Artist making SLC streets a little cooler

SALT LAKE CITY — Trent Call's art can be bigger than life. His murals, especially, depict a cartoon world of cool, playful characters.

Raised in Salt Lake City, Call earned his Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Utah in 2004. But his interest in art has always been as diverse as his portfolio is now. At a young age, Call found inspiration in places like skateboarding zine "Thrasher Magazine," as well as media like Nintendo and Saturday morning cartoons. Encouraged by a high school art teacher, he began studying fine arts at the U.

Now, he works on a diverse set of projects. Call's murals are the most visible, but he also makes comics, screenprints, 8-bit style GIFs, illustrations, paints signs, and modern oil paintings. The option to use a variety of mediums is critical to Call's work.

"It keeps things interesting. It also keeps me interested in making things," he said. "Learning new tricks in Illustrator, (or) busting out the airbrush and making sure it's cleaned properly, to mixing oil paint for an hour—they all have their unique quality and focus. I don't think I could do just one."

Call keeps busy. His cartoon and graphic style pops up in places like Even Stevens sandwich shops, Kilby Court, and even a bike path in Park City. City Weekly and SLUG Magazine have both used his work as cover art. He's consistently exhibiting and working on client commissions. Working out of his space at Captain Captain Studios in the Granary District, his work seems to fit in seamlessly with the historical, gritty, up-and-coming area.

Call still draws on pop culture as inspiration, like he did when he was a kid. Except now, it's Tumblr and Instagram. When the digital world of visual art gets too overwhelming though, he turns to hard work and learning new skills.

"Looking too much online can be a bit overwhelming and discouraging. Seeing so much awesome all at once sometimes is not good," he said. "Listening to podcasts helps me a lot. I find learning something new in an Adobe program or experimenting with a new art tool is extremely inspirational. A lot of my ideas pretty much come from just that. But I try not to rely on inspiration at all. For that it only comes around now and again. The real task is to keep up the motivation and put in the hours."

While Call doesn't stick himself in a stylistic box, he said his style is inspired by others, but also trying new things when something isn't working.

"My graphic, clean, black line, cartoon-type stuff developed from cutting back on the use of the ballpoint pen," he said. "I use to draw fast, sketchy, crosshatch drawings with ballpoint. But my hand would get super cramped up and hurt. So I picked up a felt pen and started drawing completely differently because of the medium. My figure drawing with graphite still reflects that original style."

This spontaneity is a big part of Call's work. He pivots to the challenges of each medium: The fast pace of murals, the "slow, all day, back and forth dance" studio work of an oil painting, and the roughing up and smoothing out of illustrations. And, while his work shows obvious skill, it also shows something we could use a little bit more of in art and life — fun.

Have a little fun this week and check out his work at the new Salt Lake City Public Library Marmalade branch. Or, take a bike ride through downtown Salt Lake and check out a few of his murals. In April, he will exhibit several oil paintings at 15th Street Gallery.

About the Author: Celeste Tholen

Celeste is the former Deputy Managing Editor at KSL.com and now works in marketing. She spends most of her spare time balancing conflicting interests in the outdoors and movies/television.

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