[title subtitle=”WORDS Liesel Schmidt
IMAGE courtesy Stacy Bates”][/title]
Once upon a time, in a not so far away land, there lived a young woman named Stacy who loved art and dreamed of becoming a famous artist. One day, as Stacy sat outside to draw, she picked up her pen and was overtaken by a swarm of bees that buzzed and swirled around her until all she could see were hundreds of thousands of lines of yellow and black. She fell into a deep sleep, and when she woke, she looked around to see that everything had changed into a storybook-like world beyond her wildest dreams.
While it might not be strictly true, the imaginative spin on Fort Smith artist Stacy Bates’s story isn’t far off from one that she’s concocted for herself, being the creative mind that she is. An art teacher by trade, Stacy “Bee” as she goes by professionally, has become known for her pen and ink illustrations, using an unusual style that’s almost a throwback to old-fashioned drawings similar to those found in storybooks.
“I think my art is mostly inspired by vintage illustrations and printmaking works,” explains thirty-four-year-old Stacy, who became a professional artist in 2008 after graduating college and earning a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education degree. “The style of my line work is heavily influenced by my own experience with printmaking, and I’ve also been inspired by John Tenniel’s work from one of my favorite books, Alice in Wonderland. The level of detail in his illustrations, along with the beautiful vintage style from the late 1800’s, is really what has inspired me to achieve the same type of detailed look in my own work.”
It’s quite fitting, if you think about it, that she’s so deeply inspired by these fanciful tales and their whimsical renderings, as Stacy is a frequenter of Comic Con and other similar shows where she displays and sells her art, using variations on a tale of bees to give a backstory to her use of the name “Bee.” Ask her the truth, and she’ll laugh, a curious twinkle in her eye that gives away nothing about the sheer ordinariness of it all.
Not that there’s really anything ordinary about her pieces. Quite the contrary, in fact, as they do, indeed, lend themselves to a backstory explained by her fantastical yarn, so heavily do they rely on simple lines and stripes outlined in pen and ink. There is no color, but these lines—line after line after line—are intricately drawn into the details, giving texture, shade, dimension, and contrast where color would normally serve in doing so. Only a precious few actually have any color, but even then, Stacy’s use of it is minimal, popping up only here and there rather than fully saturating the piece.
Regardless of what she’s working on, Stacy tends to think outside the box, whether in the subject matter itself or the medium she’s using. “While my main medium is pen and ink, I also paint murals as well as doing a bit of digital illustration. I settled on pen and ink illustration mostly because I like the permanence of the medium and the vintage feel it gives to the viewer,” she says. “I look at drawing with pen and ink like I look at life—you have to admit to yourself before you start that you will make mistakes and then deal with them just as you would in life. You learn from those mistakes, and then all you can do is make the best of the situation and move on.”
“I look at drawing with pen and ink like I look at life—you have to admit to yourself before you start that you will make mistakes and then deal with them just as you would in life. You learn from those mistakes, and then all you can do is make the best of the situation and move on.”
Wise words, and ones that she has likely shared with her art students at Woods Elementary in Fort Smith, where she has taught for the past six years. Previous to her current tenure there, she taught for six years at Darby Junior High, imparting her knowledge of art and clear passion for it into the ready hearts of her students. “I love teaching kids everyday and getting to share my art knowledge with them,” she says.
Seeing the pieces she creates as Stacy Bee, one can only imagine that being a student under her tutelage is quite the unforgettable experience, as the whimsy in her works is clearly a reflection of their creator. There’s fun and imagination and quirkiness to her pieces that make them unlike anything else—which is certainly her goal. “My pen and ink works are unique because they are a mixture of comic illustration along with linocut/intaglio printmaking that comes together to form a vintage style of work that really isn’t common these days,” Stacy explains. “As for my subject matter, I try to always implement a storyline that is important to me while also giving it a bit of a surreal twist. The combination of these things together makes for artwork with a bit of a different feel to it.”
To really appreciate it, however, one must give more than a cursory glance to a piece bearing her name. They say that the devil is in the details, and nothing could be more true for Stacy’s art. “When discussing my work with clients and people who have viewed my work, I think the thing that draws them in at first is the level of detail. Some of my works have thousands of lines, and you really have to get close to see what story is being told. Upon closer inspection, I usually get compliments about the idea showcased in the drawing. I also think people enjoy seeing something that appears vintage but has implemented modern day subjects and ideas,” she says.
So just how does she do it? “It always begins with an idea and a sketch. When thinking of ideas, I often feel like I have my own Photoshop program in my head that is constantly running and rearranging images to find an idea I like best,” she explains. “This image almost always includes a detailed background story along with hidden images inside the illustration that relate to the story. When I’ve finally constructed it in my mind, that’s when I’ll create a very rough sketch. If it looks great on paper, then I’ll redraw the major outlines using pen and ink and begin adding lots of details, textures and shading. This last step takes the longest, and I’ve found it to be the biggest challenge; but it’s also what makes the drawing what it is in the end.”
And what it is in the end is spectacular, a rendering of people and places and things that seem, at first, to be so simple, but are so much more intricate and involved. In these pictures, Stacy gives her viewers a glimpse into her imagination, into a world reduced into stripes and lines that seem alive and vibrant, where storybook tales can come true. Lost in these drawings, we, too, are swept up in the swirl of lines and stripes…Can that possibly be buzzing we hear?
For more information, visit StacyBeeArt.com. Stacy Bee is also represented at Belle Starr Antiques & Vintage Market in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and SugarMynt Gallery in Pasadena, California.
