I want to start catching up with old friends from Art School. SOOOO I figure there is no better way then to feature their work on my blog!
First up is Kaylee Thomas. We met in Problems in Design 2 with Monica Correia (we both skipped Problems 1 and were equally lost in 2). Somehow we both survived and went on to take more classes together than I had taken with anyone else.
Kaylee has a completely unique style unlike anyone else I have met. I won't try and explain it... I think her work speaks for itself.
Check out my interview with Kaylee and make sure you take a peek at her
portfolio!
MC: What have you been painting since I last saw you? Are you still doing tooootally psychedelic schtuff?
KT: After I graduated college I finished painting my room which ended the chapter of my psychedlic squares that I was doing in our Painting 4 class. So I was kind of stuck and didn't really know what to paint without Dunlap's help. So I decided that I would paint the people that have inspired me, hoping that well.. it would inspire me. So naturally I painted The Beatles, John Lennon, Elvis, Biggie Smalls, Michael Jordan, and other people that have influenced me in one way or another. And luckily I was putting those pictures on facebook and started selling paintings that way.
MC: Who is your favorite professor and why?
KT:Favorite professor, hands down Mr. David Dunlap. He loved art, and loved it no matter what you would try to do as long as you loved it. I could sit and talk to him for the whole 3 hour class period, which I did sometimes. He would motivate you and encourage you to go on with your ideas, unlike some teachers who just well, made you feel stupid and would try to change them into what they thought would work. David put all faith in his students artwork. I love that man, he was so wonderfully weird in his chicken suits and shirts that would have random live ants crawling out of the pockets. I wish I had more teachers like him in college. Now that i'm paying back school loans.... which is awful.... I look at it that he made the debt im in worth it.
MC:Have you entered any competitions? I thought I saw a pic of you winning something?!?
KT: Over the summer I entered a few things. I was asked to paint "yoga dogs" for a 3-D kids movie, Shakey. I believe that it was filmed in Naperville and Chicago. But that was pretty intense. I had 4 days to paint three 5 foot paintings of different dogs doing yoga positions. Luckily I can not sleep for a few days and still have arm functions. I had everyone in my family working on these paintings while I was at my "other job" aka waitress. My grandpa built the canvas, my mom primed them, I would paint out the design while i would go to work my mom would fill in the soild color area's. It was an intense few day, I was painting up until the art director came to pick them up at my house. I also entered a beatles art contest, where I felt at home. Everyone around me loved everything that I loved, it was a giant love fest. Unfortunately the second I walked into the art gallery I saw this awesome replica of the Sgt. Peppers lonely heart clubs album cover... which was made out of peeps... I knew instantly that my boring ol' painting didn't have a chance to beat that. But I won third place, which I was really excited about, even I voted for those dang peeps so I guess im a gracious loser. It was really excited hearing what people had to say about my paintings especially because the whole thing was anonymous so they wouldn't know that the artist was standing right next to them... luckily they were all nice things or else that would of been a terrible day.
MC: AND of course you have to talk about the pugs...
KT: Since school ended I have collected more and more pug stuff. Pug lamp, pug rug, pug ordaments, pug clock, and we we're even thinking about getting another baby pug.. but decided we didn't want to be too obsessed. The best pug related thing I've done so far was I painted my grandparents (the starters of the pug family) as grand-pug-parents for Christmas. It was a show stopper around the christmas tree, I had to give it to them after they had a few drinks so they could really appericate their faces as pug faces.
