Blog Post #2 - How I Became an Artist

My name is Shinji (pronounced SHIN-gee), and my owner is Kassondra Yount. She adopted me from the Boone County animal shelter in the early summer of 2018. My namesake is from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. I have conducted this interview to get a better perspective of why Kassondra gets so frustrated when she works on artwork, especially when I bat pencils out of her hand or step on her paintings. 

(S): What is the reason you became an artist? 

(K): I do not believe I consciously chose to be an artist. I feel as though drawing is second nature to me, but it is not the case for some mediums like sculpture and ceramics. Two-dimension art makes sense to me, but three-dimensional art is hard for me to think about. I have been practicing with that, but it is still a challenge to me. The reason I choose to go to college for Graphic Design was due to my parents suggesting not to be a studio artist. Jokes on them, I can be a Graphic Designer with a studio, too. 

(S): What is your artistic practice? 

(K): Well, most of my art can be categorized into three audiences; for school, for loved ones, and for me. My artistic practice is different depending on who I work on a project for. I tend to keep a stricter schedule for school projects, as I am trying to accomplish a set goal with a rubric. With artwork for my friends or family, I do exactly as I am told, as they never commission something experimental. There is also a deadline for the piece to be finished with love ones (birthdays, Christmas, whatever, ect.), but not with friends for some reason. I tend to be more experimental for art that is for myself. I will try out different shading styles or try to be looser with my designs because this is when I typically have more fun. Though being able to have time to work on my own project is harder to manage on my own. 

(S): What environmental factors do you consider to be helpful (or limiting) to your creative process? 

(K): I do not have a studio space, but I would really like one. I hope to move into a house with my boyfriend after I graduate so I can have more space to work properly, but I have found that my best and most focused work comes from my determination towards my artwork and not my location. I am an only child of divorced parents, so while I did get two Christmases of art supplies, the tradeoff was a lonesome childhood. I didn’t have any friends that lived near me, so staying inside to draw was the only thing I felt like doing. Luckily, I had amazing art teachers all my life who always supported me and encouraged I become an artist. Even my other teachers for different subjects supported the idea of me becoming an artist. My schools were always well funded or well-resourced enough to provide its students with helpful art education. Also, you actively try to step on my work to get me to pet you.  

(S): What are your influences? 

(K): That is a pretty hard question, Shinji. I guess the general answer is everything I have ever experienced has influenced me. My number one passion in life is art, but my second is movies. My very favorite movie is Donnie Darko, and I could write several essays why, but I will spare you hearing that, Shinji. After seeing hundreds and hundreds of films, I have always went back and stood my ground that Donnie Darko is my favorite. I suggest not watching the trailer, if you haven’t seen it, and just watch it without any knowledge going in. Movies have provided me so much comfort and entertainment of the years, I would not be the same person if I had to live without them. There have been many movies that shaped my imagination, and my love of artwork as well. As a child, my parents did not stop me from watching any movie I wanted and was able to watch more adult films at a younger age. My very first movie I remember watching was Jaws, and I just remember not being too scared by the idea of a shark since we lived in Kentucky. Movies connected me with art better than any book could, but movies also allowed me to connect to others across the world. 

(S): If you had to start over, would you choose a different path in your career? Why not be something that makes you a ton of money like a lawyer or something cool like a pilot? 

(K): You would think that the conversation of why become an artist would no longer be a question after a while, but I still get asked this. If I had to start over and be something else, I still would not pick a high paying career. As I was entering college, I took a few general education courses, and the most interesting classes I took were anthropology classes. Anthropology is the study of human relations, in the past and present. I just thought it was so cool to see different cultures as someone who has never left the states, but this also would not make as much as a lawyer. In high school, I helped establish the environmental club at our school, and when I was much younger, I was a part of an environmental science club that’s primary focus was “REUSEable energy.” But I had been advised against looking for a career in that due to no one in our government taking the environment seriously, as well as I already knew I wanted to be an artist when I was a kid. 

(S): Think back to your childhood. What did you hope to become as an adult? 

(K): Ha, well it is sorta funny. I wanted to be a vet so bad when I was a little girl, but I grew into a terrible dog allergy as I got older and gave up this dream. If I was not allergic to dogs, maybe we would have had a puppy instead of a cool cat like you, buddy. But I am glad to have an awesome pet like you Shinji, you have made me the happiest owner in the world. And without that dog allergy I probably would be on track for post animal medical school instead of my senior year in college for Graphic Design.  

(S): How would you like to be remembered? 

(K): Kinda morbid to think about, right? No one really gets to choose how one is remembered nor if other people will even care to remember you at all. All you can do is try your best at what you want to do and be yourself. The thing I think is so weird is knowing what an artist looks like, because their work is what people focus on rather than how they looked, unless they do self-portraits. But if you go to a grave, there’s not always an image of what the person who died looked like. It is only now in a modern era we get to keep photos forever, or at least longer than before. But the true tragedy is not knowing them, and always wondering who they are really. We may have a timeline of life events or personal letters written to their loved ones, but we never have a complete record of their personality. So, if I could choose to be remembered, if someone had to know anything about me, I would hope they could keep in mind that it is my personality and my artwork that is worth remembering rather than my face. 

(S): If you had the chance to live during a different artistic movement other than now, which one would you choose? 

(K): I think that I would have liked to see a freshly painted romantic period painting. The romantics were so fantastical with their horror, and they had some interesting lighting techniques that are described as sublime. It was not only a period for art but for writers as well. This is the time period when the Frankenstein was written, which is one of my favorite books of all time. If I could only be in the artist world at that time, and not have to deal with the terrible parts of being a woman in history. 

Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830) (1830) By Eugène Delacroix, found at https://www.theartstory.org/movement/romanticism/

The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819), by Théodore Géricault, found at https://www.theartstory.org/movement/romanticism/

(S): Are you ever afraid or concerned about being judged by others or worried about how your creativity is perceived? 

(K): I think I do worry a bit about what others may say about my artwork, as it relates to me. I remember in middle school, we went on a trip to the Cincinnati school of Arts, and I saw huge nude self-portraits of these women artists, and though wow, I didn't think I would be fully comfortable doing with drawing nude figures, but I was able to do it. I am always curious towards what I can add to my skill set or what I can learn from others. I think exposure therapy is the best way to get over something you fear or something you’re comfortable with, so if I keep working towards something and pushing my boundaries, I might get something rewarding out of it. 

(S): What has been your greatest sacrifice that you have made for your craft? 

(K): Probably my own sanity at times. During my freshman year in college, I was told I had to do an interview process to even apply into the Visual Communication Design program at NKU, and quickly scrambled to get everything ready to go, despite the interview being held my sophomore year. I redid all like 20 pieces I had to show, I found older students who had passed or graduated and asked for advice and spent a good amount of money of mounting and making sure things were straight.