On the Scene: Chandler Watson blends comedy, images, and portray right into a single artistic voice | KGOU

It’s frequent for nearly any artist to discover totally different avenues or to develop facet initiatives and tangents to their primary gig or the outlet for which they’re greatest recognized.

But what you won’t notice is how generally all of these disparate, presumably separate artistic shops are likely to all spark and develop alongside each other, irrespective of how totally different they could appear from the surface.

Take Oklahoma City’s Chandler Watson, who juggles every little thing from stand-up comedy to journal and documentarian images, and even visible arts from drawing to full-sized mural portray.

While it’d look like there’s a fairly huge gulf between the irreverence and non-seriousness of the comedy world and the quiet thoughtfulness and emotion of artwork and images, Watson says that it’s at all times been a bundle deal for him since he was a toddler.

Chandler Watson: Comedy, I assume, kicked off every little thing, however once I was youthful, I might at all times be doodling, sketching in school. And they’re like “you’re not paying attention,” however I might be listening higher as a result of I used to be drawing.

I’m like, simply engaged on combining all of it, however the place all of it kicked off was comedy.

I used to be simply at all times having enjoyable. That was my factor. It’s like, I’m at all times going to have enjoyable. My eighth grade English trainer stated “you’re going to be an entertainer one day.”

Brett Fieldcamp: But Watson’s journey to develop into that entertainer got here with years of looking out, growing, and refining a voice and a character, years that additionally noticed him persevering with to construct his expertise with a pencil, a brush, and a digicam all on the similar time and all initially in that very same easy intention to only have enjoyable, typically snapping candid photographs of mates throughout hangouts and brainstorming jokes in his sketchbooks subsequent to his artwork concepts.

But whereas he admits that his early comedy was often aiming for shock worth and edge, Watson finally wished to evolve his materials to remark extra cleverly and extra thoughtfully on the world round him, the world that he’d already begun to seize extra clearly by way of his digicam.

Chandler Watson: I knew there was one thing extra to speak about, I simply needed to mine it out. I needed to undergo like, I’m picturing myself sifting by way of my ideas.

I actually had to do this, and I feel I destroyed all my previous sketchbooks as a result of they’d my jokes in them. Kind of a bit upset about a few of it, but it surely was simply, like, I do not like several of those jokes.

And I simply began anew, simply taking a look at issues from a special perspective and speaking about it otherwise. So it was nonetheless very a lot subversive, however the shock is so much totally different. And my perspective, after all, is like I can say what I need, actually be myself, and persons are listening to what I’m saying and the way I really feel.

Brett Fieldcamp: That new comedy of extra overt social and political points carried Watson by way of a stint residing and performing in Los Angeles and touring the nation, experiences that additionally introduced alternatives to {photograph} the quickly altering cities and communities of America within the twenty first century.

But these ideas additionally discovered their method into his art work, along with his sharp geometric shapes and extremely expressive, graffiti-styled shade layering incorporating textual content and blunt, pointed questions such because the recurring “are you free?”

It’s a mode and a voice that might come to a head on the facet of a constructing in McAlester along with his public mural “Marshall in Motion,” honoring Civil Rights icon Thurgood Marshall and his work defending the free speech protections of the First Amendment.

Chandler Watson: I feel every little thing comes again to, like, feeling like I’m free with no constraints.

It’s simply capturing sure issues that I simply know will not ever be there once more or it will not look the identical. I’ll seize my digicam like “oh, let me go document how it looks for this day” and with out even realizing it, I began documenting town, documenting each metropolis at that second in time, as a result of it is gonna change. Even when you do not suppose it is gonna change, it is gonna change.

Brett Fieldcamp: That objective of capturing a time, a spot, or an thought, Watson says, is the centerpiece of all of his work. Whether skewering the social techniques on stage or photographing these techniques in real-time on the streets, it’s all simply totally different types of storytelling and totally different paths to the identical expressions, with photographs inspiring jokes and jokes inspiring work.

Chandler Watson: I needed to like, actually sit down and be like “okay, let’s hone in.”

It was very observational storytelling. I received numerous tales. So I like storytelling. I type of lean into that extra now.

It’s all catching a narrative, man. But generally I do not know what the story is till I take, like, ten steps again and take a look at all of the photographs.

Brett Fieldcamp: You can sustain with Chandler Watson on Instagram and at his gallery and workspace, The Art House on 4th in Downtown OKC and you’ll take a look at his art work and images at chandlerwatson.com.

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