Archived: Kennedy Yanko
Marina's conversation with Kennedy is below.
1) As an abstract artist, are there some messages you would want people to take away from your art that are not necessarily explicit?
As an abstract painter, no. There are no intentional messages or images that I create in my paintings. What I’m attempting to evoke is the feeling or essence of color. What does yellow FEEL like to you?
2) As a young artist, how do you and your work relate to trends in the art world? I'm thinking specifically of pop surrealism and graffiti but maybe there are others. Do you feel the need to pay attention to evolutions in art or do you just do your own thing?
I’m a young artist working in an older medium. I’m highly influenced by the abstract expressionist movement. I admire the “juxtapose movement” (a phrase I’m coining for high end graffiti art) and artists working in New Genres. I feel like an artistic chameleon, painting is a medium that is inherent within me but I also do photography, installation, and sculpture. All that I see and experience pulls something from within me, I’m influenced by everything from textures in the mermaid parade at Coney island to the cinematography of an Indie film. The only thing is, I never know how these inspirations will reveal themselves.
3) What literature influences your art?
Books with lots of pictures.
4) How did you find the best paint and techniques to create the texture for your art?
I’ve found that there is no “best paint” and that being open to experimentation, “playing” as I like to call my studio time, is the ideal way to find cool new things. Right now I’m doing a collection of smaller pieces made with saliva. Yea, saliva....
