the supporting materials, I begin creating the illustrations. 

    Sara Sobota 05:04 
    Wow, you are blending law, medicine, and art. 

    Rick Sargent 05:08 
    I’m telling you, it’s all over. 

    Sara Sobota 05:10 
    That’s amazing. 

    Rick Sargent 05:12 
    Yeah. 

    Sara Sobota 05:14 
    That is awesome. Can you describe a defining moment in your creative journey, something that had a significant impact on you, or something you produced that really showcased your creativity? 

    Rick Sargent 05:27 
    I will say, medical illustration-wise. Yeah, there was a defining moment; I was the senior medical illustrator at Houston Sports Medicine Orthopedic Hospital in Columbus, Georgia. And there was a conference coming up, where a surgeon wanted to display a new surgery technique. And he was; this was back in 2002. Um, 2003, time. And he was cutting edge. And even in technology as far as visual communication. And so, he was really pushing the department to move to 3D. While we were just scratching the surface of that, a lot of stuff that we did was in Photoshop. Every now and then, we would dip into After Effects and things like that to make things move for animation.  

    And so, in a very quick turnaround, he bought the software for 3D, told me to learn it, and created an animation of his procedure. So, we had a roughly three-week turnaround time, from start to finish, of storyboarding of creating the models and rendering to get ready for his presentation at his conference. And we actually won an award for it. It was, it was insane. It was long nights spent. I slept there over the weekend trying to create something. But it’s well worth it. And I think he is still using some of the components of it.  

    Sara Sobota 06:37 
    That’s amazing. So, when you say “we,” who was on the team? Was it just you and him or?  

    Rick Sargent 07:19 
    It was me and him as; we had another medical illustrator on staff, who was helping to kind of give art direction to it. Since she was more, publications. But she was definitely lending a hand to the process. We had all hands-on deck, so to speak, right?  

    Sara Sobota 07:39 
    That’s amazing. Was it for you to find this career path? Or to figure out how to apply your background to this task? We talked about that. 

    Rick Sargent 07:49 
    Definitely a challenge, for sure. And I definitely wrestled with, could I make a career, I’m just gonna go with medical illustration, like, it was definitely challenged to say that I was going to be a medical illustrator. I actually got turned down, twice, to apply to the school. And so, with my portfolio I just kept, I was more kind of not really, I was a little bit wishy-washy, at least on the second round, because I was debating on this career or this career. And I was like, well, I’ll just submit my application. 

    And then I took a year off. And that kind of sat down, reassessed where I was going, and what I needed to do, and I think, really put the nose to the grindstone and just drew and drew and drew and drew, you know, everything that they wanted for the portfolio, took their advice from the previous portfolio, and it’s like, Alright, I’m going to, I’m gonna hit this hard, you know. And then, when I finally got in, I was pretty excited.  

    Sara Sobota 08:50 
    Yeah, that’s amazing. Great. Can you recommend any specific skills that an aspiring applicant should have to increase their chances of landing a role in your field? 

    Rick Sargent 09:04 
    I know that, obviously, rendering and the timeless skills are line, shape, accuracy, value, accuracy, being able to communicate visually, and being confident and effective about the way that you communicate with line and value. That is something that, hands down, digital or non-digital, you have to know.  

    So, but I know that, you know, AI is coming up and you know, or people say, is that going to replace, you know, illustration and things like that, and then relying on generative AI, things inside of software such as Adobe Photoshop, which we use a ton. That software only gets you so far, and that reliability on that can only get you to a certain level.  

    So, I would say you need to; don’t rely on those things. You can use them as tools, but you’re making case specific and what’s going to make you relevant is that you can be case specific, and not generic and not rely on things like AI, or generative art that’s going to make you seem more clip art and non-relevant.  

    So, I would say, keep being creative, I would say, keep up your draftsmanship skills and your ability to learn how contrast of how atmospheric perspective communicates and makes a hierarchy. That will be the most important skill that I would recommend. 

    Sara Sobota 10:30 
    Okay, great. Okay. Are there any local organizations, programs, or events that you recommend for aspiring creatives in South Carolina? 

    Rick Sargent 10:41 
    In South Carolina, I would say, you know, Piccolo Spoleto, getting involved in getting your artwork out there as much as possible. Being involved in art and art competitions, I found it really useful. I won the Cooper River Bridge run poster design contest, you know, way back when, and just getting involved in competitions, like those sort of things, even though the Cooper River Bridge one, wasn’t medical illustration at all, you know, but it’s designed, and it got my name out there. It gave me a little bit of, you know, clout. As I approach and talk about design, they are like, well, what did you do? And I say, well, here is this or people recognize my name from certain things.  

    And I have always been a proponent of just finding any competition that interests you make stuff and find ways to get into it. You get connected to more artists that way, that, oh, I saw your work and filled in the blanks, right? And so, design organizations, graphic design organizations, I would be a part of or try to connect with. There is the Association of Medical Illustrators, as far as my own career that I am a part of, I would connect with them, you know, follow them online, look at their stuff on Instagram. See what is happening? What are hot topics? And learning those topics? The research know, is it on your own? 

    Sara Sobota 12:10 
    One more aside, have you ever been to Artfield’s? 

    Rick Sargent 12:16 
    I have never been to art fields. I know, stop. I know, I know. It’s my own fault. It’s my own fault. Some of that, I’ve submitted fine artwork to art fields that were not accepted. It is one of my goals to have a piece that is accepted that way; a lot of my stuff is more illustration-based rather than pushing the envelope of art.  

    I’ve had friends; one of my best friends here, who is a painter, you know, got in several years ago, and just spoke highly of that and loved it. And I want to take my kids there; they are now traveling at an age where we can do that sort of thing. And so, yes, it is my own fault. But I want to be part of that. 

    Sara Sobota 12:59 
    I only ask because I’m so proud of that gem for our state. 

    Rick Sargent 13:04 
    It’s amazing. Really incredible. 

    Sara Sobota 13:07 
    It’s really nice to have you here. Do you have any advice for current college students or pre-professional creatives? 

    Rick Sargent 13:18 
    Yes, I do. I would say there are two main schools of thought for creatives currently. Number one is that you find your thing and do it really, really well. It seems more of a single focus. And so, I would, I would say, it’s easy to get distracted from social, in social media, and discouraged and say, well, I’m not that person, and then just quit what you’re doing. I would say, first and foremost, find, figure out what you like, and figure out what you want to do. And what gives you energy, what feeds your creativity, and do that thing and keep going at it. It is discipline. And so focus on that. And just keep going, keep going, keep going.  

    Rick Sargent 14:09 

    Draw, sketch. If you are a fanatic about birds. How can you communicate, birds, and do it over and over and over and over and over and over again? The thing is, to not resist the temptation to have diversity. So, are you an acrylic painter? Are you an oil painter? Are you a sculptor? Do you have a creative inkling to move into other realms? Don’t limit yourself.  

    So, I know it seems like a little bit of a disconnect or contract or I’m contradicting myself a little bit. But at the same time, man, there’s some really cool stuff that you can be involved in, and you’re never going to know that if you follow this little track of creativity it’s going to come back to that other bit that you were just passionate about or like oh, wow, now I see these connections.  

    I’ve had so many things that have strangely connected me and developed my artwork. You name it. sand sculpting, you know, like what? Sure, you know, like sculpting has helped me become a better draw or like a better illustrator, like learning in depth and plains of the face as maybe a better portrait painter by becoming better by sculpting like things that you would never think that could be connected somehow gets connected.  

    So, if there’s something doesn’t ignore things that give you fire as far as a creative like, Man, that is so interesting. pursue it, learn about it, and figure some things out because it may come back to bless your drawing, so to speak, or enhance your drawing, so to speak, or enhance your other part of your creativity. 

    Sara Sobota 15:45 
    Yeah, fantastic. Well, that’s all the questions that I have for my interview; you have given me so much; I really appreciate it and your input, I know it will really be helpful to the students. And there is also a few other things that we might have gone on with creative careers in the future. So, is it okay if I reach out to you again if anything comes up? 

    Rick Sargent 16:06 
    Yes, absolutely. Yes. Okay, well, I love talking about this stuff. I love meeting other medical illustrators or other illustrators or aspiring medical illustrators. For you know, Zoom calls, I’ve had text, Zoom calls, coffee, you know, with people who are interested in this. So, either that or any sort of creative, please let me know. 

    Sara Sobota 16:28 
    Okay, that sounds great. 

    Rick Sargent 16:29 
    Yeah. 

    Sara Sobota 16:30 
    Thank you for your time! 

    Rick Sargent 16:31 
    You’re welcome, Sara. Nice to meet you. 

    Sara Sobota 16:33 
    Have a great weekend! 

    Rick Sargent 16:34 
    You too! 

  • Marius Valdes

    Marius Valdes

    “Everyone’s got their own journey, and you have to find your way. I would never discourage anyone from a journey in the applied arts or the creative arts if they have the drive and the will to do it. Because that’s the biggest part of it: just being disciplined.”

    Marius Valdes is an artist, illustrator, and professor of Studio Art teaching graphic design and illustration at the University of South Carolina. Valdes received his BFA in graphic design from the University of Georgia (UGA) and his MFA in visual communication from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Valdes is originally from Charleston and lives in Columbia.

    Interview

    Transcript

    Marius Valdes  00:00 

    My name is Marius Valdes. I’m from Charleston, South Carolina. I currently live in Columbia, South Carolina. I’m a professor at the University of South Carolina. I teach graphic design and illustration. I’m also a practicing artist and illustrator. 

    Emma Plutnicki  00:15 

    Amazing. So, can you just tell us what your official job title is? And how long have you been working as a professor there? 

    Marius Valdes  00:22 

    Yep, it’s Professor of Studio Art. And I’ve been here since 2007, so something like 17 years. 

    Emma Plutnicki  00:31 

    Yeah. 

    Marius Valdes  00:33 

    So long! 

    Emma Plutnicki  00:34 

    Yeah, that is a long time. So how did you end up as a professor, and I believe before you were a practicing professional in the field, so how did you kind of make that transition from practicing in the field to then to academia? 

    Marius Valdes  00:48 

    So, I graduated from the University of Georgia in 1998. And I worked as a designer for about four or five years. And I had got to a point where I was really exploring illustration, I was kind of enjoying that almost more than the design work I was doing. But one of the things I felt like was limiting me as a designer was, I didn’t feel like I was very good at talking about my work. So, I thought going to graduate school would be kind of a good way to go and kind of expand my education, and kind of take what I’ve been doing for four or five years and kind of refocus and kind of just make myself more marketable. And while I was there, I had no intention of being a professor or teacher, and to me today that still seems kind of crazy. They let me do that. But when I was there, part of my scholarship was to teach a class. And I just loved it. And it was really fun. And what I found was kind of like, even though some of the students I taught were, were, maybe in some ways, more talented than I was, as a designer, I just knew more than them, because I had been doing it as a professional. And so, I just kind of really enjoyed it. 

    When I originally started college, I was going to be a psychology major, because I thought maybe I would be a counselor, or a shrink or something. I like talking to people. But then I realized there was science involved. So, I feel like teaching has kind of given me the ability to do that sort of stuff, in addition to teaching, you know.  

    Emma Plutnicki  02:25 

    Yeah, it makes sense. So, what kind of background led you to become a professor? What do you think, specifically lead you to do studio design, how has your background within studio design helped you to teach it now? 

    Marius Valdes  02:39 

    Yeah, so I think what helped me was, and I always tell students who are thinking about going to grad school to work for a couple of years, because when you get out of college, and you start working, and this is also why internships are really important, it gives you a chance to kind of figure out what you like, and also what you don’t like. So, for example, I was working in Charleston, and I was doing really well, I was working for companies that were doing a lot of real estate, like brochure design and advertising for real estate companies. And it just got so boring. I mean, it paid okay, and it was a nice job. But it wasn’t very interesting. And I started painting on the side for fun. I was literally finger painting on cardboard. And that started winning me awards. And I was, just like “what?” You know? 

    So it was kind of taking those things that were fun with the practical stuff I had kind of learned as a designer, and putting those together and then going to graduate school for two years, and working with a whole new group of professors who treated me more like a colleague and less like a student, and just learning to talk about work and look at my own work and kind of evaluate it, and look at other people’s work and be able to learn how to talk about it. All those things make me able to teach now, you know. Some semesters are easier than others, you know, some groups of students are easier to work with than others. But usually, it just means it takes me a little longer to kind of get through to people. But once I do, you know, I can share with them what I’ve been through. And I think that helps. 

    Emma Plutnicki  04:11 

    Yeah, that’s great. So nowadays, can you walk us through a typical workday, like what you have to do, what classes you teach, and just what’s expected from you on a daily basis? 

    Marius Valdes  04:33 

    Yeah, so I teach what they call two-two load, which means I teach two classes in the fall and two classes in the spring. I teach Mondays and Wednesdays, which is why I normally check my calendar first thing Monday morning. But the thing about teaching is my classes are two hours long. And I don’t always go the full time because a lot of times, the students, I give them something to do and they need get started and they’ve got to meet with me, and then once I’ve I met with them they need to go work. And that can be, they can stay in the classroom, they can go to a design lab, they can go to the library, they can go wherever they need to do their work. But for me on Mondays and Wednesdays, I’m teaching from eleven to four. Before the classes start, I’m usually checking email, getting caught up talking to students. 

    On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do office hours, and that might be coming into my office and actually meeting with people. It might be doing a Zoom call; it might just be looking at work that’s been posted online and making comments on it. And then I’m also doing emails with, you know, colleagues and trying to figure out how to keep the design program going. It might be service at the university where I have to go to, like, for example, I was a faculty senator for a bunch of years. And that was a thing where once a month, for two or three hours, you go to a really long meeting and talk about all the things going on at the university. 

    So, Fridays are usually research days where it’s supposed to be a day where you have kind of an uninterrupted time to just work on your work. Although I will say this year, it’s been a lot of meetings on Fridays, because there’s so much going on all the time. At the university level, I’m at what they call research one university. So that means the emphasis is 40% teaching, 40% research, and then 20% service, which is doing things like being a faculty senator, for example. Other schools, like I taught at USC Upstate for two years. That’s what they call a teaching school where you’re teaching more classes and there’s less expectation of you doing research. Research for me is doing design work, illustration work, making art, and putting on other shows and stuff like that. And going to conferences to present my work. 

    Emma Plutnicki  06:55 

    Cool. Yeah, so, you just mentioned putting together projects and things like that. Do you have one project that stands out in your career as being, like, exceptionally motivating toward you or something that just had a significant impact on your life? 

    Marius Valdes  07:11 

    Oh yeah. You know, for the past couple of years, I’ve been working with the medical university, Carolina’s Children’s Hospital in Charleston. And I got a couple of grants through the school to work with them and created several murals for them. I’ve created some kids’ activities and books for therapists to use. I would say that’s been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, because it’s weird, I mean, I’m not kidding you, about an hour ago, a guy I work with here was like, “Hey, man, I’m at MUSC right now in the children’s hospital with my kid and my kid is like obsessed with your frog, you know, the mural, and it’s been really nice, like, it’s really made a difference on this visit,” and I get emails like that occasionally from people. And its always kind of sad, because like, the only way to really see those things is if you have a sick kid, but I really enjoy that. 

    And then I have other projects, I’ve done things that are more self-initiated, where I’ve kind of created little casts of characters. Some of them are called The Secret Species, and they’re these little clay figures, and I kind of would make art about them and leave them places and stuff. And I got a lot of mileage out of those, like that was kind of part of my thesis for my grad school. And I just kept kind of working on it. I got some really good attention for that work that was meaningful to me, for people to say, “Wow, this is a really creative idea,” you know. I kept hoping a toy company would come and offer me a couple million dollars for it. But that never happened. So… 

    Emma Plutnicki  08:45 

    No, that’s so cool. And just like, overall, has it been challenging in your career, both as a professor and as a practicing creative? 

    Marius Valdes  08:57 

    Yeah, I mean, you know, I’ll be honest with you, I think being a professional creative is not for the weak of heart. But what I will tell you is that when I was probably a little bit, like, your age, or even a year or two younger, I remember driving with my dad, and telling him, “I think I’m going to be an art major.” You know? I was just waiting for him to like, say, “What are you doing?” you know, and he just said to me, he’s like, “Well, if you do something like that that you love, you’ll never really work.” And I kind of feel like that. I mean, now, I do feel like I work. But, I mean, I work on things I care about. And I think that to me, it is sort of one of the main things that is like, you know, on my worst day, I might be struggling with a painting or an illustration for a client, but what I’m sitting here doing is drawing, you know. And I’m married to my wife who is a paralegal. She has a very normal nine-to-five job. And, you know, her job is answering to five attorneys, you know, screaming, like, “I need this now, I need this now.” And I can’t really complain too much, right? 

    The other thing is, I think that like, if you go into design or advertising, you are a little bit subject to your clients, and where you’re working and who your clients are, versus academia, which is much more steady, it’s a little bit more of a routine, you know, you kind of get into a groove. And I feel like whenever it gets too stressful, oh, spring break! Oh, Christmas time, here’s a month off! Here’s summertime, you can go paint for a month. And you kind of get all the stress of all the things you have to do, kind of out of your system, and then you reset. So, I feel like I’ve done a little bit of everything in the creative world. And I think like, sometimes the grass is greener, you know, sometimes you’re doing, you know, I’m doing academia, and I’m here teaching a bunch of kids, or students, and I think like, “man, I’d really like to just be in like an office setting right now, working on a project all day, sitting in front of it not worrying about this person or this person or this person.” But then you go into having a critique, and your students bring in a bunch of amazing work. And you’re like, “oh, man, I am a good teacher!” I mean, I joke around them all the time, and when they do something good. I always say, “Oh, I do know what I’m doing.” You know? There are little rewards everywhere. 

    And I think there’s all levels of like, I look at some people who have careers, you know, in the arts, and they are just doing amazing things. And they’re making gobs of money. And they have tons of exposure and fame and fortune. And I looked at people who were totally content just to be in their studio painting all day and illustrating and never seeing anybody and that makes them happy too. So, it’s like anything in life, you kind of have to everyone’s got kind of their own little journey. And you kind of have to find your own way. But I would never discourage anyone from a career in the applied arts or creative arts, if they have the drive and the will to do it. Because I really think that’s the biggest part of it is just being disciplined, you know? 

    Emma Plutnicki  12:15 

    And along with being disciplined, are there any physical skills that you think are beneficial for people trying to break into the world of design? Any specific skills that maybe you possess, that help you in your day to day life, or just if you saw, if you were hiring for a design job, and you saw, “Oh, this applicant has this skill,” what kind of things like that are beneficial to have? 

    Marius Valdes  12:39 

    Yeah, I think anytime you can get better and faster at learning software, that just becomes a tool in your tool belt that will help you get your ideas out faster. The one thing I preach to my students about a lot, and I always tell them this story that I graduated on Friday, and I started the following Monday freelancing at Cartoon Network, which at the time, back then that would have been my dream job, to work there and work with animation stuff. And what happened was, I was at Turner network, which is in Atlanta, and they were using a brand-new version of Adobe Illustrator that was different than what we had in my undergrad at Georgia. And I just could not teach myself how to figure out the new software, because I was used to having a professor always come over my shoulder and say, “All right, push that button, push this button.” And back then there was no SkillShare. There was no LinkedIn learning, it was called Adobe Classroom in a book, and it was a book like this thick, and you had to flip through and follow the steps, and it was really unintuitive. So I always kind of preach, I think one skill students can really do is teach themselves how to learn, and learn how to learn, and be open, you know, because technology is changing so quickly, that if you can’t keep up with it, it’s going to really hinder your growth, I think. 

    And the other thing is to be a design sponge or art sponge. And I mean that in the sense of, don’t just look at Pinterest and don’t just look at Google. It’s like, go to the library, look at design books, find stuff that’s been curated and edited, and it’s got the really good stuff in it, because the stuff you see on the internet, while some of it’s really cool, a lot of it is just a copy of a copy of a copy, you know. It’s good to go back and go to the original stuff. I think also just being a decent person, a nice person, nice to people. That goes a really long way. You know. And not everybody is going to be nice to you, but I think I’m in this job because I’m a good, decent person. I think that as I make connections and networks and you start meeting people, I think people are like, “Oh, that’s someone I would want to work with,” you know? 

    Emma Plutnicki  15:03 

    Yeah. That makes sense. So, for networking, are there any events or programs or organizations within South Carolina to meet people like that? Like design specific events or anything that you know of that someone who’s looking to get into that field could go to and kind of meet people that have similar minds? 

    Marius Valdes  15:22 

    Yeah, for design, AIGA [The Professional Association for Design] has always been kind of the big national organization, and they have chapters throughout. Some chapters are better than others. We used to have one in Columbia that was amazing, and it’s basically dead now. But you could go to Charlotte, or depending on where you live, you could go to Atlanta, or maybe another place that has a little bit more thriving AIGA chapter. 

    The other thing we’re seeing is like, here at the university we’ve got a group of students who just kind of took it upon, amongst themselves, to start a new chapter of a design club. And they’ve been doing amazing things, bringing guest speakers and doing workshops for students that are younger than them. And it’s just kind of been really cool to see them kind of take on a mentorship role. And some of the speakers they’ve got in, I’m just like, “how did you get that person for free?” I mean, you know, I think if there’s not something for you to use, then you can always start your own thing, and get like-minded people together. For advertising, there’s the Advertising Federation, there’s usually chapters of that. So, for example, there’s the Midlands Federation here, and they have things every year called The Addy Awards. So those are competitions you can put your student work in and try and get feedback on. But those are kind of probably the main ones I would think about, you know? 

    Emma Plutnicki  16:47 

    Amazing. And then just as we wrap up, do you have any advice for either a college student who’s trying to, after graduating, get into design or academia, or just somebody who wants to get into a creative field? Any advice? 

    Marius Valdes  17:02 

    Yeah, I mean, so one of the things I’ll tell you is, you know, and again, something I tell my students all the time is, you’re going to graduate with a portfolio that you made. And if you have a good teacher, it should be a good portfolio; it should be a pretty solid portfolio. But the day you graduate, you could take that portfolio, you can throw in the garbage, and make one that you really like, you know? Or you can have several, you could have a portfolio that’s aimed at a very conservative company, you could have one that sort of, like, aimed at like your dream company, you could have one that is more about your illustration than your design, or one that’s all about your lettering. And the main thing is like you want to go after the kind of work you’re interested in doing, because if you put a bunch of calligraphy or hand, you know, handwritten stuff in your portfolio, and you hate doing it, that’s usually what you end up getting hired to do. And you’ll be like, “oh, man, why’d I do this?” So, I think part of it is kind of, again, figuring out what you’re interested in, but also what you’re not interested in. So, you can be more targeted yourself. 

    I also feel like when you’re in college, and you’re graduating, if you’re young, if you can try and come out of college without any credit card debt or student loans, and you have nothing, like, no baggage, go to a big city and work if you can, because it’s a bigger market. You’ll have more opportunity, it’s faster paced, it’ll make you better, because you’ll be competing against a lot of other people and you’ll be working a lot harder. If you are from a town like Charleston, or Columbia, when you come back, you’ll be heads and shoulders better than everybody else, because you’re used to working in those bigger markets.  

    And I also tell students, if you’re sending out emails and cold calling people by email, sometimes it helps to have a really nice piece that you can mail, because people love getting cool things in the mail. If you’re looking at a very specific city, you can always email art directors and tell them you’re coming to visit that city for a week, and you would love to meet with them while you’re in town. And sometimes just stopping by place and letting people see you in person and see that you’re a normal, nice person. Or maybe you’re an abnormal person, they like that too, you know? I mean, sometimes just going and introducing yourself, the person sits behind that front desk, they have a lot of power, because they can reach back to the creative director and say, “Hey, you know, this guy Marius came by here today. And he was so polite and nice. He would be a good fit here.” You know? Sometimes that can be the thing that makes a difference, versus just sending a PDF to someone saying, “Hey, here’s my stuff. I just graduated, let me know,” you know. 

    And lastly, once you graduate, you have your student portfolio. You should be working immediately to try and replace student work with real work. So, if you find an organization, or nonprofits that you’re really interested in, maybe it’s like maybe you’re someone who’s really into cats and dogs, well maybe go to your local SPCA and offer to do a poster for them. If they print it, you’ll trade design services for them doing that, then you can replace one of your student projects with a real project. And I think the more you start building that up, the better it is. 

    And then the last thing I’ll say, this is the advice I would tell myself, if I could go back in time: be patient, finding a job is, sometimes it’s the market, sometimes its timing, is just like, you know, you just never know what the elements of finding that right job are at the moment. It could be someone is going on maternity leave, and they need someone to fill in for six months. They just happened to get your resume that day; you know that literally happened to me. So, it’s about being patient and not looking at your classmates or your friends and seeing “Oh, man, so-and-so is going to work for Google and so-and-so’s going to work for this agency, and I just can’t find a job.” It’s going to take a little time for some people. And you just have to be persistent, and again, disciplined. Maybe you get a job waiting tables at night, so you have your days open so you can go to an interview or do freelance work. Or maybe you just got your dream job right out of college that happens to you know? 

    Emma Plutnicki  21:16 

    That’s great advice, thank you. And just overall, is there anything else you’d like to add? 

    Marius Valdes  21:21 

    I mean, I think college and work are the same thing. You get what you put into it. So, I think you just got to get started. Like, that’s really something someone told me. The Cartoon Network thing didn’t work out, so I moved to Charlotte. And the girl I was dating at the time got this amazing job making really good money and doing awesome client work. And I got offered this really boring job, making almost half of what she was making. I remember one of my teachers just saying, “Dude, just get started.” And it’s so true. Once you get into the field, that first job is kind of a fifth year of college. You learn more, and you start to get better at things. And once you’re in a job, it’s easy to find another job, you know? And you will be amazed, and students will be amazed at what life is like when you don’t have homework. You have so much more time, like spare time, that you won’t know what to do with yourself. My first year out of college, I was like the healthiest I ever was in my life, because I would get home from work and be so bored. I would just go for a two-hour walk with my dog and then come home and read, and paint, and I had so much spare time outside of the nine to five thing, and it was great, you know, it was really, really nice. So, I guess that’d be my last little bit of advice. 

    Emma Plutnicki  22:49 

    Yeah. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us today.