Since his graduation from USC in May 2015, former Gamecock football player Garrison Gist has been making good use of his art studio degree. Currently living in Rock Hill, South Carolina, the former fullback spends his days painting. His inspiration ranges from cartoons from his childhood to pop culture references and current events.
“It’s funny 'cause people always ask me, ‘what’s my style’ and I don’t really have a style I feel like, but ... my biggest thing is I like to work with cartoons," Gist said. "I try to find different ways to like intermingle cartoons from my childhood or today’s cartoons that are on TV and mix them with different things from popular culture."
During his time as a football player for USC, there was always a question of whether or not Gist would play professionally. But for him, the focus was always on his art degree. Gist said that at the time, he was open to a career in football if that was possible, but if not he would try to find an art job.
Finding the balance between football and his art major helped Gist master time management. Some of his art studio classes were around two hours and 45 minutes long and would sometimes run into Gist's football schedule. While those classes assisted with skills, Gist said that helpful professors with experience in the art world are what made his time at USC memorable.
“The courses just kind of helped fine-tune your skills, but your relationships you build with the professors was probably the bigger thing," Gist said, "because they were able to give you that advice and set you up for whatever it was that you may want to do once you left USC.”
Gist's Instagram and Twitter pages are filled with photos of his colorful paintings that provoke nostalgia. Paintings from Hey Arnold, Kim Possible, Mario, Bugs Bunny — Gist has probably created a painting rendition of any cartoon memory from childhood. Aside from selling and displaying his work through social media, Gist has displayed his work in some art shows and dabbles in graphic design, though not as often as when he was at USC.
His graphic design work now includes some logos as commission pieces or the occasional digital series using Adobe Illustrator.
In a recent example of tying in popular culture in his work, Gist recently painted an interpretation of a scene from Childish Gambino's "This Is America" music video. With Gambino's controversial video addressing gun violence and white supremacy among many other problems America faces, some artists took the video into their own hands, creating their own interpretations of it through different mediums.
"I saw something online that said that’s how you know something’s a pretty big moment," Gist said, "when ... a bunch of different artists kinda put their spin on that thing.”
Gist doesn't have a definitive role model, but instead pulls inspiration from many different artists as well as the world around him.
“I guess one for sure I always say is Keith Haring ... I always liked his work," he said. "It was very different, especially in the time that he was doing it in.”
Aside from Haring, Gist also pulls inspiration from Chris Brown, the singer whose second passion is visual art. Brown has auctioned a painting for half a million dollars and creates murals, which share bright colors and cartoon characters in common with Gist's paintings.
And Gist may have a chance to showcase his work on a big stage with a return to the sports world at the NBA All-Star Weekend, coming in February 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. With Charlotte being close to his home base in Rock Hill, Gist hopes to create some pieces for the different events occurring that weekend. He recently painted a Lebron James piece and would like to display that along with other NBA inspired work for the big weekend.
Gist has also been doing small projects and some commission work, as well as trying to get into more shows. He's been working on his spray painting and would like to try out some larger scale wall murals. Gist is in the process of creating a website, but he still keeps track of potential new works by writing down his ideas for paintings — which he has a lot of.
"I can be in Walmart and see a toy and be like ‘Ooh, I could do this and this,’ and bam. Go home and sketch something out," Gist said. "People ask me where I get inspiration from and it literally comes from anywhere. I could be riding in the car and look at the clouds and then all of the sudden I have an idea for something crazy.”