Ep. 113: STERLING HUNDLEY - The Illustrator and The Fine Artist

Youth, it is often said, is wasted on the young. In the case of today's guest, I gotta disagree. He's only 33 years old and as an illustrator, educator and now, fine artist, he has the accomplishments behind him of a man twice his age. Impressive.

I'm thinking we first became acquainted with the name Sterling Hundley while trolling the Richard Solomon website. You know how it goes—you see something that strikes you and say—"Okay, that person's style is pretty cool."

His name came up again when we spoke to George Pratt on the show and that's when we really started our research (I make it sound much more studious than it was—really, it was just more trolling).

I'm absolutely digging Sterling's work these days and I'll tell you why. As I get older, I become more a fanboy of artists who can bridge the chasm between the natural and the abstract. Those that can weave the two approaches together seamlessly. I'm sure it's not an easy feat since so few do it well (to me) and this guy rocks at it.

As mentioned above, Hundley not only kills as an illustrator, has been published by everybody, has awards out the wazoo and just launched his first solo art exhibition, Emergent—but he shapes young minds, too.

He's a professor in the Department of Communication Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University and he's one of the core teachers involved with Illustration Academy. At the Academy, he works alongside folks like Mark English, Anita Kunz, Gary Kelley and Chris Payne. Not bad company, huh?

I won't call Sterling Hundley a wunderkind, but at the "crotchety" old age of 33, he's damn near done it all. Or has he?

Sterling's site and blog