Artist of the Month: Pearl Mudd

Pearl Mudd is an artist of poppy, fun cartoon, acrylic creations with a depth of lightwork and shading. Mudd is most proud of her work dubbed “Drip”, quite literally featuring a giant purple liquid drip sliding down the turquoise canvas. “I managed to make the shadows so accurate that it actually surprises people when they learn it’s not actually 3-D,” she explained. “It’s the biggest painting I’ve done that wasn’t a mural.” She calls her own stylistic technique “Pearl Style” — accurate, considering the variability of her work, in medium and subject of choice.

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Pearl Mudd in the flesh / Photographer: Chris Waage

When asked if her art embodies her, and if she strives to put herself in her art, Mudd responded “I’d say something along those lines. Art has always been a large part of my life, so I try to put at least a little bit of my ‘life’ into my work.” Her own process of creating art goes as such: “Find a canvas. Strive to think of ideas. Fail. Be annoyed for a few days. Come up with idea right before I fall asleep. Write it down so I don’t forget. Next morning, find reference material. Sketch it out. Begin painting. Ignore sketch and do what looks right. Don’t stop until it’s done, or I’m done with it. Hang on a wall.”

Three years ago, Mudd began taking classes from Jo Anderson every Friday after school. Last year,
Anderson decided to hold a student art show of her own, exhibiting the work of her students. Students brought in pieces they were proud of, and put them in a space; Pearl was given “a few walls”, then “messed around with it for a couple hours”. The exhibit featured Mudd’s self-portraits among the pop art, including “Drip”. The show took place October 15.

Mudd plans on pursuing art later in life. “I’m not sure if [art school] is the way to do that for me, but I’ll probably give it a shot,” she said. “But at some point I’m planning to open a business that’s part art gallery, and I’d probably do freelance stuff on the side.”