Art/Artsy Photos

Bob Katt's Weblocation

Art/Artsy Photos

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begginings of possible infinite length frieze for

billiards room art walls

Linda as Escher Ribbon Design

I came by my artistic talent honestly, as they say. Both my mother, Kathryn Irene Tarrant, and my father, James Reo Cox were pretty good at drawing. As far as I know Dad never painted, but Mom got on a Bob Ross kick when she was in her 70s and did a good job at "pushing oils around".

I started out copying cartoons when I was very young. I liked finger painting and used some water colors when still prepubescent.

Realizing I'd probably never be able to master mathematics, I gave up on my love of science and medicine before I graduated high school, copping out to art instead as a possible low stress future career.

Somewhere along the line I heard of 'commercial art' and when I asked my high school art teacher, Marvin Mullinex, if I'd be able to make a go of that as a career, he assured me I could.

I graduated in 1964 and that was the year that Playboy Magazine ranked S.I.U. as the foremost "Party School" in the nation, therefore Southern Illinois University's Vocational Technical Institute's Commercial Art Program, which was ranked among the best anywhere, became my alma mater.

Two years of Com Art and I went out to apply for jobs. I think I went about four or five places in Springfield and nobody hired me, so I decided to go back to school and major in Fine Art Studio, with NO focus on educational applications. I never ever had a yen for teaching.

At the tender age of 45, after a long career as a performing musician, I decided to open Cox Creative Consultants in Carbondale, IL.

So then I did illustration gigs, brochure designs, a ton of ad designs, a few more signs and a buncha calligraphy.

I've pretty much retired now, but spend hours weekly making art on my Mac. (Viva Photoshop!)

Artifact Wall

Composed of many items found, bought, or

made from scratch. I wanted to cover up the

ugly old, bare concrete with SOMETHING.

NOT BORING!

Although I didn't ever want to teach, I ended up filling in as a teacher of Graphics in the Journalism Department of S.I.U. for a year, back in about '77. I hated every moment of it, except that while there, the department got in a few Apple computers with page making and art programs. I immediately got into using those sorts of tools and tried to get my students interested too. At that time, unlike today, kids, even older college kids, didn't approach computers in any other frame of mind than wariness. I was able to impress on them that there was no way they could hurt the computer.

I still love working with Photoshop, manipulating photographic images. I have a lot of fun putting different heads on different bodies, adding people or objects into strange and unlikely environments, etc.

If only I could make money doing it. (oh, yeh, I HAVE made some money doing it)

When my father died around 1995 and left me a bit of money, I invested about half of my inheritance on a MacIntosh Quadra 700 with AdobePhotoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and QuarkXPress. That simple move put my into the computer art mode.

Photography is an interest I was kinda born into. Mom and Dad ran "Abigail Studio" in Springfield, specializing in family and children's photos. This was pre-color. The prints were laboriously hand tinted with oil paints. Dad did all the shooting, enlarging, loading plates, running the baths for development, then drying. I used to watch all this being done in the darkroom at the age of five. BUT! I never bought a 'good' camera. I was never actively pursuing photography as art until the advent of digital cameras. Now, you can shoot almost anything instantly, without fear of wasting film. Technical things like setting exposures, f-stops, etc. are no longer as necessary, IF you have Adobe PhotoShop. That is a true godsend. Start with a photo that has no midrange, and it can usually be salvaged. Even if someone closes their eyes, you can "open" them. I have more fun with PS than any kind of paint ever provided.

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