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Meet Illustrator Don Tate

May 10, 2006

    
(artwork from SURE AS SUNRISE, Illustrator Don Tate Houghton Mifflin 2004)

A.B. How long have you been an artist?

D.T.

"I've been an artist as long as I can remember. I've been illustrating professionally for little over 23 years. In grade school, I was the art kid. I was the kid who attracted a crowd during drawing assignments, and who doodled all over my math homework. I remember, as early as 3rd grade, my friends saying things like: "Donny Tate is going to be a famous artist when he grows up." Those comments boosted my self-esteem.
I grew up with a younger brother who was the family sports hero. I was not athletically inclined, not at all. Because of that, I sometimes felt inadequate. But my brother — multi-talented he was — couldn't draw, and neither could any of my friends, that I remember. Drawing was my gift — as well as painting, building, weaving, braiding, sewing, or anything that could be done creatively with the hands. My grandmother gave me a suitcase, and filled it up with paper, toilet paper rolls, yarn, scraps of materials, buttons and all kinds of junk from around the house. Whenever I visited her — almost every Saturday afternoon — I was busy making stuff. But, my stuff was always beyond the naivety of a child. It was more like: "Maybe we should be selling this stuff."

A.B. Why did you choose this as a profession?
D.T. "I never really considered anything else; I've always been an artist. As a child, I was inspired by my aunt, Eleanora E. Tate. She was a well-known reporter at my hometown newspaper in Des Moines, Iowa, and later, went on to write young adult novels. One of her novels was adapted into a movie. The movie, JUST AN OVERNIGHT GUEST, debuted at the Des Moines Public Library. I remember attending the debut party and thinking that someday, I wanted to tell stories with pictures in the same way she told stories with words.  
I was also inspired into this field by a popular television character —Jay-Jay, kid-o-dynomite on GOOD TIMES. You may remember, Jay-Jay, the eldest son on the show, was an artist — a painter. When he wasn't out front making his audience laugh, he was always in the background painting pictures (the real art by acclaimed artist Ernie Barnes). Painting was his gift, and what set him apart from everyone else. In a final episode, Jay-Jay went on to become an art director, or work for an ad agency, or something. As a child, that stuck with me, and helped me to define what I wanted to do with my art talents."

A.B. What were the challenges (if any)?
D.T. "I'm sorry to say, but issues of race were probably my biggest challenges (mental). I was warned by family not to go into the field of commercial art because, they said, art wasn't a field for black folks. I was warned that I'd never find employment, and encouraged toward the field of computer programming, or something where, "you can make some money." A few years later, while in college, I received that same warning from a white illustration instructor. He encouraged me, saying that I had the talent to make it as a commercial illustrator/graphic artist. But, he also warned me that I was entering a field that hadn't quite opened yet to blacks — that I would have to work twice as hard as my white counterparts, and that I might never make it as far, regardless. After graduating a two-year commercial art course, I took a job with a local printer, doing basic production art. One day, my boss called me aside. He told me that although I could stay employed with his company as long as I pleased, that I was cheating myself, that there were much better opportunities out there for someone with my talents. But he also warned me that I would have a tough time as a black artist. My next employer, the owner of an advertising agency, once suggested that I was lucky he hired me. "How many other blacks do you see in this field?" he asked me. At the time, in Des Moines, Iowa, I didn't see any others, so I bought into his words. Armed with all that, as well as some of the racial idiosyncrasies that I later learned in the field of children's publishing, my biggest challenge was in re-adjusting my thinking — that I could be successful in this field, and that I have."

 

Posted by Amy Bowllan on May 10, 2006 | Comments (0)