The first comic Dawson Walker ever drew, when he was around five, was called \u201cSam and Tim\u201d and was all about a boy and his stuffed tiger.<\/p>\n
While that comic was pretty clearly influenced by a certain other comic about a boy and a tiger, over the last twenty or so years, Walker has developed a free-flowing style of his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just made a lot of comics when I was younger and continued making comics in middle school,\u201d he said. \u201cAnytime somebody asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, it was like, \u2018Comic artist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaska Robotics co-owner Pat Race gave Walker his comic book collection when he was a kid, Walker said, and was an influential figure in his youth. The guest artists Race brought to Juneau, Walker said, helped do away with periods of doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust seeing you can make a living off of being a comic artist was just so inspiring,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re growing up in Juneau, you\u2019re kind of like oh, you love art, and you fall in love with art, but (you aren\u2019t sure if it\u2019s something viable)\u2026 That\u2019s why I\u2019m really excited about the Con, too \u2014 introducing these (young) artists to such a wide variety of people.\u201d (The Con has special student rates \u2014 it\u2019s only $25 for a student, or many students, to get a booth, making it much easier for them to participate.)<\/p>\n
Walker graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School in 2010, then went on to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Now, he\u2019s pursuing his Master of Arts in Teaching at the University of Alaska Southeast.<\/p>\n
After graduating college, he stayed in Minneapolis for a while, worried about staying motivated if he moved back to Juneau.<\/p>\n
Motivation, however, hasn\u2019t been a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve definitely been really\u2026 happy to find Juneau just has such a strong community of artists in all different kids of genres,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving a community of artists is just such an important part of creating art.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, one of the projects he\u2019s working on is taking memories around the central trauma of his mother\u2019s death, three years ago, and turning those memories into dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted it to be autobiographical, but I\u2019d get stuck. I couldn\u2019t figure out how to tell that story,\u201d he said. Changing memories into dreams gave him the creative freedom he needed. He\u2019s also interested in how people experience memories and trauma, he said.<\/p>\n
He wants to create work that takes place in Juneau. Comics and animation, he said, citing Japanese filmmaker Hiyao Miyazaki, allow for a different kind of visual exploration of place than other art forms \u2014 they\u2019re limited only by the author\u2019s imagination. Want to skim along Juneau\u2019s rooftops instead of walking along the street? Sure, let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so many cool little spaces in Juneau,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd (there\u2019s)\u2026 this gap of wilderness and you can just go back forever into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, he\u2019s been trying to return to the way he drew as a kid \u2014 \u201clooser, more expressive stuff,\u201d he said. Some who have seen it compare it to the drawings of Shel Silverstein or Quentin Blake.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a spontaneity to it, he said. He tries to just let what he\u2019s drawing come out, instead of trying to perfect it.<\/p>\n
In the kind of comics Walker and many other artists create, \u201cit\u2019s just you sitting down and a piece of paper. Nobody telling you what you can draw, what you can\u2019t draw,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can really see people\u2019s personality, their identity\u2026 It\u2019s the kind of storytelling that, I think, takes a lot of love. You can see that even with younger artists. It\u2019s definitely an art of passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retaining creative freedom and inspiration while making it financially is \u201ca delicate dance,\u201d Walker said, and pursuing a career in art education has freed him from the need to dance it.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now student teaching with art teacher Heather Ridgway at JDHS but he\u2019s not sure if he\u2019ll be able to stay in Juneau, given cuts to art teacher positions. If he could, he would like to stay (as would Jordan Kendall, a fellow UAS student featured in another CCW article this week.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to leave JDHS,\u201d Walker said. \u201cIt\u2019s been great getting to know the kids and seeing a lot of young comic artists, and artists \u2014 being able to encourage them, show them other young artists\u2026. I think the comics community is one of the best artistic communities out there, and it\u2019s very cool to be able to come back after being a part of that and helping to bring part of that to Juneau.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s done work for Minnesota Public Radio, NPR, and even a newspaper in Brazil, in addition to selling it at comic conventions and Alaska Robotics.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be in a frenzy of classes and printing the week before Alaska Robotics\u2019 Mini-Con, as he\u2019s sold out of most of his work.<\/p>\n
Most of what he\u2019s been making are small, handmade booklets like zines, he said.<\/p>\n
Beyond the Con, \u201cfor me, just getting my book into somebody\u2019s hands, and having them read it \u2014 that\u2019s really what I\u2019m after now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like the book, the story is like \u2018Hey, I want to be told\u2019 more.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Mini-Con, he plans on having his memory book and another comic called \u201cSquatters\u201d available. Each is about 30 pages, he said. He\u2019ll also be teaching a workshop on spontaneous drawing, and may try and have a kid-friendly comic, too. (He cautions that not everything on his website is kid-friendly.)<\/p>\n
Walker\u2019s work can be found at www.dawsonpiselwalker.com\/.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly managing editor Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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