Center on Halsted is bringing Tennessee to Chicago and the world of art will never be the same.
Tennessee Loveless was born in Greenville, S.C., and eventually studied fashion design in Atlantabut he always wanted to be a painter. Being born almost entirely color-blind almost crushed his dreams, but he devised his own system and moved to California where he soon rose to the top of his field at Disney in their Collection Editions department.
Loveless arrives this week in our neck of the woods, bringing his pop-art collection with him.
Windy City Times: Hey, Tennessee. When did you first start creating art?
Tennessee Loveless: I went to school for art and have always been a sketcher and a painter. I ended up going to Savannah's School of Art and Design for studio painting back in 1996 but I quickly left a year later when they told me I shouldn't be a painter because of my color choices.
I then got a degree in fashion design in a school in Atlanta. I had never really painted until moving to San Francisco. I think it was seven years; I stopped painting until a drag queen saw me sketch and wanted me to paint her. I told her that I can't see color very well. She didn't care but just wanted a portrait.
WCT: So you did it?
TL: Yes, I ended up painting her and her drag-queen daughter saw it and asked me to paint her. Suddenly every drag queen in San Francisco wanted me to paint [her]! I became the artist for drag queens in San Francisco. That is how it all started. School didn't really do anything, it was just training.
WCT: So the lesson is, kids, drop out of school and hang out with drag queens!
TL: Exactly. I was a drag queen, too, in San Francisco for a long time. I became real involved in that area. After that I had a few shows there, mostly at street level and whatnot. I then went to L.A. and did the RuPaul's Drag Race art show at the World of Wonder Gallery. James St. James saw my work and asked me to do season one at that gallery. They eventually gave up the gallery to the Betty Page store.
I did another show there called Cartoon Nation. I was working a temp job as a business analyst for Disney and one of the executives came to the gallery and saw that I was painter. He asked why I was painting more and I told him about being color-blind. I started working internally at Disney and they pitched me working at Division Pop, which is a great division of Disney Fine Art.
WCT: So that is how you got in the Mickey Mouse Club.
TL: [Laughs] Yeah, through drag queens! When I showed executives my work at Disney they thought they were "lovely ladies" and I said, "Actually they are men." Many people who work at Disney have a passion for it and I love it, but [I] came from an underground street-level drag-queen art perspective. They were taking a risk bringing me on the team.
WCT: What was your drag name?
TL: Lovelessit was just my last name. There was a thing called Tranny Shack in San Francisco that changed my life. I am from the South, which usually means you impersonate Reba McEntire or try to look fishy. Going to San Francisco, that whole world changed me. It was very punk rock, very avant-garde and very DIY at the same time. These were heavily tattooed drag queens so I found the place I wanted to live! Tranny Shack eventually went all over the United States. There are two movies, a Sundance Film Festival documentary and a really lovely coffee table book about it now. That was very revolutionary for me.
WCT: Does the name Tennessee come from living in Tennessee?
TL: My dad is from Tennessee. He is from Rutherford, Tenn. You are from Tennessee, aren't you?
WCT: Yes; I grew up there.
TL: I had to read your blog a bit and saw you in that nun outfit. I thought it was amazing!
WCT: Thanks. Is this your first time in Chicago?
TL: I lived in Chicago for a brief amount of time in 2000. I was living in Philadelphia, traveled through Chicago and decided to stay for a little bit. Winter came and I had to leave. I am coming back after 12 years. I love it there and I am dying to do a residency out there. No, it is not my first time but feels like it, with me coming back and being a lot older.
WCT: Your art uses gay icons such as Joan Crawford and Dolly Parton. Are you a big fan of theirs?
TL: Oh, yeah. I have always been a fan of villains and Joan's face was modeled after the evil queen in Snow White. Walt Disney loved Joan Crawford. When I was researching Joan Crawford facts, the day that she was buried was that day that I was born, which is kind of creepy. I do have such an affinity for Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and the starlets. I like the power they exuded. Back in those days you had to fight to be a woman. There is also lots of camp in how drag queens act, too. I like to paint them for the overdramatization. It is the colorful nature that I like to paint on people.
WCT: How does it work being color-blind? I read you see in hot and cold.
TL: I am not completely blind. I don't just see in black and white. There are versions of chromatopsia, but I can see hot and cold. I can pick out the color range of where it is going but I can't pick colors out. If it is a deep hot color then I assume it is red. With cold colors I am so screwed. I can't begin to know what I am painting. Neutral and pastel colors don't exist. They are muddy colors that could be a combination. Most of it is a guessing game.
In pop art things have to be exact so I paint on a mathematical scale. Every color has a pigment code and has a designated color scheme. A yellow will have 5 percent green and there is a whole index to it. When I paint, everything is gridded out.
WCT: Sounds a little tricky.
TL: It has been a trying process. The more I paint and the more it has been my career, the more complex these patterns have become.
WCT: You taught yourself this process?
TL: Yes, no one is going to teach it for me. When I was in college it became an issue because everyone said my color choices were obnoxious. These teachers wanted everyone to be commercial artists and they said I would never be commercial with the color choices that I used. I was very sensitive about that. Once I got over that via the power of drag queens I soon learned what was comfortable for me.
The only colors I worked with were orange and ultramarine blue, and as time went on I started using other colors but I had to understand them on a fundamental level and how they worked. Studying pigment code, researching it online and creating my own index was how I trained myself because no one else was going to do it for me.
WCT: How long will you be in Chicago for?
TL: I am spending the weekend there. I want to stay for a while. The great thing about L.A. is that you can always come back. It is a very transient city. I would like to sublet my place and stay there for five months.
I am creating two Chicago pieces with Mickey's head inside of it. I am working on it right now. His head will say Midwest and each shard will represent a stop on the CTA. The red will say Bryn Mawr and blue will say Damen so ... [it's] a story about the transit train. The CTA is amazing, coming from a train that goes two places.
WCT: I look forward to seeing the piece at the show.
TL: I am really excited especially showing at the Center on Halsted because being gay and an artist it is really nice to show at an LGBT center. It is an homage to my sexuality and where I came from, also combining the art with it.
Loveless' exhibit will be at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., on Friday, May 18, for a limited run. Visit www.centeronhalsted.org for information and details.