Greely Myatt Interview.

Last Thursday in my Professional Practices class we went to the David Lusk Gallery to speak with the artist who was being show cased, Greely Myatt, about his work and process. When we arrived Greely welcomed us into the space and we stood around him in a semi-circle and began to ask him questions. He told us that artist statements were only important sometimes, and that it is usually per the galleries request that you write them. He informed us about his life and the different jobs he has had relating to art. I was really interested in how he got started sculpting, he started making large yard sculptures so that he would be exhibited on the lawns of museums, because they always had space outside. He said that was how he got his in into the southern art world. Greely Myatt was very down to earth and laughed about some of the stern questions we threw his way. It seems like he is an artist that just likes to have fun, and after meeting him that really shows.
It was weird to learn that the steel beam was actually just being held in place by the Styrofoam and that there really was no huge giant meaning behind that piece, just that it was material left over that was crowding up his studio space. It was nice speaking with someone who takes art serious enough to make a cohesive body of work, but that does not get distracted by all of the fluff that people tend to put in their art. I wished I had asked him about his name. It is a name I have never heard and I would love to know who he was named after or where his parents came up with that name in Mississippi.