I guess it's been awhile since I've last mentioned Jerry Tanner and his artwork with
The Modern Fly. Months ago, I asked Jerry if he'd answer a few questions for a interview on T.F.M. and then his answer back was more or less was lost in my inbox.
From the first time that I first saw his artwork, I was struck by the
fun and freestyle of his interpretation of flies that I have in my own
fly boxes. I enjoyed reading his story and hope that you will as well. I figured a Sunday morning was a good time to get this interview published and thank Jerry for his time with his thoughtful answers.
What was your first exposure to art and your realization that you
could tap into it?
Thank you for inviting me to your interview, Cameron. Great first question!
Coincidentally, my wife and I were just talking about what led us each into
the art profession last evening. We had just been watching a talk with the
legendary artist and graphic designer, Milton Glaser—creator of the I♥NY
logo—when he was asked the very same question. And his answer was quite
similar to my own personal experience.
I was probably 5 years old when my mother showed me something that
seemed like magic. She started putting a few lines on a piece of paper when
suddenly they became a rabbit’s face and ears! She is 88 years old, and when
I asked her for a sample of the doodle, she sent it the next day (see
below). To me, it seemed like she had just made something out of thin
air.
Presto! I think at that moment I was fascinated and hooked
on the idea of creating art.
When did your interest in fly fishing begin and at what point did you start
creating art that was fly fishing related?
Okay. This is also another great question, and it’s centered around my
brother. Like any younger brother, I looked up to my elder. But, it wasn’t
until he introduced me to fishing when I was about 15 that I realized we had
something in common that would become a real bond. We lived in the suburbs
of northern New Jersey, near dairy and fruit farms. A mile down our street
was a farm pond. Like a lot of the local ponds, it was stocked with
largemouth bass and bluegills. My brother, worked for the apple farm that
owned the pond, so he had permission to fish it. He set me up with a
spinning rod and reel, and we headed down to the pond.
With a
rubber worm, and my brother’s coaching about how to fish the lure, and how
to play a fish, I caught my first bass. Now THAT was exhilarating! We fished
that pond often and always had a great time. One day my brother announced he
was taking up fly fishing. A few days later, at dusk on a summer day, we
went to our favorite pond. The air was humid, still and warm. The surface of
the pond was like glass as my brother started his new found fly fishing
cast. At the end of his leader was a small, red and white popper fly. In my
memory, he had barely laid the fly onto the water’s surface and given the
popper its first twitch and pop, when the water suddenly exploded with the
hit of a largemouth bass! I don’t remember if he caught the fish. I just
remember that amazing moment. And that’s when I became in awe of fly
fishing.
Your background is in graphic design and how has that shaped your style of
art over the years?I’m not sure if it’s graphic design that shaped my style, or if it’s my
style that led me to graphic design. When I was a sophomore in high school,
students were asked to write a paper about a career that interested us. I
chose what was then called “Commercial Art”. And the rest is history.
In high school I started creating a lot of personal art. Quite
often I would use compasses, rulers, and other shaping tools like grids to
start parts of my art. This added a sort of a graphic style to my pieces. In
my college graphic design classes we were encouraged to slip trace photos
from magazines, using various techniques—stipple, cross hatch, continuous
line, etc. Not only did I learn technique, I also learned that source
material can come from anywhere—whether from life or from printed matter. We
used slip tracing in our rough layouts of page design for ads, books,
posters, etc. So this probably shaped my approach to art. I was always on
the lookout for sources.
The first part of my professional life was on the drawing board. Everything
was done manually. Then came the computer. And everything changed. It
changed how I do my art, too. The Modern Fly originals are created with
Adobe Illustrator. Its tools contain shapers like circles, squares, lines,
etc.—just like the compasses and rulers I used when I first started. Using
the application makes experimentations of color, size, and pattern more
immediate, giving me quicker creative exploration as I develop each fly.
When did you get interested in creating artful renditions of flies and how
have those pieces of art changed over the years?Before The Modern Fly, I had an art series called Toucan King of the
Yucatan. It was also developed using Adobe Illustrator. Based on a small,
geometrically shaped toucan, each piece started with a pun on the word
“toucan”, such as “Toucan Tango”. It enjoyed some success at art shows. And
a writer friend and I made a book, “You Can Do What a Toucan Can Do Too!”
And then the economic downturn of 2008 occurred, and for various reasons the
toucan was grounded.
After a few years of concentrating on my
career as a graphic designer for high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, I
got the itch to develop a new line of art. I wanted it to be something that
would
interest me for years to come. And that’s when I remembered the
time I spent fishing with my brother
One day while I was in my
garage thinking about what my next art project could be, I looked at the
pegboard where my tools hang. In addition to the tools, there were some
random things like mini bungee cords, an old California license plate, and a
Mitchell Garcia spinning reel from the 60s.
That’s when I noticed two
old spinning lures (a spoon and a spinner) I had found sometime in the past
while hiking around a lake or stream. I immediately thought that they would
be interesting to photograph. And they would certainly be cool to draw.
So,
I set to work photographing, then drawing the lures from the peg board. And
from that came research into other spinning lures. Spoons. Spinners. Plugs.
Rubber worms. But something was missing. Sure, they were great subjects but
I wondered if there might be something else related to fishing that would
really spark my interest. Then, somewhere in my search I came back to fly
fishing. I guess you could say that’s when The Modern Fly was hatched.
The colors, patterns, artistry, and endless variety of fly
fishing lures had me hooked. Even the act of fly fishing is an art form. And
the funny thing was that I had never actually been fly fishing. I had always
been a spin fisherman. So, I knew this would open new doors of experience,
not only in my art, but also in my fishing, which I had always enjoyed. It
was the best of both worlds.
Finally, I needed to find a way to
lend my style to the art of the patterns. And from that came another
thread—the mid-century modern style of art and design. After all, the second
half of this design movement spanned the fifties and sixties. And those
years had led to the time when my brother introduced me to the sport of
fishing in 1969
Initially, the art pieces included my rendition
of the fly accompanied by its name and a short description of its origin,
how to fish it, or its creator. Callouts were added describing the
ingredients and type of hook used. Finally, it was framed in a reclaimed
barnwood frame with a small metal plaque that held a photo of the actual fly
that inspired the art. I still offer these for sale, although I now
concentrate on larger, free-standing prints of the flies themselves.
A few years ago I took part in an art challenge of creating a drawing
a day for 100 days. I thought it wold be a great way to keep my creative
chops going. I chose to do quick doodles of fly patterns. After all, during
team meetings at my full-time design job, I found myself doodling flies. Why
not put those sketches to use? I read somewhere that people that doodle
during business meetings are more productive, recalling more from the
meeting.
Creating a sketch a day was a lot of fun and highly
educational. There are so many fly patterns. It didn’t take long to find
100+ patterns as my subjects. That’s when the doodle style of The Modern Fly
was born, resulting in the Doodle Fly and Doodle Catch posters. I also sell
the individual doodles, framed in a 4x6” format. However, they do look
awesome blown up to 22x17” size!
Giving Back. I like to contribute to the community when I can. The Arts
Council Santa Cruz County has an art auction, Hearts for the Arts, once a
year. In 2019, I created a paper sculpture of an imaginary fly, in the shape
of a heart. The South Yuba River Citizens League is another favorite of
mine. I contribute a piece of framed art to their auction once a year. And,
for the fishing community, I contribute a percentage of my art sales to
American Rivers—protecting wild rivers, restoring damaged rivers and
conserving clean water for people and nature.
Lately, as a
companion to the fly art, I’ve been drawing river scenes.. Someone on
Twitter noticed one of my tweets of a scene and commissioned me to create an
original of the John Day River. It was a thoroughly enjoyable process.
Finally,
I thought that creating a book for The Modern Fly would be a great way for
someone to own multiple pieces of my art for one small investment. So, I
self-published The Modern Fly Book. It contains more than a dozen original
pieces accompanied by their brief story or description, and the ingredients
used to create the actual fly pattern. It’s available for previewing and
purchasing here.
What does a typical day in the studio look like? Do you listen to
music? Are there specific things to the process of creating art that you
need to get creative?When I get started in the studio, it’s typically around 5:30 in the
morning. That’s my most creative time of day. And nothing happens without a
cup of coffee. Sometimes I’ll listen to music—lounge music, jazz, classical,
or eclectic. I like to mix it up.
If I’m looking for inspiration,
I’ll go online to some of my favorite fly fishing websites, such as The
Fiberglass Manifesto, MidCurrent, and Tenkara Angler. This is where I can be
sure I’ll find something amazing.
Once I’ve found something I’d like to interpret into The Modern Fly, I
launch the illustration program on my Mac and get started. First, I’ll
create some basic shapes, inspired by the chosen fly pattern’s design. Those
may be circles, ovals, V patterns, dashed lines, etc. I might think about
using a repeating shape that I’ll use for most of the parts of the fly. A
good example of that is The Epoxy Minnow. I chose to predominantly use
ovals. Even the barb on the hook is based on the arc of an oval. Another
good example is The Antique Popper.
When the fly starts taking
shape, I’ll think about mid-century modern style. This can be anything
such
as art from that time, to the design of furniture, apparel, and home
products from the period. The bodacious tail on The Antique Popper is
inspired by the graphic patterns found on Pyrex cookware from the 50s and
60s. And the repeating circle pattern in The Llanalope is derived from
patterns in room divider screens from the day.
Color is the final element I add to the art. I’ll think about
the colors in the fly pattern’s ingredients. Or I might consider typical
color palettes from mid-century modern design. And finally, I may use colors
that just work.
Overall, the viewer will notice that some of the
The Modern Fly art is more representational than others. And that’s where
the surprise element of my art comes into play.
Typically, a new
piece of art will take between one to three days to create. And the studio
really gets active when I am preparing for an exhibit or show. That’s when I
fire up the large format printer and break out the frames. It’s two weeks of
full steam ahead creativity and production (and a bit of mess and mayhem in
the studio). The end result is an art booth, filled with a variety of sizes
and versions of my art, shown below.
Where are some of your most favorite places to spend time fly fishing?Honestly, between my full-time graphic design job, my freelance work, and
keeping the home front together, I seldom have time to get away these days.
So, I fish vicariously through folks like the fly fishers that I see online.
I can tell you my last fishing trip was at Florence Lake in the California
John Muir Wilderness. It’s a beautiful spot where the trout are
plentiful.What’s next for you as an artist and angler?As I think about what’s next for The Modern Fly and getting back out to
fish, I’m looking forward to retiring in the next couple years. I plan to
use a good amount of my free time for creating and sharing my art with the
fly fishing community, while stealing some time to get out and explore
fishing opportunities up and down the west coast. I love fishing and camping
to recharge my creative battery, and can’t wait to get out there.
Would you like to see more of Jerry's work with
The Modern Fly? Visit the website and be sure to follow along on
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Instagram
for he's latest studio work.
