PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST

Phillip Michael LeBlanc is an instructor of Communication and Media Studies at Louisiana Tech University, but outside the classroom he is a photographer, graphic designer and woodworker.

article by ALANA WAGNER and photography by KELLY MOORE CLARK

Phillip Michael LeBlanc, P. Michael, or, as he prefers, Mike. Whichever name people know from however they know him, the same passion and personality come out, especially when he talks about what he loves. And if he is not talking about his family, he is talking about his art.

Mike was born in Rayne, Louisiana, the “Frog Capital of the World” as it is most famously known from its time as a center for frog exports to restaurants across the country. The city is decorated with frog statues and large, unique murals attesting to the major cultural presence and impact of this commodity. “Almost the whole city is an art district because of the murals,” Mike said, having served on a committee that reviews cities’ applications for art district status. This vibrant creative atmosphere in Rayne would make the town seem like a great fit for someone who loves art as much as Mike does.

This love began with his father, a business owner and an entrepreneur. Mike spent countless days at the Acadia Parish School Board with his father where he did construction and handyman work. “He had a workshop in Crowley where he would build things for the school,” Mike said, mentioning a bookshelf and podium that he specifically remembers his father building. While he did not enjoy working on these projects with his father at the time, Mike acknowledges that this is the foundation of his lifelong love for art. This, and boredom. According to Mike, “Boredom in Rayne gave birth to creativity.”

Even his well-established love for art was not enough for Mike to be enamored of his colorful hometown. “Unless you were sporty or outdoorsy, there wasn’t much to do,” he said, making it clear that he was neither. At Rayne High School, he tried several sports throughout high school, but only powerlifting stuck. Mike referred to his high school self as a “mutt,” able to relate with various groups but never feeling like he fully belonged to one. Yet he enjoyed powerlifting, which was new to Rayne High School and the coach had recommended Mike try. The team later received a new coach who suggested Mike consider attending Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, and joining their powerlifting team.

Mike describes his college and career path in much the same way as his high school experience. Powerlifting was the only solid lead he had in choosing a college. “Not much of my family went to college,” he said, “so I didn’t have much guidance.” He grew up watching both his father and mother work odd jobs, and he eventually did the same for a time. “My dad was a hustler and well-respected in the community,” Mike said, describing the various elements to his father’s business: a barbershop with a cafe, storefront, and liquor store. He has the same respect for his mother’s work ethic, a stay-at-home mother who had her fair share of odd jobs, as well. She took up the responsibility of bread-winning after Mike’s father was injured and had to go through physical therapy. “She was always willing to jump in and do what she had to do,” Mike said fondly.

Though Mike had chosen a college, he still needed to decide on his major. He felt like he needed to pick something that would lead to a successful, lucrative career. Computer science seemed to fit the bill for him, so he followed that course all the way to advising. When Mike’s love of art came up, however, his advisor suggested he look into graphic design. “I went for a tour and loved it,” Mike said. “It clicked. It felt like the right place to be.”

After earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design in 2004, Mike considered doing graduate work. He decided against it, citing what he had often heard throughout his undergraduate studies: “You don’t have to get a graduate degree because it’s about your portfolio.” Out of college and not knowing whether he wanted to do graphic design or work for a firm of some sort, Mike turned to freelance work. Yet because he always had another job, never doing just one thing, he felt in limbo, a mutt again.

It was Mike’s girlfriend Dionna, now his wife, who helped guide his choices this time. She grew up in Ruston after several moves with her family, but she had a brother in Independence, Missouri, east of Kansas City, who had a bank job ready for her after she graduated. “I didn’t want to lose my girlfriend,” Mike said of choosing to move with Dionna, with whom he has three children: Teagan, Tyler, and Zoë. As far as a job for himself, Mike thought, “We’ll see what happens.” When Mike and Dionna arrived in Independence, she began her bank job while he continued freelancing. After it was clear to Mike that they both wanted to get married and were headed in that direction, he suggested they start making plans and move back to Ruston where he could build a network near Louisiana Tech and move toward full-time work.

Once back in Ruston, Mike continued freelancing while working at coffee shops until he saw a design job available at the local newspaper, the Ruston Daily Leader. He applied, got the job, and worked there for two years. He then saw an opening for an advisor position as the “production manager” of The Tech Talk, Louisiana Tech’s student-run newspaper. He remained in this position for about six years, and with The Tech Talk overall for eight or nine years. Because The Tech Talk was housed initially in the Department of Journalism and later in the School of Communication, Mike always felt slightly out of place as a design major surrounded by journalism majors and colleagues.

Around this time Mike and some of his journalism and communication students attended the Southeast Journalism Conference and got the idea for Louisiana Tech to have its own magazine. Mike encouraged the idea and began pursuing it with his students, and SPEAK Magazine was born. The quarterly magazine featured culture-based material that did not normally make it into the newspaper, and it brought in people from multiple disciplines, not just communication. Talking about SPEAK Magazine, Mike said, “It’s one of the things I’m proudest to get off the ground.” While he felt fulfilled in this journalism and graphic design work, he would dream of being an art professor. “I wanted to have my people around me,” he said.

This dream began to take shape in 2014. One of Mike’s mentors, Dr. Reginald Owens, advised him to get a graduate degree. Remembering the old advice he had received, he was hesitant to seriously consider going back to school. Yet when Mike learned that he was eligible for a discount on courses in the University of Louisiana System, he could not pass up the opportunity. He enrolled at Grambling State University and earned his Master of Arts in Mass Communication and Media Studies in 2016. 

With his master’s degree, which Mike describes as a mix of journalism and design, he was able to move from teaching aide to instructor of his own courses. As an instructor of Communication and Media Studies at Louisiana Tech, Mike teaches layout design, videography, photography and beginning photography, and public speaking. Much like being in the journalism department during his Tech Talk days, Mike initially felt out of place teaching public speaking. “I’m constantly being a mutt,” he joked again. But he is grateful for the skills that he has gained from teaching the course. “If you put yourself in a situation where you’re uncomfortable long enough, you’ll learn something,” he said. “Nothing in life is wasted. It’s either a lesson or a gain.”

Outside of the classroom, Mike’s work is in photography, graphic design, and what he once hated but now loves, woodworking. “Forefront right now is photography,” Mike said. Exploration of color and composition are his starting points in setting up a shot, and light plays a major role in its success. “Getting the right light and mood, I feel like I can ‘paint with light.’ I feel like Rembrandt,” he said. “I get that down, and everything else falls in place.” Mike also seeks to “infuse meaning” by the way he composes his shots, making his meaning apparent but leaving enough room for others to find their own meaning, as well. “Photography is communication. As you’re shooting, what message do you want to portray?” he teaches his students to ask themselves.

In his photography Mike is currently focused on fine art shots, a “daily snap” challenge of taking a picture a day, and his “Office Portraits” series. The daily snap is, for Mike, both an exercise and an invitation to explore. “It’s a way to stretch the muscle of seeing composition, light, and color,” he said. “If you have a camera in your phone, there’s no reason not to explore everywhere. You have all the power to do anything on the creative level. How are you going to push yourself?”

The “Office Portraits” are an investigation of people, personality, and light. Originally holding an office in Keeny Hall, Mike said that with the combination of symmetry and great natural light through his windows, the idea just came to him as people would stand in his office. Now, there is a good chance he will ask to take pictures of his visitors, sometimes organic and sometimes directed. “It’s an interesting way to get to know colleagues I didn’t know well,” he said. While this series, and its evolution to a “higher art setting” in Mike’s current Robinson Hall office, happened partly by chance, it is majorly because Mike has spent years training that muscle of seeing what is there but perhaps not obvious. “You can’t help but evolve when you put time into things,” he said.

Branding is another part of Mike’s current work, rooted in his graphic design background and his original dream for his work. “I love building and putting together a logo and the message behind the symbol,” Mike said. He has done branding work for local organizations and businesses and particularly enjoys helping to highlight black businesses.

Mike’s current dream? “Move to the woods, build a shop, and have this big beard,” he laughed. He has not done as much woodworking as he would like, having built five pieces over the years for himself and others, including a dresser, a wood bench, and frames for his prints. The craft which once gave him no joy is now what he would just as soon do over his design and photography work. “I love beautiful things that are functional, especially furniture,” Mike said. Of course, his design background plays a major role in his woodworking, as well. “These are pieces that I’ve obsessed over in terms of the design process, sketching it out,” he said. “And then, five years later, there’s the piece.”

This careful attention to detail is part and parcel for Mike in all of his work, not just woodworking. “Part of many aspects of my art, and part of being in design, is being ‘persnickety,’” he said. And yet, creating something is still the bigger goal for him. “Perfection is important, but don’t let it get in the way of getting things done. Try to see the bigger picture,” Mike said.

Though Mike enjoys the professional aspects of his work, he sees himself first and foremost as non-commercially creative. “Doing it commercially can deflate the passion,” he said of both his experience with design work and creating in general. “Artists feel like they have to constantly sell themselves, promote their art, push their own narrative in hopes that people will buy your stuff, and I don’t feel like that.” For Mike, art is not what he does but who he is and how he understands himself. “I just want to create all the time,” he said passionately. “If I’m not in the classroom, being a husband or father, I’m thinking about using my hands to do something. I don’t know who I am unless I’m making something.”

Mike’s photography can be found on Instagram @hashtagdailysnap and @hashtagofficeportraits and on his website, weareblancstudio.squarespace.com, where you can purchase prints of his work. He is also beginning a COVID-19 segment of his new “Office Portraits” series. You can find Mike, camera within reach, at Louisiana Tech in Robinson Hall, Office 219.