Portrait of a Young Artist
On Fire
June 18, 2024
Avian Cannon at the Mint
Museum Uptown
Meet Avian
Cannon: A Rising Star in Charlotte's Creative Scene
If
you’re a regular reader of The Biscuit, you know where we stand: The Queen
City is chock full of artistic talent across a wide swath of creative
disciplines.
We can
see the product of working artists across our city, from murals to stage
productions to music in every corner of the community. It isn’t quite so
easy to gauge how much creative prowess exists in our schools. But, it’s
there in abundance.
A few
weeks ago, Avian
Cannon (they/them), a local visual artist who just
graduated from Lake Norman Charter High School, won first place in the
district in the 2024 Congressional Art Competition. Cannon's oil painting,
"Scrutiny in the Third Person," will be displayed in an
exhibition in Washington, DC for the next year along with more than 400
artists from across the country.
Congresswoman
Alma S. Adams, Ph.D., congratulated Cannon and four other local student
artists at a special ceremony at the Mint Museum Uptown on May 21. Watch a video here.
Click the image above to
watch the video.
This spring, Cannon was also recognized for their work at the Scholastic
Art & Writing Awards, which dates back to 1923.
This
annual program recognizes various art forms, including ceramics, digital
art, drawing, fashion, and photography. Sponsored by Adams Outdoor, NAMTA,
and UNC Charlotte, the awards honor outstanding student submissions and
rewards them by exhibiting their work at the Mint Museum Uptown. Read
stories of past winners here and here.
Cannon’s
art was selected by Charlotte Is Creative, publishers of The Biscuit, for
special recognition. And, we found the artist to be as interesting as the
art, itself.
MEET AVIAN CANNON
From a
young age, Cannon has been deeply entrenched in the world of art. For them,
art isn't just a pastime but a persistent calling.
Initially drawn to sculpting with clay and Play-Doh, Cannon's childhood
fascination evolved into a profound passion for character design and
illustration, inspired by the imaginative storytelling and vibrant
character designs in television shows like "My Little Pony,” “Voltron”
and other animated shows.
Avian
has long dreamt of a career in character illustration within the animation
industry … and they’re moving to make those dreams a reality. They are
captivated by the power of character design to tell stories – how a simple
drawing can encapsulate complex narratives and personify diverse
experiences, making it not only a creative outlet but also a profound
medium for storytelling.
Avian Cannon's Art
Click the image above to
enlarge it.
Q&A WITH
AVIAN CANNON
Not long
after the exhibition of Scholastic work closed at the Mint Museum, we had
an opportunity to speak with Cannon more about how they hope to develop a
creative career.
Your
art is evocative. There's an emotional depth to it. What kinds of reactions
do you see from people when they experience your work?
Most of
the time it's just people being surprised. Often, there's shock and awe at
the skill level, which I've worked really hard for.
But
there's also a lot of confusion about what my art means. Many of the the
pieces that [Charlotte Is Creative] saw and evaluated are from my current
AP portfolio where I'm focusing a lot on self-image and identity. People
look at the pieces and be confused as to what they mean, but it's always a
fun experience getting to explain it to them.
About
the self-portrait where you are peeling parts of your body off to reveal
money – how did you hope that would make people feel? What kind of emotions
or thoughts were you trying to elicit from an audience?
Initially,
with the pose and the lack of general clothing on it, I kind of wanted to
get shock out of people. That was the original prompt for that piece -- to
create a piece about an issue in the world.
It's
supposed to be how your value can feel monetary at times and how you can
only feel valued in the world if you're making money off of yourself. I
wanted people to look at it and be like, “Oh, that's a cool painting. Wait
a minute … what's going on? What's behind this? This is a lot more
interesting than I initially thought.”
Many
people wanted to know the emotion behind it and the obligatory handful of
people asking me if I was okay. It was clearly a self-portrait for a lot of
people. It was hung up in my school for a time. So if I walked past it,
people could kind of make the connection.
I
received lots of questions about the individual choices I made about it and
the emotion that went into it and how it connected to a lot of a greater
concept.
You
are are planning to attend SCAD Savannah in the fall. How do you feel about
that?
When I
set foot on the Savannah campus, it was this gorgeous city that you can
look around and see. Every other building is a SCAD building. You feel like
you're part of this big community.
After
college, what kind of creative career do you hope to have?
My ideal
job would be working at an animation company, preferably nothing owned by
Disney, but just somewhere working in the pre-production, working on
character design.
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