Artist Howard Thomas Hay does fantastic little satirical dioramas with accompanying captions that easily could be political or gag cartoons. I chatted with him a few weeks ago at a street fair, and asked about his influences which included cartoonists. Although he's a fine artist, Howard agreed to do an interview with us.
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| Unless otherwise noted, photos are from Artomatic 2024 in DC. |
When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?
I was born on March 16, 1955, in Weymouth, Massachusetts, but mostly grew up in a small town on the ocean called Hull. So that makes me 71, which may sound old, but when you reach this age, you still feel young inside, which I feel like I am in my 30s. Now my body might not feel that way.
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| Howard in the background of his recent exhibit for Del Ray day in Alexandria. |
Why are you in Washington now?
I have a varied work history, which may explain some of my artwork. I was an EMT on an ambulance rescue squad in the city of Quincy, just outside of Boston and later in my original hometown of Weymouth. I then became a police officer in the town of Plymouth (home of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving and from whom I am descended from on my mother’s side). I then transferred to the Hull Police and later the Middlesex County Sheriffs Department. It is from that part of my background that I developed a gallows humor that you need to get through the terrible situations you see and experience on a regular basis. I left law enforcement to get involved in politics, running for the state legislature (lost to a 20 year incumbent). Worked for the Republican State Committee, elected member of the Boston Republican City committee and then went to work in the office of the Chief Secretary of Governor Bill Weld. I received a political appointment in the G.H.W Bush administration in the Department of Justice as the Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Liaison. I stayed in this area after that when I became an Associate Producer of the tv show America’s Most Wanted. So that’s how I ended up in the DC area and staying here.
What neighborhood or area do you live in?
I live in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, which has a small town feel even though it is part of the City of Alexandria. It is also a funky, artsy part of the city.
What type of art do you make?
I make everything from room size installation pieces to watercolor paintings, acrylic paintings, pencil portraits, photography and humorous miniatures.
I'm specifically interested in your miniatures, which as we discussed, I think function as 3-D cartoons. When did you start making them?
I really started as a kid in Hull. I would take plastic models and merge them to create something new. I would also build navy ship models and put firecrackers inside, then film them with my dad’s super 8 movie camera on the ocean as they blew up. That became expensive so I turned to making dioramas from multiple model kits and take pictures with a black and white film Polaroid camera my dad had. That was the basis for getting into the type of miniatures I now create.
The ones I do now initially started over 30 years ago. They just had a funny caption to go with the scene for the first couple of years and then morphed into the longer stories I now do for each miniature. For years I gave them away as gifts to family and friends, until I realized that people would pay actual money for them.
I started writing humor in college when I joined the college newspaper staff eventually becoming the newspaper’s sports editor. I moved around colleges and worked on many college newspapers. When my last college newspaper was closed down by the college administration and thrown off campus (long story). We, the staff started our own weekly alternative newspaper geared for the college market. There were about 100 colleges and universities in the greater Boston area. It was on the that newspaper called The Edge, that my humor writing took off.
How do you do it? A found object, then an idea, then clay? Or an idea, etc, etc?
It all depends. Sometimes it is a found object that I build a story around, other times it is an idea that I get from a trigger, meaning that I see something or in the case of my political pieces see a news story etc. and build a miniature scene and story to go with it. Many of the stories I write (in my head) occur while I am riding my bike through Alexandria or along the Mt Vernon Trail. I keep a note pad in my bike bag if the story becomes too elaborate, so I can jot down notes.
What comes first, the idea or the objects?
It works both ways. I may see an object that I start creating a scene and then story evolves as I continue making the piece. Other times I have an idea and start thinking how to make that idea into a miniature.
Do you write the captions last?
There are usually notes, sometimes on paper or just in my head that I flesh out once the piece is finished. I then write the full story at that time. Sometimes the stories are too long, and I have to edit them. Sometimes I use a very long story in the final piece.
Do you consider the captions an integral part of the art (as I do)?
Yes, absolutely. However, I do create a large number of works, which can make it hard for people looking at them during an art fair, to explore each piece I have displayed. I do try to keep then short enough for people to read in a minute or two.
What is your training and/or education in making them?
Life. I know that sounds like BS, but in many ways it’s true. You can see that many of the pieces have a theme to them. Bad things happen, the craziness of politics and social justice to name a few. I grew up on the ocean and was a lifeguard for 8 years, so many beach and water scenes and of course sharks.
Who are your influences? You mentioned Harvard and National Lampoons, and I suggested The Far Side.
I was an avid reader of Mad Magazine and The Harvard Lampoon and National Lampoon and as you reminded me, The Far Side cartoons.
Who have you influenced?
Betsy, my girlfriend is also an artist with a degree in fine arts, did paintings in watercolors and oil. She thought that my miniatures were funny and interesting because she has a similar sense of humor. She started about 7 or 8 years ago. Her style and materials are different than mine, but she eventually started using small 1/87 scale figures.
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| Above and below from Del Ray day earlier this year. |
How do you pick the political topics you do? I see a lot of ICE and immigration topics in the current ones.
Mostly from current events. With the last 10 years of Donald Trump and a do-nothing Congress, it has been great for ideas.
How do people react to the dark humor in both the political and non-political miniatures?
I see that over 98% really enjoy them and laugh out loud. Occasionally a person may not get the joke or are offended, which I feel is a good thing. The worst reaction would be no reaction.
Does anyone ever criticize you for the content? I know people praise them.
It has only happened twice. A young woman felt that my miniature of a lynching in the South was offensive. I explained that it was meant to get a reaction from people so they would think about that scene and how that was once accepted by many people. The other was the scene of two police car stops. Everything in each miniature is the same except one driver is white the other is black. This older guy looked at it and then said to me, that would never happen. One driver, the white guy is sent on his way while the other, a black man is arrested and placed in handcuffs. He got very angry. He said he was a retired police officer and that would never happen. I told him that I too was a former police officer and had witnessed that by police officers I worked with and when I was at DOJ, I saw that it was still a problem nationally. I was at DOJ when the Rodney King beating by LAPD. I was sent to LA by the Attorney General to try to get the inside view of the culture of the department. He still walked away saying it never would happen.
Where do you show them and how can people buy them? I know you've been at Artomatic, and Del Rey day...
I sell at different art shows in the DC, Maryland and Virgina area, like Art on the Avenue, the Carlyle Christmas Art Festival, the Manassas Art Festival, Shirlington Celtic Festival, Glen Echo Art show in DC and a few other art shows in Fairfax County, DC and PG County. I have them in different gallery shows in the area and some in different parts of the country. I do have a web site that has not been updated in many years. The place I am regularly at (once a month) is at Del Ray Antique and Flea Market, Del Ray Alexandria. On the second Saturday of the Month from March through December, from 9am to 2pm.
You also take commissions. Are they usually just for a pleasant miniature scene? Or do people suggest specifically humorous / satirical / other scenes they want? Do they ask you to write a caption if they do?
People request commissions for special times in their life, such as their wedding ceremony (I have done many of them) a funny event in their life, recreate a vacation home with a funny event happening in the yard, first meetings of their parents, it really runs the gamut, but sometimes they ask me to do a personized version of a one of the scenes they saw in my display. They always ask me to write a funny story to go with it.
Is there a miniature you are best-known for?
I have been asked to one at least 10 times. It is of a girl mowing the lawn and she is not looking in front of her but looking off at something (I vary what that is) and she accidentally runs over a person (that also varies who they are), but the reason is that she forgot to take her Adderall that morning. I happen to have ADD so it is also making fun of myself.
What one were you most proud of?
There are a couple. A commission of a summer home, that was not easy to do including his property around the home. When he came to pick it up and saw it, he insisted on paying many hundreds of dollars more than I was charging which was already pricey. I was very proud of the work I did on that one and he obviously was impressed too. Another one is of two people jumping into a deep pool of water from a cliff, but a giant shark with a large open mouth pops up with the first person going into the shark’s mouth and the other just starting to leap off when they realize it too late. I liked the way it turned out, I spent a lot of time working on it. I sold the original one at Glen Echo last year and just made another version of it.
What would you like to do or work on in the future?
I have a couple of big installation projects that I have been working on for several years. One would be an inside installation which I had done a smaller version of at Automatic around 15 years ago and an outside one that will need to raise money to help fund it and it would involve guerilla art tactics to pull it off. It is one that I conceived around 10 years ago and have planned it out over the last couple of years. Sorry that I can’t say what they are, but I fear that someone else might try to copy me before I even got to do them.
If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?
I come from a creative family for many generations. My father’s family were clock and watch makers since the early 1700s, with my grandfather being the last to have the business, so working with small things like watch parts must run in my genes, plus in every generation there was always an author, artist, musician, composer, clock/watchmaker, so I come from a family of makers. I would have become more serious about selling my work and establishing myself as a working artist earlier in life. I still work a regular job as a government contractor as a Subject Matter Expert; I would love to just create all the time.
What's your favorite thing about DC?
The actual city itself, there is just so many things to see and do. Trump called it the swamp, I call it an amazing place. For a political junkie like me it is no better city.
Least favorite?
The seedy side of politics. Too many things to mention.
What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?
The Capitol Building is just so impressive, and it is really where things should happen but unfortunately nothing seem to happen there anymore. The Air and Space Museum, so much cool stuff if you are a space enthusiast like me.
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| Hunting for Nemo, the art I bought, satirizing Florida's governor picking a fight with Disneyworld. |
How about a favorite local restaurant?
That changes from year to year, but right now our go to restaurant is Matt and Tony’s All Day Kitchen + Bar in Del Ray.
Do you have a website or blog?
Howardhay.com and my art business is called Hay Design. Like I said my website is lame right now.
How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?
It was good in that I never caught Covid, I made a lot of art, but my job is not the kind of job you can do remote as I train a particular group of people, so I was not being paid by the government during that time.
UPDATE! Artomatic 2024 photos by Bruce Guthrie
