{"id":4366,"date":"2015-12-17T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=4366"},"modified":"2015-12-16T11:31:05","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T17:31:05","slug":"marty-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2015\/12\/17\/marty-bee\/","title":{"rendered":"MARTY BEE"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Profile Of The Noted Professional Artist And Graphic Design Professor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Angie Kay Dilmore<\/em><\/p>\n

\"MB<\/a>Marty Bee has taught graphic design to nearly 3,000 art students at McNeese State University since 1987. He also operates a freelance art design business, specializing in business logos and websites.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Bee was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

Lagniappe recently caught up with Bee and learned a bit about his artistic journey, what\u2019s new in his life and how he copes with chronic illness.<\/p>\n

Where were you raised and were you artistic as a child?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was raised in Minnesota and was very artistic. I remember when my first grade teacher Sister Dominica asked me, “Why did you make the hair on your drawing blue?” That was the color of Superman’s hair.<\/p>\n

Later in high school, the other kids would get me to do hot rod art on their notebooks.<\/p>\n

Where did you attend art school and what was your major?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I graduated in 1980 from California State University-Long Beach with a bachelor’s of fine arts in visual communication (which is a high hat word for graphic design) and from Syracuse University in 1989 with a master of fine arts in advertising design.<\/p>\n

What was your first job after college graduation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I worked for Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn (BBDO) in Minneapolis. I was a “Junior Art Director” and got a chance to work on advertising and collateral material for Hormel, 3M, Honeywell and Burlington Northern Railroad.<\/p>\n

I worked in the “real world” for seven years after my graduation from Cal State, but had also been working freelance work for nine years after my stint in the Navy.<\/p>\n

What brought you to Lake Charles?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I came to Lake Charles in 1987. A position opened up at McNeese for a graphic design professor. What really brought me here was needing to get my youngest son covered by health insurance since he had a congenital heart defect. He is now 28 and doing well. He still has to get checked once a year to make sure the aorta stays open.<\/p>\n

You ascribe to a three-fold artistic process: research, design, and execution. Briefly describe those steps.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I will take a long while just researching what the client is all about and what his competition does. Then comes the moment when I start looking for analogies. The formal name for that process is “synectics.” Design can be summed up in the motto of the modernists \u2014 form must follow function. In other words, a good design, whether it be for a trademark or web site, should capture in its very essence the “idea” of the firm and what it is all about.<\/p>\n

For execution, it is important to think of being not limited to your own set of skills but of having access to the best illustrators and photographers in the world. This process applies across all fields of art.<\/p>\n

Besides teaching and your freelance business, what has captured your artistic attention lately?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My work direction has changed somewhat. I heard a very good speaker, Steve Farrar (founder and chairman of Men\u2019s Leadership Ministries and author of the best-selling book Point Man: How a Man Can Lead his Family) say that after age 60 you should focus your work more. I am returning to my first love, illustration, and doing some “art for art’s sake” kind of work.<\/p>\n

I also am only picking up clients I have a real interest in. I just did a logo for the local Parkinson’s Foundation headed by Eligha Guillory and keep up with maintaining and designing of a women’s ministry website.<\/p>\n

My passion is doing black and white illustration. I have also been experimenting with the iPad and generating art with it.<\/p>\n

Tell me more about that passion: \u2014 your illustration work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"MB\"<\/a>I bring a rather dark humor to everything I do. I did a number of illustrations about Hurricane Rita. I was finishing up one of them on a plane from San Francisco and an ad executive I knew sitting across the aisle said, “You’re sick! But it’s a good kind of sick.” I just finished doing a series of illustrations for Vietnam Veterans of America magazine on Agent Orange which was very satisfying to do.<\/p>\n

What do you strive most to teach your students?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no good design without a good concept or idea. We need to be visual storytellers.<\/p>\n

Software and technology are not the most important thing. It’s actually what goes on in the space between your ears.<\/p>\n

One of my students was a well known African-American painter named Michael Ray Charles. He says my proverb of “making the familiar strange” is what kick-started his work. I cannot take credit for it though. I got that quote from the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency. To quote veteran ad guy George Lois, “What’s the big idea?”<\/p>\n

How has Parkinson\u2019s disease affected your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a couple of ways. When I was first diagnosed I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to draw anymore. So I decided to do a drawing a day about Parkinson’s. You can check out my blog at thedopaminechronicles.wordpress.com.<\/p>\n

The other things I noticed are the “flow” of the lines and shading wasn’t there like it used to be. The solution was to just work slower and more methodically. Also, I had lost 40 percent of function in my drawing arm. This caused my drawings to all “skew” to the right. I put down a basic grid now to keep things where they need to be.<\/p>\n

One of the benefits of doing creative work now is that when I am in the “zone,” drawing, all symptoms of Parkinson’s disappear!<\/p>\n

What are your plans for the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I plan to keep teaching and drawing as long as possible. A good friend of mine, the guy who hired me at BBDO, once said when they bury me, my hand will be reaching out from the coffin with a cartoon saying, “WAIT, I got one more for you!”<\/p>\n

For more information on Bee and to see more of his artwork, visit his website at mjbeedesign.com.<\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n

\"MBPaintingJohnMcNeese\"<\/a>Marty Bee: A Student’s Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMarty will start each project by showing us model examples, good representations of what we should be aiming for,\u201d says current senior graphic design student Blake Jasken. \u201cHe often will tell us to focus on one artist or designer.<\/p>\n

“There is almost always a definite format, which limits the students in a way that forces them to use their problem-solving skills. Sometimes he will give us a tech demo, showing us how to use certain tools or materials, which definitely helps us to get started.<\/p>\n

“Then he basically lets us loose! If a student asks a question, he will try to help them in a way that is non-obtrusive to their individual approach so that he isn’t just telling them what to do.<\/p>\n

“This process is gold for a self-starter \u2014 anyone who wants to improve in a certain aspect of their art or design could emulate his approach on their own and gain valuable practical knowledge of whatever they are trying to learn.<\/p>\n

“Marty\u2019s threefold approach of research, design, and execution plays against a common pitfall of creative types: meandering in style or technique without a specific end goal in mind. This is vital to any student artist who wants to be a professional. I really feel like his approach has helped me grow into a better artist and graphic designer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Profile Of The Noted Professional Artist And Graphic Design Professor By Angie Kay Dilmore Marty Bee has taught graphic design to nearly 3,000 art students at McNeese State University since 1987. He also operates a freelance art design business, specializing in business logos and websites. In 2011, Bee was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease. 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