Martin combines faith with art

By RENEE FITE

Threads connected in the life of artist Bobby Martin to bring him back to painting, and he’s grateful to be integrating his art and his faith.

Artist-in-residence at Gilcrease Museum six years and graphic design teacher at Northeastern State University for eight years, Martin is now in his second year at John Brown University, where he teaches studio art.

After being tenured at NSU, Martin had an offer he couldn’t refuse at the Christian university in Siloam Springs, Ark.

“A lot of things God orchestrated,” Martin said with his ever-present smile and soft-spoken tone. “I took the job at JBU, and a collector of Native American art, Bill Wiggins of Little Rock, hunted me down and bought some pieces and commissioned me to do some work. And I met Tony Tiger at Bacone while judging a student art show.”

Martin really liked Tiger (no relation to the Muskogee Tigers, he said) and his art – and the fact that he, too, was focused on family.

Tiger and Martin are going to take the same show to JBU, and both are finishing more pieces to fill the larger gallery.

“God just keeps opening doors to do studio art,” Martin said.

After 2-1/2 years of intensive grad school immersion in creating art, Martin didn’t paint much for a while. He was a graphic designer and teacher during that time.

“I’ve been doing art all this time, but after grad school, I had to earn a living,” he said.

Martin earned a master of fine arts degree in printmaking from the University of Arkansas, graduating in 1995, and taking a job at Gilcrease Museum as graphic design coordinator.

“I was a one-person graphic design department,” he said. “Any print material that went out – brochures, banners, text panels for exhibitions, newsletters. It was a real seat-of-the-pants learning experience.”

Friend, curator and education director Kevin Smith helped him get the job, which also included teaching classes with kids and adults while he was artist-in-residence.

“To be in a place where you’re surrounded by amazing art and history all the time is inspirational,” Martin said of Gilcrease. “One of the five remaining handwritten copies of the Declaration of Independence is there; it had been sent to the king of Prussia.”

The opportunity to work at NSU brought his commuting days to Fayetteville, then Tulsa, to an end. At least, for a time.

“I loved my time at NSU; it was a great experience,” he said.

After three years, when everyone else retired, he found himself head of the department.

“The faculty really cares about students,” he said. “After being tenured, I was looking at settling into a nice career to stay around NSU, and the JBU door opened.”

Even though JBU doesn’t have a tenured program, for Martin, “it just seemed that’s where God wanted me to go.”

“The fact it’s a very committed Christian college was important, and teaching studio art appealed to me,” he said.

Martin figures anyone who knows him wouldn’t consider him much of an adventurer. But he and wife Stephanie have a commitment to serving the Lord.

“JBU has free tuition for children and we’ve been committed all our lives to Christian education for our children. And it was an opportunity to continue that,” he said.

Stephanie is a educator, talented musician, and until this year, a home-schooling mom. Their children are: Alex, a freshman at JBU;, Hope a freshman at Tahlequah High School; and Melissa, who is married to Joe Wallace, with children Colson, 13, and Kaylee, 11.

The Martins have been in the Praise and Worship band at Grace Baptist Church for 20 years as of next summer. They were married at that church and have been there ever since.

He wanted to be a rock star, like many teenagers. He taught himself to play the guitar, but that particular dream didn’t pan out.

“It took me 15 years to figure that out,” he said.

Martin owned a recording studio and played with and recorded lots of area musicians when the couple met. Master Track and Mission Recording was in the basement of the Professional Building in Tahlequah. He sold it at enrolled at NSU to finish his bachelor’s degree.

“I got serious about art in 1989 as a undergrad,” he said. “I knew I could do art, but I was too busy being a starving musician.”

He believes God has used that to lead him where he is now.

“I wouldn’t have expected to be here 20 years ago,” he said. “God has given me a way to provide for my family as an artist and I’m very thankful for that.”

The art department at JBU is the biggest program on campus, committed to developing a studio program, and Martin is setting up its first printmaking classroom. He’s one of nine full-time faculty members in the department, with 250 of the roughly 1,600 students being art majors.

Martin is convinced you can’t separate art from faith.

“How you view the world comes out in your art,” he said. “As faculty, we look for ways to integrate faith in the classroom. What does it mean to be a Christian artist? We discuss that with students.

He considers art a necessary survival tactic.

“Can you imagine if there wasn’t any kind of art? Most people that do art do it because they have to – not because they have to make money, but because it has to come out,” Martin said. “Creativity or visual art is particularly human, a survival tactic God has put in us, not purely for enjoyment.”

God’s faithfulness is what Martin values today.”

“It was a step in faith to go back to school, and all along the way, God’s been faithful to provide,” he said.

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