Art atHome by Clark Cayer Art, where he would teach illustration for three years. In 2008, Nathan Walker began to experiment with a new art form: metal sculpture creation. Within five years, he created 10 different sculptures from reclaimed metal, many depicted bugs and ocean life. The sculptures have been displayed throughout New England, in galleries, city squares, and gardens. He is known throughout New Hampshire’s seacoast for his seven-foot ant, which he constructed from car parts and other junk metals. The giant ant resided in downtown Portsmouth’s Market Square, where it remained for several months. During his 20-year professional career as an art teacher and artist, Walker has worked as a freelance designer, modeler, and illustrator. He has worked closely with an esteemed list of professional clients such as: McGraw Hill Education, Dora the Explorer, CapitalOne, Gillette, Discovery Channel, Union of Concerned Scientists, Highlights for Children, as well as multiple schools throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It is rare to find an artist with such a repertoire of achievements and artistic prowess as Nathan Walker. It is atHome New England’s privilege to share the following question and answer session with its readers.
Nathan Walker walkerstudioworks.com
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rt comes in many shapes and sizes. Throughout their careers, artists explore countless mediums to find the one that aligns best with their abilities. Nathan Walker is an exemplary embodiment of this exploratory trait. He has successfully worked in animation, illustration, 3D modeling, metal art, and more. He fuses his love for art with the commercial world, producing models, illustrations, sculptures, and more for clients such as McGraw Hill Education, Dora the Explorer, CapitalOne, Gillette, Discovery Channel, and even local schools, including Governor’s Academy and the Pingree School. Growing up in the seacoast town of Stratham, New Hampshire, Nathan Walker spent much of his childhood honing his artistic skills and exploring the world of creation that lay ahead. After graduating from Exeter High School in New Hampshire, Nathan would spend the next eight years of his life in colleges and universities across the United States. After spending the first three years of his education focusing on environmental conservation at the University of New Hampshire, he would move to California for the next two years. It was here where he would be educated thoroughly in the realm of animation, graphic design, illustration, and drawing. He finished his education at the Montserrat College of Arts in Beverly, Massachusetts, where he received a bachelor’s degree in illustration and art education. Nathan Walker’s professional career is full of notable accomplishments, and in truth, it would be hard to fit them all in a single article. He began as a design and illustration intern at Hasbro, where he would spend a few months creating illustrations and animation for games and marketing videos and developing packaging designs and layouts. He would spend the next nine years instructing future artists and would even return to Montserrat College of
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Over your 20-year career as an artist, how have you balanced your diverse and extensive repertoire of professional commitments? As a freelancer, I had to do a lot of things because I have to go where the work is. That gave me the opportunity to do a lot of different things, from sculptures to children’s books to portraits to murals. It was all based on whatever the job was, and as a freelancer, you tend to say yes to everything. That kept me very interested and engaged in doing lots of things because that
