“Roadrunner,” Halsey Berryman’s digital print, packs a tight, grocery-bag-full of images into a small frame. It’s one of 51 dense illustrations now on view in a solo show at the Fort Lewis College Art Gallery through Nov. 21.
Suggestively titled “Bird’s Eye View,” the exhibit trumpets an environmentalist call as birds, animals and humans share highways, golf courses, cities and swamps. Unconventional but with deep roots in artistic practice, Berryman combines old-fashioned realism with a contemporary collage aesthetic. To put it in art-history speak, Berryman mixes the passion of John James Audubon with Hogarthian satire and more than a dash of sophisticated, commercial art know-how.
If you go
WHAT: “Bird’s Eye View: Illustration by Halsey Berryman.”
WHERE: Fort Lewis College Art Gallery, 1000 Rim Drive.
WHEN: Now through Nov. 21. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday and by special arrangement.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.fortlewis.edu/art-gallery.
What you see when you walk into the gallery is a colorful display of illustrations filled with realistic depictions of birds and animals, tightly nestled into landscapes and packed with contemporary references. Berryman’s imagery derives from modern capitalism – tennis shoes, cars, metal traps and grocery items. They coalesce into a strident criticism of greedy consumer culture.
“Roadrunner” is one of few lighthearted illustrations. The subject stands in the middle of a highway in a distinctly Southwest landscape. He’s left-bracketed by three colorful blocks, two insects and cacti. Floating in the sky, three sneakers and three tiny Roadrunners constitute a visual joke. At bottom right, a small, handwritten title functions as a grammatical stop. In short, 11 separate images crowd this little scene. Berryman’s preference for dense, compositions and her superb drawing skills mark her style.
Although these are digital prints, her technical choices are more aligned with traditional print mediums by accentuating texture and the phantom hand of marking.
Roadrunners, as Berryman would tell you, are fast-running ground cuckoos that may not be high on the endangered species list, but there is concern for survival. In addition, and here’s a kicker for FLC’s gallery, her work also brings up the cultural and educational divide between fine and applied art.
Berryman’s career trajectory leaves behind the fine-art dictum of art for art’s sake. She has opted for activism, energetically pursuing commercial outlets for her talents. From signs and murals to products such as stickers, holiday cards and T-shirts, she has developed a busy online presence.
She is also fascinated by lettering, and incorporates titles and messages in most of her prints. She’s a seasoned calligrapher and graphic designer who uses letter forms as another avenue of expression.
Berryman produces logos for corporate clients, freelances for a variety of magazines including AARP and Golf Digest, creates a line of cards, stickers and posters online, and crafts murals like a 90-foot, Bloomington, Indiana, project in 2020.
“Halsey hasn’t siloed herself,” says Casey Smith, a former Corcoran professor of Berryman’s. Watch his YouTube feature for Phillips 100 where he invited Berryman to be one of the presenters. Smith praises her range and not disappearing into The White Cube. In the world of high art, that stands for the gallery circuit and stands in opposition to applied or commercial art.
The irony of exhibiting personal, environmental prints in FLC’s academic gallery, a white-cube space, hasn’t escaped Berryman, whose career spans well beyond her digital “Bird’s Eye” prints.
From childhood, Halsey Berryman said at her exhibit opening, Oct. 17, she’s been a passionate observer of the natural world. Her mother, artist and architectural consultant Mina Wright, attended the gallery opening and confirmed her daughter’s story.
“From age 5 on, Halsey drew everything – birds, animals, eggs, flowers,” Wright said. And her daughter’s curiosity was augmented by the Dorling Kindersely book series, Wright said, especially the Ultimate Visual Dictionary. Overflowing with realistic drawings and diagrams, the DK series and Eyewitness Books grounded Berryman’s propinquity for drawing realistically.
Now 32, Berryman has a multipronged career as a commercial artist with an online following and corporate clients. A 2014 graduate of the Corcoran College of Art and Design, she said she was part of the last fine-art Corcoran class before the prestigious art school merged with George Washington University.
“I was a painting major,” she said at the opening. “At the time, Corcoran was a ‘conceptual’ school. It emphasized ideas over skills. We were told you have a whole lifetime to develop your skills.” That, apparently, didn’t sit well with Berryman.
The narrow, ivory-tower definition of art making pointed toward a future of solitary studio practice, gallery shows, and hopefully – wealthy patrons. That traditional view, Berryman said, seemed at odds with a dedicated realist committed to portraying the natural world.
Her part-time college job, she said, unexpectedly provided an off-ramp.
“I worked for Trader Joe’s when I was in college hand-lettering signs, creating murals and displays,” she said.
For “fun and money,” she said, she also started creating cards and stickers, and when she worked for the Bird Collective, she designed T-shirts, because “the proceeds went to saving specific species like the Common Tern.”
In short, while studying fine arts, Berryman acquired a different set of skills and real-world applications for her gifts. With a high-energy work ethic and a preference for democratizing art, she said she found a better path than producing conceptual paintings for the high-art marketplace. Instead of “The White Cube,” art school-speak for the gallery path, Berryman has sought out clients and has an online presence on various platforms.
“I carefully choose my clients,” Berryman said. “I don’t do corporate work unless it aligns with my values. And yes, I went from academic painting to illustration for art that is more accessible.”
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.