Trenton Doyle Hancock, Visiting Artist Lecture 2024

Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he talks about his interdisciplinary practice which includes–but is not limited to–printmaking, graphic novels, video, performance, painting, drawing and works on paper, and animation. Some of the core themes in Hancock’s practice are examining narrative, re-narrative, religion, childhood, his relationships to toys, and the exploration of archetypes.

Hancock begins by first talking about his painting and drawing practice, and how he is interested in what the boundaries of support are for a painting or drawing. Hancock then starts talking about how the company he created called “TDH Properties,” allows him to include his vast interdisciplinary practice through animation, toy design, and more creative interests as a way to no longer neglect his other curiosities. Hancock then starts talking about his interest in the graphic novel, and what it would look like to take the graphic novel design into the painting realm. For Hancock, this aesthetic would have to be something physical that offers something the flat page can’t do, which has led to Hancock experimentation with more materials.

Animation is another medium that Hancock discusses at length in his lecture. Hancock particularly reflects on the shape of the square in his animations because they feed off of television references which have also shaped his painting references: sitcoms, cartoons, horror anthologies, etc. Reflecting further on his identity, Hancock probes into what the Black church means for Blackness in America and what this means in terms of buying into the American dream, or, the contract of being an American. Another theme that Hancock reflects on is futurism; which for Hancock is a place where he can be himself when he enters the space of the video game, comic book, or toy culture. Hancock also reflects on themes of perfection and utopianism, which are themes he pushes back against because there will never be a version of truth in these ideologies since they include no acknowledgment of one’s trauma. For Hancock, the idea of heaven is a way to pacify someone into a state of not thinking critically of ones surrounding and themselves, and Hancock’s work is a document of his back and forth with these contradictions. Hancock explains that as he grows older, his work grows with him and he grows with his work. This is a good thing because the work has acted as a mental stabilizer, and it has been Hancock’s therapy and a way for him to create a safe space. Hancock ends his lecture by stating that he knows he is always done with a piece as soon as his hand stops working.