Trenton Doyle Hancock facts for kids

Trenton Doyle Hancock (born in 1974) is an American artist. He creates amazing works using prints, drawings, and collaged-felt paintings. His main goal is to tell the exciting story of the Mounds. These are mystical creatures from a special world he created. Every new artwork he makes adds another piece to the Mounds' ongoing adventure.

Early Life and Art School

Trenton Doyle Hancock was born in 1974 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He grew up in Paris, Texas. He went to Texas A&M University–Commerce and earned a degree in Fine Arts. While there, he drew cartoons for the school newspaper. He even thought he might become a professional cartoonist! You can still see the fun influence of cartoons in his art today.

After Texas A&M, he went to Temple University in Philadelphia. There, he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. His childhood in Paris, Texas, also shaped his art. Church was a big part of his life because his stepfather was a minister. So, you'll often see ideas from religion in his works, like themes of hope and new beginnings.

What Kind of Art Does He Make?

Esther, Graphite and acrylic on paper, 11 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches

Hancock creates many different types of art. He makes prints, videos, drawings, sculptures, and even collaged felt paintings. His ideas come from many places, like comic books, graphic novels, cartoons, music, and movies.

He is famous for his visual stories about the Mounds and the Vegans. These two groups are always battling each other. They represent the never-ending fight between good and evil. This long series of artworks lets Hancock explore his own made-up world and its characters in great detail.

The Vegans are mean creatures who want to destroy all Mounds. They especially hate "The Legend," who is the very first Mound. The Vegans stand for people who try to force their ideas on others. The Mounds, however, represent the Earth, kindness, love, and being open to new things.

Other important characters in Hancock's art include:

• Painter: A motherly spirit who controls all colors.
• Loid: A fatherly energy focused on words.
• Torpedo Boy: This is a superhero character Hancock made up when he was a kid. Torpedo Boy has super strength, but his human feelings, especially his pride, sometimes stop him from being a perfect hero.

Other characters you might see with Torpedo Boy are Junior Mound, Bringback, Baby Curt, and Shy Jerry.

Trenton Doyle Hancock loves to take chances with his art. He says he's most interested in his work when he feels he's done something brave. This could be by talking about social issues, big problems everyone faces, or even personal feelings. When asked if Torpedo Boy and the Vegans are just about good and evil, Hancock explained: "Hopefully there's a range of what the Vegans are, and what Torpedo Boy is. You can choose to identify with that range or not. I came from a household where there were very strict ideas about what good and evil are. When I left home, I realized that didn't really work for me, that life was a huge grey area. That became more interesting."

In 2013, his art was turned into a ballet called Cult of Color: Call to Color. He worked with Ballet Austin's Artistic Director Stephen Mills on this project.

Awards and Achievements

Trenton Doyle Hancock has received many special honors for his art. Some of these include:

• An Artadia Award in 2003.
• The Greenfield Prize in 2013, which gave him a two-year art residency.
• Texas Artist of the Year from Art League Houston in 2017.
• A Texas Medal of Arts Award in Visual Arts in 2019.

Hancock was also one of the youngest artists ever to be shown in the Whitney Biennial. This is a very important art show in New York City. He was chosen for it two times in a row, in 2000 and 2002. In 2002, he was also a Core Artist in Residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Where His Art Has Been Shown

Trenton Doyle Hancock's art has been displayed in many famous places around the world. Some of his exhibitions include:

• Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland (2007)
• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2007)
• Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA (2006)
• Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland (2006)
• Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in Texas, USA (2014)
• John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Florida, USA (2015)
• Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in St. Louis, MO (2018)
• The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, USA (2019)
• Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA (2019)

His work was also part of the "Dargerism" exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum. This show looked at how the artist Henry Darger influenced modern artists.