The Loveliest Village

You wouldn’t imagine a professor once having a job driving an ice cream truck.  Or doing janitorial work.  Running a lawn business seems much too normal as well.  But for Auburn graphic design professor Carlton Nell, these were just stops on the ride that has brought him to his position today.

“This is the best job I’ve ever had for sure,� Nell said.  “If I ever start complaining, I have to kinda sit back and think I could be cutting grass or something.�

Originally from a small town near Mobile, Ala. called Satsuma, Nell did his undergraduate at Auburn and then went to Georgia State for graduate school.  He met his wife of almost 15 years while he was studying in Atlanta, Ga.  The couple has five children, three older boys and two younger girls.  Their large family lives 15 minutes from Auburn in Waverly, Ala.  

Nell describes having a large family as “pretty busy� and it’s easy to see he’s proud of it.  He has two small paintings he made of his wife and one son that are on the wall directly in front of his desk.  Five small photos of his children are hung up on a bulletin board right beside where he sits.

After 17 years at Auburn, Nell spends his semesters focusing on teaching two classes in graphic design.  He covers basic photography, illustration, basic drawing or an introductory graphic design course.  Auburn is the only school where he’s taught.  

One pre-graphic design student of Nell’s describes his teaching as hard, but reasonable.  Lisa Mosow, 22, enjoys his class.

“He doesn’t just tell you to change something,� Mosow said.  “He’ll offer helpful suggestions and point you off in the right direction of the creative process.�

Nell takes a break from his teaching in the summers and focuses on his own artwork, not his students’.  This becomes his research that the university requires.  He spends his days at his studio near his home.  This refuge was an old bank that has been made into something completely different.

“It’s a cool place and it’s got good light and it works perfect for a studio,� he said.

He said he can get 15 to 20 paintings done a year. 

“I’ve gotten such a routine,� he said.  “Ideas I kinda generate during the school year and then I’m pretty much ready to go when the summer starts.  I listen to the radio and sports talk shows and stuff like that.  It’s very fast.�

The work he creates throughout the year goes to galleries and museums.  He’s been working with a specific gallery in New York for 10 years now.  A show solely for his work is even in the works there.  Nell says it will be a great opportunity for him.

“I’ve reached a point with New York that when I have new work I just send it off,� Nell explains.  “They’ve seen [my work] long enough to kinda know about what it’s going to be.  When I finish a batch, I send ‘em up.�  

Another gallery in Atlanta, Ga. has a show planned in January for him.

Nell has another project he’s been working on as well.  He has been illustrating work for children’s novels.  The series he has illustrated for is a collection of historical stories about the  Revolutionary War.  He has made four covers so far and is working on the fifth.  This series must be popular because his own son is reading it in his sixth grade class.

When asked what he says to his son about the book, Nell replies: “I kid him about it.�

The graphic design program at Auburn emphasizes artistic abilities.  It’s not just computer work.  This is where Nell’s talents are especially helpful.

“We think that’s the strength of the Auburn designer that when they graduate they’ve had this full visual experience,� Nell said.

Recently, the graphic design program moved into the College of Architecture, Design and Construction.  Nell explained that the curriculum didn’t change, but the administration did.

“I think it’s going to be exciting for us,� Nell said.  “We got the best situation we could be in.�

Does he wish he could stop teaching and go back to driving the ice cream truck?

“You get sick of the ice cream,� he said. 

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