Lynn Pauley is a sign painter. Not the kind that makes commercial showcards, but a chronicler of the American landscape. Her metier is drawing from life. So she’ll perch on a street corner or traffic island and sketch over and over until a desired result materializes. Here is a selection of her latest, which are all for sale—and a conversation about her process and passion for the not-so-bucolic urban and suburban environment.
Why do you draw signs?
I love type and I love advertising. I think artists have certain content imagery that they connect with again and again. I can’t explain it. There is a term for it. It is called the impetus to draw. I have a need to draw them.
I am able to add a level of abstraction to my technique. I can play and hack around with wet and dry materials like a kid, and there’s little censorship. I was trained to honor the ground; leave the original layer, let the color from that first picture come through. I like this layering. It adds depth and feeling and a soul or center to the finish.
And this: It can start out one way and end up in a totally different direction. This leads to happy accidents, mark making and a finished picture that isn’t a literal portrait of the scouted location. There’s no pressure.
Or I can take the picture too far, wreck it and have it as a base for the next sign.
I am a reader. I read everything. I am that gal that looks at a bulletin board in the supermarket to find local happenings and check out the pinned-up business cards. I’m curious. Signs are simplistic and bold.
There’s a memory too. Of past businesses that are no longer there. But as much as I love the type, I love the spaces between the letters more.
How far do you go to get what you want?
I am always looking, searching, adding imagery to my visual well. I had a huge “aha” moment doing a drawing for The New York Times‘ Metro section. I was on-site with the Times reporter and he was interviewing a man who ran a homeless shelter. I thought I was going to draw the owner. I turned slightly to my left and directly in front of me, less than a foot away, was Harold Pugh, a man trying to get back into the shelter. He had been kicked out of the shelter the day before. So I thought I knew what I was looking for, and then by turning just a little bit off center, what I had been looking to draw was right there in front of me all along.
I think people are rushing. When you rush you miss things. These signs are everywhere. Handwritten metal neon. They are right there in front of you all the time.
It is easier when you travel to experience and add new pictures and ideas. These images are from Arkansas, Brooklyn, New York, Times Square, Oklahoma and Upstate New York.
I’ve made signs in London and Paris. I just saw an ice cream place in Western Pennsylvania that I did not get. I’ll have to go back. And there’s a parking sign at a local middle school that I will circle back to this summer.
I will go pretty far. To any lengths, really. Many of these images are worked out over failed paintings, paintings or drawings that have already had several passes of paint layered on the paper. The pentimento of the paint.
How many have you done?
Obviously not enough. I want to keep going.
Are you selling these?
Since the middle of May of this year I have been running an online sale of all my artwork.
The sign series is part of the sale. There are 17 great signs available and ready to go to your office or home.
Anyone can follow my daily posts on Facebook, LinkedIn or on Instagram. There is a concurrent sale going on my website.
How long do you intend to make sign paintings?
I have three new ones on the board right now. I’ll probably keep at it as long as there are boardwalks, Coca-Cola machines, strip malls, construction companies and all-night diners.
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