NEON MODERN Print

Todd Sanders’ neon art evokes a time when America fell in love with motion. We hopped in the family wagon to explore the nation’s highways and byways, lured to motels, diners and curious roadside attractions by the colorful glow of gas molecules dancing inside artfully shaped tubes. The sign masters who crafted those slices of Americana are Sanders’ heroes, and he’s built a career designing and creating original, entirely handmade neon works using their time-honored techniques. He calls his style modern vintage, but considers himself a pop artist, sharing a rich artistic vein mined by Andy Warhol and other pop-culture iconographers. A Montgomery, TX native who began pursuing his muse in earnest after moving to Austin, Sanders’ work is prized by collectors. Clients include Willie Nelson, Shepard Fairey, Joe Rogan, Kacey Musgraves, Edie Brickell/ Paul Simon, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) and The Kings of Leon. Sanders’ pieces have appeared in several films, including most of Robert Rodriguez’s projects and Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life,” as well as the pages of Esquire, Fortune, Texas Monthly and Southern Living magazines. The original version of his most popular design, his animated “Fireflies in a Mason Jar,” was created for the wedding of fellow Texan Miranda Lambert to Blake Shelton. Several of his works have hung in the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, California. Like Warhol, Sanders started out studying graphic art in college, then worked in the field before shifting to fine art. He painted signs to pay his tuition at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, but saw his future during a spring-break trip that took him through Austin. “We were driving around Austin for 10 minutes and I saw the neon signs and I felt the vibe of the city and it just hit me: I’m going move to Austin and I’m going build neon signs,” he recalls. He quit college and headed to Austin, where he lived in a vintage camping trailer and pestered the owners of a neon sign shop until they finally hired him for a short-term project. He wound up staying three years, learning everything he could before starting his own sign business in 1995. “I worked as a commercial sign builder for 15 years,” Sanders says. “When I finally gained the confidence to become a fine artist, I still had all this passion for neon signs. I took that and turned it into fine art. “It took so many years to learn the craft, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if I’d started out as an artist,” he adds.