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 Nashville-based, Memphis-native's illustration "Memphis Saturday Night" is what the artist calls "a love letter to the M." (Courtesy Skylar Wilson)
The digital illustration “Memphis Saturday Night” is the artist’s “love letter to the M.”
Skylar Wilson describes the series concept as smashing together Mad magazine and the “Where’s Waldo?” books, placing a real city in the middle and inserting items from the city’s lore.
Wilson created the “Nashville Saturday Night” illustration in 2024. That piece, set in Lower Broadway, went viral over there.
Wilson has been based in the Nashville area since starting at Middle Tennessee State University in 1999 and is a visual artist and musician.
He’s originally from Memphis, a graduate of Snowden and Central High.
“... I finally was like, ‘You know what? I’m doing an art show in Memphis — Art in the Loop,’” Wilson said. “‘I’d love to have something that represented my hometown. Something that locals might appreciate.’”
Naturally, “Memphis Saturday Night” is set on Beale Street. After talking to friends for ideas, Wilson decided the setting would be specifically after a Memphis Grizzlies game. So people on the street wear Grizzlies' colors in the work.
Things in the piece include sports mascots, Jerry Lawler, Elvis, barbecuing, the Beale Street Flippers and people jookin’.
While the tone of “Nashville Saturday Night” is meant to be a bit more satirical because of the “insane” nature of Lower Broadway, Wilson said, “Memphis Saturday Night” is more celebratory.
“If you read the headlines, Memphis is already dealing with enough with negativity,” Wilson said. “(Memphis is) always fighting that stuff. … I said, ‘I don’t want to put that in here. I really want to make this (illustration) a love one. I want to celebrate the things that are positive and beautiful about this city and put them in here, intentionally avoiding any negativity.’”
Wilson will be selling prints of various sizes at the Art in the Loop festival, which runs April 10-12 in the Ridgeway Loop. This will be Wilson’s first time participating in the juried art festival and exhibiting his art in Memphis.
Wilson’s visual art practice includes painting, illustration and digital illustration. Music is a common theme.
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He found his way to visual art via Mad magazine and “The Far Side” comics.
“They had some of the best artists in the world,” he said about Mad. “... All of these famous caricature artists. I just couldn’t believe that people could do that. The other thing I was attracted to was the humor. The perspective that Mad magazine took with satire. It’s classic cartoon stuff. It’s exaggeration. It’s taking something that’s true and stretching it to ridiculous proportions.”
Mad is a direct influence on “Memphis Saturday Night.”
With Gary Larson’s “The Far Side,” Wilson said he fell under its spell because a story would be told through a single image.
“He was a one-panel cartoonist and he would basically make a gag or a statement or a joke in one shot,” Wilson said.
While studying piano at MTSU, Wilson continued drawing.
“I feel that (art and music) sort of complement each other,” he said. “I love to do music-driven artwork. I do a lot of paintings that feature music. There’s music in the ‘Memphis Saturday Night’ piece. … Memphis is a music city. So a lot of my artwork is music adjacent.”
He’s spent about the same amount of time living in both areas, fascinated by the relationships among the cities.
“Nashville, I think, really loves Memphis; it seems like it’s a little more contentious on the other side,” he said. “... We’re all in Tennessee, we’re all in this together. I have a mutual love for both cities.”
Wilson says he wears being from Memphis as a badge in Nashville and that people think he’s cool because he’s from Memphis.
“It’s given me a level of respect,” he said. “... What’s attached to that is this very soulful, very cultured cool city, where R&B and the blues and rock and roll and these amazing things have happened.”
Through his work, Wilson said, he wants to spread positivity.
“I love the state of Tennessee,” he said. “I love my hometown of Memphis. I love Nashville. I like when we all get along.”
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