Robert Waterman of Tuscola County’s Millington Township holds one of his drawings he’ll offer for sale at the Flint Art Fair on June 20 and 21. For years, Waterman has attended the event as an art fan, but this year he was admitted as an artist after Art Fair officials examined his works. Waterman’s booth is titled “Bob’s Facial Expressions.” (Photo by John Cook)
By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
MILLINGTON TWP. — Robert Waterman travels 40 miles to sell his drawings in the Flint Art Fair on Saturday, but his road as an artist began more than 30 years ago, paved by hundreds of hours of work, and thousands of dots and lines struck with art pens and pencils.
“I kept going to art fairs for years and saw what other people do, but most of the time I never figured I had enough (works) to fill a tent,” said Waterman, 53, of Tuscola County’s Millington Township, appearing at his first art fair after being selected for the Flint Art Fair as one of about 175 “established and emerging artists from Michigan and beyond.”
“When I applied to get in, they wanted a photo of a booth with my work in it, and I didn’t even have a booth,” Waterman said.
Waterman sent four online samples of his drawings, and said Art Fair officials accepted him for the show Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the grounds of the Flint Institute of Arts, 1120 E. Kearsley St.
Waterman presents more than 41 drawings at his booth, titled “Bob’s Facial Expressions.” He said a Flint Art Fair representative told him his work “needs to be seen.”
Waterman, a 1980 Vassar High School graduate, draws faces of little-known people such as a Mexican migrant worker or an actor from a B movie. But his works also feature the more famous, such as musicians Iggy Pop and the late Jim Morrison, singer Johnny Rotten and the late Layne Staley, frontman for the band Alice in Chains.
While drawing at his home, Waterman listens to music by Tom Waits or Bruce Springsteen or Nirvana, among others.
“I listen to everything; I’ve got Barbra Streisand, even,” Waterman said. “But then I’ve got the Sex Pistols, Johnny Cash and Charlie Parker.”
Waterman, a machinist at R & S Tool and Die in Caro, said he has attended the Flint Art Fair as an art lover for about 30 years, always wanting to enter the show. He credits former Vassar High School art teacher Lois Parsell, and the late Mott Community College instructor Tom Nuzum, with helping him progress as an artist.
“It was in high school, really, where I really got interested in art,” Waterman said. “I started drawing in about fifth grade but I didn’t really start doing it a lot until I was in my 20s. In (Nuzum’s) classroom, me and another girl were the only ones he gave an ‘A’ to. I still remember he based our grades on our own criticism of our work. He put all our work on the floor and you had to sit with him, and he asked ‘What do you think of what you do?’ I still remember saying that I worry too much about the detail and I don’t get it down.”
Most of the works that Waterman will take to the Flint Art Fair have been created in the past five years.
“I’ve always had jobs where I was required to work a lot of overtime, so sometimes I would go months to years without drawing,” Waterman said. “I didn’t think I had enough ‘good’ works.”
Waterman, however, began visiting a website for artists, idrawandpaint.com in 2010. “That’s when I really got motivated,” he said.
His favorite medium for his drawings is ink. When asked how many dots make up an ink drawing he did of a female vampire, Waterman laughed and said “Twenty-one hours.”
The Flint Art Fair showcases artists in all genres, including ceramics, glass, painting, jewelry, fiber, metal, mixed media, photography, printmaking, sculpture and wood.
Waterman’s admittance into the Art Fair has brought praise from friends. “People at work are always asking me about it,” Waterman said.
The Art Fair has occurred annually since 1967, a tradition that made Waterman want to show his work there.
“I’ve always wanted to do the Flint Art Fair because it’s been around so many years and it has a good reputation,” he said.