This week we want to feature the "Under the Surface" Q&A, with Kenson. This Friday we will open a new show featuring the work of Kenson, Katharina Chapuis, and Courtney J Garrett. This show exhibits some beautiful work by all three of these very talented, evocative artists.
We hope you can join us on Friday night from 6-9. All three of the artists will be in attendance.
Now let's hear more from Kenson about her work and what inspires her!
PFA: Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? Your family?
I grew up outside of Macon Ga…with Moma, Papa, one sister, lots of pets, friends and cousins.
PFA: How would you say our background influenced your career? And at what age did you become curious about art?
6 or 7 I can remember having glue and paper, beads drawing with water on the trampoline…making pinestraw forts, collecting rocks in the little creek, changing the layout of my hotwheel collection….getting in trouble for drawing on my white jeans with pens…watching my grandmother paint porcelain and making peach ice cream with grandparents after climbing the trees and handing them down….trips to the beach and to a little place in the country where we camped and where my Papa built a lake….
PFA: What inspires you, and how do you stay inspired? How has this shaped your artistic philosophy?
Most everything inspires me…it is sometimes a part of my thoughts and heart that i would like to slow down or sometimes turn off…yet it is and i believe always has been a part of me….this insatiable curiosity….As life continues to happen my inspiration has changed..during painful times art is my refuge and sometimes i think i am more creative, yet a beautiful hike in the woods offers much ….An artist friend in the mountains and I will go for a walk and become fascinated with the bark on the trees, patterns and colors of moss on the rocks,woodpecker carvings getting lost in that environment is a favorite!
People and I artists I am surrounded by often comment on the uninhibited manner in which I paint…that I am walking around the garden and come back and forth to the paint…the experience adds to the story I am recording with each painting….
PFA: What artist(s) has (have) had the biggest influence on your work?
Jean Michael Basquiat…Walter Anderson…poetry of many, Robert Henri, Matisse…Joan Mitchell…Lee Krasner...
PFA: What is your artistic philosophy?
well….on a continuous effort to organize my time in a scheduled fashion….I have a difficult time with routine and I feel it would be beneficial, but when I am inspired I can't help but stay with the paintings and work for hours and hours….
PFA: What do you need around you while you are working in the studio?
home, children coming and going, birds at the feeder outside my window, collections of branches and flowers from the woods or the store, music from classic to the rolling stones…and paints….on a pallette or squeezed right on the canvas, baby wipes and solvent.
PFA: What do you most enjoy doing while you are not painting?
hiking,biking, traveling, visiting friends, cooking, gardening…getting in the water…and reading
PFA: What is your favorite traveling experience?
difficult one….love New York City with the excitement, opportunities and pace of that city life… and traveling by train in Europe…..
PFA: If you weren't an artist, what would you be? I can't imagine?
