In pursuit of a cool moment, student paints his thoughts on canvas and clothes

By Aaron Falk

April 30, 2005 | In the dimly lighted kitchen of his apartment, the painter mixes shades of yellow on a paper plate, furrows his brow and pours over his canvas.

"I guess art is a way to channel my feelings-slash-thought process," he says. "I look at it as a channel the way someone else might use music or writing."

Cardon Webb makes a few deliberate strokes with his brush and asks his fiancee if she liked the painting better the way it was before, but she says she doesn't notice a difference.

For Webb, a 22-year-old graphic design student at USU, art is a form of self-expression and this autobiographical piece is no exception.

The figure on the left side of the canvas sports a suit and tie and its head is shaped like a pail, symbolizing how the thoughts bounce around in his head the way "water sloshes when you carry a bucket."

The center of the canvas gives way to a thought bubble containing the words "A ONE TRACK MIND TO MURDER ART" and the date of his engagement.

On the right of the canvas, Webb has painted an industrial wasteland and has silk-screened a series of worker bees on top of the smoke, symbolizing the next decision he'll have to make ­ his career. He says the painting is his favorite, but notes, "my most recent painting usually is."

Webb has been a student at Utah State for three semesters and recently began studying graphic design. But, he said, studying art at an agricultural school can be frustrating.

"Classes, especially entry-level classes, are being taught by grad students who haven't really worked out in the field," he said. "If you went to an art school you'd be taught by someone who's worked in the industry and has all this experience.

"If you're going to study art at a state college don't expect to have all the avenues that could be available to you. You're going to run into more walls and frustrating days that you'll be super inspired.

"Right now, I feel like I'm discovering everything on my own."

As frustrated as Webb is at times by his academic arrangement, he said he is making a more frustrating decision. Webb applied to, and was accepted by, two major art schools ­ one in San Francisco and one in New York City.

Webb knows the frustration will pay off in the long run, though.

"Those two schools are pretty renowned so it opens up a lot of doors that would be closed otherwise," he said. "Your teachers have already been successful and they have contacts for good jobs and internships." Webb also considered the possibility of transferring to BYU, a school he said has a well-known graphic design program, but said it wouldn't have been fair to his fiancee.

"She's graduating and wants to work in a city," he said of his fiancÈe, a graphic design major named Kelli Pyne. "If we stayed in Utah, she'd have to serve at a restaurant for $7 an hour, when she should be working at a firm."

The couple is up in the air about which school to pick and Webb said they'd visit the cities in May before making their final decision. The California College of the Arts' web site says the school "prepares its students for lifelong creative work and service to their communities through a curriculum in art, architecture, design, and writing," and Webb said that's exactly what he's looking for.

In the interim, Webb is packing his things and saying goodbye to Logan and Utah State. The walls in his room, the ones he painted bright red, are largely bare and his paintings rest in the corner.

Last week, Webb put his work on display in a gallery show. Webb said about 150 people attended.

His paintings covered the Easter-yellow walls of the room and Webb used the show as an opportunity to promote his latest venture, a line of clothing he calls "Coy."

"I like clothing," he said. "And I like the idea of making something that I think would be cool. It's clothing for kids who don't buy their clothing at the mall."

Webb has designed T-shirts and skateboards for Directive, a Logan skate shop, and has been commissioned to design merchandise for local bands, but said having full creative control of his own clothing is something that appeals to him.

Still, the Coy apparel ­ Webb said the name was inspired by a Smiths' song ­ isn't something he takes too seriously. Webb said he moved about half his inventory (mostly T-shirts and sweatshirts with stylized caricatures of animals) at the show and has been pleased by the number of people he has seen wearing his designs.

"That's something that stokes me," he said.

Webb, who calls Boise, Idaho, home, said he became interested in art a few years ago when he was living in a one-bedroom apartment in Salt Lake City with two other people.

"I bought some canvases at Fred Meyer," he said. "The first thing I painted were these two stylized hands. I just started drawing the first thing I saw. I was kind of interested in hands at that point."

Since then, Webb said his style and abilities have progressed; his catalog is a testament to that progression.

Webb's subjects range from hands to abstract visages to a series of text-driven paintings featuring animals dressed like people. Webb said his graphic design courses have influenced his work and inspired the use of text.

"It's kind of a snowball effect," he said. "I'll see something that inspires me and the next few paintings will be in the same style and then something else will catch my eye."

In his most recent work, Webb hasn't limited himself to painting on Fred Meyer canvases. Webb uses wood and cardboard and even paints on old wallpaper. He also incorporates thread and fabric into his work, stitching in items for texture.

"It's self-expression," he said. "You want to do something different to set yourself apart. To be noticed. If you're going to make art a career, you have to be kind of innovative."

Webb's sketchbook is filled with ideas and rough sketches of future paintings.

"I'd say its 70 percent idea and then 30 percent ends up being random chance," he said of his methods. "It gets frustrating when something doesn't turn out the way you imagined it to be. Or you ruin something halfway through."

As uncertain he is about where he'll attend school in the fall, Webb is also unsure about what he'd like to do after graduation.

"I'd like to have paintings in a gallery," he said. "But that's really hard to make a living at. I like the idea of being able to do CD layouts, book covers, magazines, skateboards."

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