Alex Kanevsky

I found an interview with Alex Kanevsky, he's very relatable. He addresses the clichés of artists and defends them in certain instances. Basically, he's a painter and he has fun with it. He also discussed being open to suggestions, which is always nice to hear an established artist be open for suggestions.

It's also fun to see the a photo of the artist after seeing their artwork, it can sometimes be unexpected. Credit to the website I got the interview from, http://truantjohnny.blogspot.com/2010/02/alive-and-dangerous-interview-with-alex.html

A quote that I found interesting was when the interviewer asked about the vertical marks left on his paintings, which is funny, I hardly ever notice those. I think because he always has so much movement going on in his paintings anyways.

Well here's the quote:

"C: I wanted to ask you about your vertical marks in your pieces. When I first saw them, I thought they were drips, but then I realized they were brush strokes. Is there a purpose for these? Do they represent something for you or are they just purely formal?

A: It’s an artifact. I don’t sit there and place the drips on purpose in various places in the painting to decorate it. I assume that everything that I do while I’m painting is a fair game; and that involves dripping because some of the white paint is alkyd and it’s quite liquidy. So if I’m slinging around this large brush and doing something on top of the painting, there will be drips. Then I have a choice of wiping them off or leaving them in. Sometimes I will just try to squeegee them off and that’s what happens. I figured if I didn’t decorate on purpose, if that’s something that happened as a result of the process then it’s a fair game. I’m allowed to keep it. So I pick some that I like and they stay and other ones go. It’s funny, people always ask about those things because it does tie into that weird cliché of the artist. You know, the wildman with the paint flying everywhere. You always meet those art students whose pants are splattered with paint and you can see that they were just sitting there painting those splatters on purpose! But I like those things, they add something. They add another layer of removal from what’s there. "

I also got very excited when they showed some sketches of his, I feel like sketches tell a lot about an artist.