Alan Satterlee’s dive into the art world began in a way that’s likely familiar to anyone who has had a distracted mind, a pen and paper. His intricate pen-and-ink drawings began as doodles, but, like most artists, evolved into much more.
Satterlee, who is also the executive director at the Glacier Symphony and Chorale, is the featured artist at the Colter Coffee House in Kalispell for the month of May. The pieces are up for sale through the coffeehouse.
A viewer looking at Satterlee’s creations for the first time might see a resemblance to the world of Dr. Seuss, with whimsical shapes and colors curling and bending to form a landscape.
The drawings feel childlike in their perceived simplicity, but a closer inspection reveals a definite attention to detail and what can only be a considerable reserve of patience on Satterlee’s part.
Despite the intricacies, the artist describes his drawing process as simple. Satterlee uses pen and ink to draw the main outlines, and fills the rest in with a variety of colored ink and sometimes paint.
“It’s pretty free form; I don’t really start with an idea of what it’s going to be,” Satterlee said.
He began drawing about five years ago, during a particularly contemplative time in his life. Thoughts and feelings welled up inside, Satterlee said, and though he has no formal art training, he decided to draw what he was feeling.
Using pen and ink was also a good way to fill his spare time, Satterlee said, and because he has a disruptive sleeping pattern, he found himself working on a drawing at any time of the day or night.
Satterlee said he posted some of his drawings on Facebook and the reaction was encouraging. He has since sold a couple of his pieces, one to an art collector in Los Angeles and another to a relative in New York.
As Satterlee kept drawing, his interest in visual art evolved as well. He began pulling inspiration from a variety of sources, but Satterlee remembers one artist in particular who sparked his own creative fire.
The man was likely in a psychiatric ward, Satterlee said, but he drew intricate and unique architecture scenes. Satterlee said he couldn’t remember the man’s name, but the characteristics fit in the outsider art movement.
Outsider art is the English equivalent to art brut, a term coined in 1945 by Jean Dubuffet to describe the work by asylum inmates whose creations were not touched or influenced by culture.
According to “Raw Vision,” a magazine devoted to outsider art, the purest art brut creators would not consider themselves artists, nor would they think of their pieces as art.
Outsider art came along in the 1970s, and includes not only art brut but also a section of artists called Neuve Invention, which means their art has the power and inventiveness of art brut but they have awareness of their art and have had contact with society.
Satterlee said he is drawn to this type of art, including folk art. And as an artist who has had no formal training, he feels a certain kinship with the outside artists. But that doesn’t mean Satterlee would preclude himself from learning more about traditional art methods.
“I probably should go take an art class at the college just to say I’ve done it,” he said. “I’m sure I would learn a lot, but I’ve been really happy just to do my own thing at the moment.”
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Cloudy Day – Alan Satterlee |
His training as a geologist also influences his work, Satterlee said, especially with the appearance of ammonites – an extinct group of sea creatures with swirled shells – in several drawings.
Satterlee also said his children serve as inspiration, and they recently suggested he move to a different art medium, which led to his current experimentation with laying down acrylic paint and drawing ink on top of it.
And whether the drawings continue to evolve, Satterlee said he would continue creating, if only for its cathartic nature.
“They do take a while, but it’s kind of a therapeutic process for me,” he said. “I think the repetition and detail is therapeutic.”