Artist uses interviews, words to capture moments in time

In his khaki pants, navy shirt and sweat shirt, with an army-style crew cut, Nathan James Comerford looks like any ordinary 35-year-old husband and father of two.\nBut it's his ability to create life from charcoal and pastels on paper that makes him truly amazing. \nComerford leads a double life. At his nine-to-five day job, he is a global brand manager for Cook, a medical-supplies company, where he concentrates on marketing. But his real passion exists for his other life -- his art life.\nComerford began practicing art as a child. Never having coloring books, he turned to his mother's art books, which became his pseudo-teachers. He would attempt to emulate the pictures in the art books, and he became a skilled sketch artist in the process.\nAt Ball State University he studied, as his mother did, the fine arts.\n"I'd like to think of myself as being a recorder of our time," Comerford said. "It's not a perfect recording; it's about one person's take on time. There is a human element involved that makes it even more striking than just pure editorial photography. It's not just about events that are happening but about how people felt about events that were happening. So there is another layer or another level in there somewhere."\nWhile he sketches his volunteers, he also interviews them and allows their words to shape his work. Comerford explained that most times he will become inspired by something new and will completely change his direction halfway through.\nOver the years, Comerford has entered his art in various competitions and exhibitions. He has also exhibited in some alternative spaces such as the Uptown Cafe and Bloomington Bagel Company. He loves showing in these unconventional spaces because he believes galleries to be boring. Comerford said he feels that "art should compete with going to a play or attending a baseball game. One should be able to drink wine and eat hors d'oeuvres." \nAlthough he loves to show, Comerford hates to sell.\n"Ideally I would love to be independently wealthy and not have to sell a single piece," he said. \nComerford believes that art makes the world a more interesting place, and he thinks that it will be more appreciated in the future. \n"I think there is going to be a generation of people that aren't worried about getting to the next notch on the ladder but that are worried instead about trying to get people happy," he said. \nComerford smiles slightly when he talks about his true love.\n"If I could do anything," he said, "I think I would do my artwork, and that's all I'd do"