BY: BOOKER ROHLF
It was late, 9 p.m. in fact on a Friday night. The streets of 2nd through 6th St. were packed all along Ash St. for the high school football game at the colosseum. I had called DeJuan and asked him if he was ready for our chat about his art and plans for the future. After giving me his address, a few wrong turns were made, but I managed to stumble upon his doorstep. I had known DeJuan from classes and knew that he was a gifted artist. I have actually gotten some of his art, but I wanted to go a little deeper into some of his other works and processes. What follows is our conversation about his time here at Fort Hays State University.
What is the process to graduation look like for art students?
“For us, it’s an accumulation of different stuff, like an accumulation of what we have done while we have been here. Instead of being focused on one big piece for graduation, they look at your whole portfolio while you have been in school.”
How many pieces would that come out to be?
“What I have is a box of all my bigger projects I kept for reviews and things. You can take a look at them if you want.”
Dejuan proceeded to show me his box of pieces he has done here at FHSU throughout his time here. He showed me a box of playing cards that he had hand drawn designs for each card, he showed me a chocolate bar that he designed everything about, and my personal favorite a burnt wood calendar that has so many fine details it makes your head spin. He also showed me his most proud drawing that he did of a live model.
That’s not where this portfolio ends; he showed me his various paintings, some hanging, some put away for safe keeping. The one most striking to me was one of a sun hanging over a lake with a solitary sailboat drifting into the horizon. He also showed me a couple things he had shaped with his own two hands. One was a red sculpture with faces coming out of it as if it were a red cloud and the other; a custom key blade made entirely of metal. Needless to say, the man has gotten his fair share of work in.
What is the first thing you think about when considering a new piece?
“I would say how I can create this project with all my love. How can I make sure that I love this project? The more I enjoy doing a project obviously the better the quality of the outcome, because my calendar, I loved doing that! It didn’t turn out completely how I wanted but I still love it because of how much I liked working on it.”
Who is someone you look to as your favorite artist?
“Fabio Napoleoni.”
He said this mans’ name within milliseconds of me beckoning the question. DeJuan motioned to the figure at the corner of his room. It was a caricature of a figure used in most all of Fabio Napoleoni’s paintings/drawings. The whole interview I was paying a lot of attention to this figure as if it were a person in the room.
“Yeah, a friend of mine in the program made that figure for me for my birthday. Have you seen his art? I am always showing his stuff to people.
So our family was down in Florida and we went to this Disney for teenagers-park. One of the artists featured in the gallery was Fabio Napoleoni and instantly I had to know everything about this guy. I found out he started painting because he had asthma since he couldn’t do much outside his mom gave him stuff to start drawing; which I can identify with because I had a similar situation with asthma when I was a kid. He created that character because when his wife got pregnant they found out the baby had heart issues. Throughout that time he started drawing that character to pick himself back up, trying to make himself happier. In all these pieces he does you can see a heart incorporated somewhere in it. I just love his story.”
How do you want to change the world with your art?
“With this being our last year this has been a big topic for us. Our teachers will ask us, how do you want to impact the world? What do you want out of this experience? The biggest thing for me is I want to be a part of a project that touches somebody, that makes someone feel how some other artists have made me feel. Maybe it won’t make them want to become an artist, but it may give them the inspiration to do something different with their lives. It could be as simple as creating a commercial for an airline and someone wants to become a pilot right there. I want to help people figure themselves out.”
DeJuan will be finishing out his senior year and graduating in the spring with a Bachelor of Arts and Graphic Design degree. He told me that his ideal situation would be to join a team of animators; he hopes his travels take him to Colorado. With the hard work DeJuan puts into being a student, I know he will do great things in a studio.