Artist Justin Hillgrove’s following can be divided into basically two groups: the socially deviant and middle-schoolers.
“The freaks of Washington, but I also do a lot of career days so there are a lot of 12- and 13-year-old kids,” Hillgrove said.
That kind of audience makeup can probably be expected, if you’re an artist whose genre is monsters.
Hillgrove, who grew up in Snohomish, is making a name for himself creating monsters, imps and aliens. He is one of the featured artists at “Carnivale,” the Arts of Snohomish Gallery’s May show.
Also featured is artist Shana Marcouiller, of Snohomish, who does sculpture and 3D mixed media and who also likes to invoke whimsy in her work. And Mike Capp, of Seattle, has recently created a series of paintings called “Monsters and Men.” Capp said he’s influenced by his children, whose spontaneous ideas and playfulness inspire him “to paint these wonderful dreamlike worlds and images.”
Hillgrove, 30, who lives in Everett, studied graphic design and illustration at Seattle Central Community College for a year, but has since successfully mastered the freelance life of illustration and design.
A former freelance job called for Hillgrove to create 500 aliens for a collectible card game. Unfortunately, that amount of weird thinking can take its toll on an artist.
“It was a lot of work involved,” Hillgrove recalled. “It started out as a lot of fun, but it’s one of the things that really burned me out.”
Now, Hillgrove concentrates on his oil paintings. He’ll make the occasional bobble-head, creating the toys for a company in Seattle that distributes them, and other resin monster creatures, but mostly Hillgrove works at his graphic job and paints. He works full-time as the lead designer for a local publication in Bothell, doing ad design and page layout.
At the Snohomish show, Hillgrove will mostly display his paintings. They are whimsical monsters who have childlike features and perform atypical monster acts. One of Hillgrove’s signature creatures is the series of “Sock Monsters,” big-headed cuties blissfully asleep with a stolen sock or holding one while in mid-yawn.
With such an offbeat talent, it would seem a natural for Hillgrove to illustrate a children’s book. And he did once, for a woman in Granite Falls. Again, the experience didn’t prove 100 percent satisfying because he learned he prefers working on snapshot projects, not a story line.
“I get bored too easy,” Hillgrove said.
Hillgrove likes to paint whatever his mood demands but certainly lists his family as a “huge inspiration.”
“Kids just do weird things,” said Hillgrove, who has three children. “My kids draw me pictures of monsters and they sit and paint with me and they really enjoy it.”
Hillgrove has only been doing his fine art paintings for two years, with commercial art being his main bread and butter. When he first got back into fine art, he did every show he could. Now, he’s more picky.
Showing in Snohomish is like going home again for Hillgrove.
“It’s just kind of neat going back to the same place,” Hillgrove said. “And this type of show will be bringing people in that would not normally go to that gallery because of its traditional art work. This is not traditional.”
Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.
“Sock Monster,” Justin Hillgrove
“Hangover,” Justin Hillgrove
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