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houseofvans · 6 years

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ART SCHOOL | Q&A with KALEN BLACKBURN

Having grown up around his family video arcade business and influenced by skateboarding deck art and culture, artist Kalen Blackburn’s drawings are popping with bright colors, meticulous detail, and wild characters and landscapes. Not only does Kalen work hard on his art, but he’s also a go-getter who is out and about in the community, chatting with folks and selling prints at various swamp-meets and fairs. We’re excited to chat with Kalen!

Find out more about his work, his process, and how painting his own rainbow trout trophy taught him something he’ll never forget.

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce Yourself? And Where you’re from or currently residing? What’s your favorite thing about the city? Hey! How’s it going, My name is Kalen Blackburn and I grew up here in California, More specifically Southern California in a small quiet town called San Juan Capistrano. The city life is a interesting one. I love it because there’s so many characters and interesting things/people to see, but I also have an interest in just living in a small town far away from the city.

How would you describe your work to someone who is just coming across it? I would best describe my work as a “Visual Voyage Threw Out My Diary of LIFE”. I’m not much of a journalist or someone who can write, so I would always just draw my experiences in this weird cartoon way. There’s tons of different meanings that I sprinkle throughout my artwork and in the detail. Its that you just gotta look closely.

How did you first get interested in drawing or figure out that you had a knack creating awesome artwork? I got interested in drawing very early on. My mother was always painting one-of-a-kind T-shirts & canvases and would let me join her. Meanwhile, my pops ran our family video arcade business. So I grew up staring at all the colors and images of old vintage pinballs and arcade machines while I was cleaning the glass or unjamming the coin slots. I’m lucky I grew up in an environment that encouraged using your imagination and creating unique things. It wasn’t till around 6th Grade that I started to really take notice in myself as a creative individual. Basically, all throughout my schooling I was getting barely passing grades in English, Math, Science, but for some reason art class was always the easy A.

Who and What were some of your Early Artistic Influences? What Artist inspire you these days? When I was young some of the earliest memories of art would be from artist RICK GRIFFIN and JOHN SEVERSON. My uncle collected a ton of their work ,and I remember seeing it everywhere in our household growing up. But a few of my all time favorite artist that helped shaped who I am today would be… Ted Geisel, Charles Schulz, Matt Groening, Chuck Jones, Barry McGee, Matt Furie, Jay Howell, Chad Eaton, and Jesse Balmer. The artist that inspire me nowadays would be Eric McHenry, Craig Gleason, Giovanni Forlino, and Lil Debbie.

Not only are you working hard on your art, but you are also out in the world selling prints and talking about your art to folks at places like the Rosebowl or at the Long Beach Market? What do you enjoy most about working a table? Working down at the swap-meets has been such an amazing experience. Being an artist I’m alone for many hours a day working away drawing late into the night and being in a closed environment. Hidden away from the world in a way , but twice a month I can showcase my work to the outside world and interact with like minded people who can connect with it. Plus you never know who you might meet down there at the markets. It’s always such a fun mystery that keeps me coming back to the table life.

What are your essential art tools and materials? I’ve been in this magical rut of working with SAKURA Micron Pens as well as using copic markers. but essentially, anything I can get my grubby paws on to create.

How do your ideas take shape? How do you get from Start to Finnish? Whats your process? Usually I begin my work with a doodle that I’ll be scribbling on late at night. Then the next day I’ll think about if the idea is worthy of my time. If so, I let myself start building the scene. Imagining what the environment looks like and feels like, sketching in pencil first to find out where the hard ink lines will go. Once I get a strong image together, then I bring in some fine lines. After that I let the ink dry, erase the pencil, and bring in some color and watch the sacred ritual unfold.

How has your style of drawing changed or evolved? What allows you to grow artistically? I think my style of art has a more fine tuned aspect to it nowadays. When I first started my artwork was more of a cluster of ideas, I’ve now evolved more into working with a group of main characters and developing their stories. It’s been really fun seeing where I’ve started and where this artistic road has taken me. I think what allows me to grow artistically is the freedom of imagination art allows.

How has this environment or the city influenced the work you create? What about skateboarding has influenced what you make as well? Being connected to the city life has created an interesting environment for me. So much change and motion always goin on. I like to find the happy medium by slowing everything down and drawing for hours quietly in my studio. With skateboarding I believe it helped shaped my whole being as an artist. Growing up it went hand in hand with my lifestyle. The influence it had was more about product design. I always loved seeing the bottom art of a deck and the clothing and sticker designs that came along with it too. It made me want to always design art for the skateboarding culture.

What has been the most challenging project you’ve worked on? What was the hardest thing about it and the most rewarding? The most challenging project I’ve worked on would be– when I was real young, I decided one Sunday to sit down and paint myself a trophy rainbow trout to hang up on my wall. I had no idea how to begin such a painting, but knew it needed to be done. I think this project helped blossomed my vision to attack art head on and not be afraid of failing. The Rainbow Trout Piece is one of my most prized possessions. It will always remain in my personal collection because of the lesson it taught me.

What was your last adventure that showed up in one of your illustrations, thematically or just visually? Back in July I drew an image of a campsite up in the clouds tucked away behind three big pine trees. This image came from one of my adventures traveling up the California coast camping in Big Sur. I remember hiking up along the coast high above the cloud cover and seeing this hilltop. I thought how amazing it would be to just pitch a lil tent in between the trees and just live there for the rest of my life.

What’s the biggest misconception you think an artist gets? One of the biggest misconceptions artists receive is that because we can draw, we will draw other styles of art just cause the client likes that style more. I’ve been asked so many times to create the art that is not in the style I’ve created or mastered. I never have understood the thought process of asking a creative individual to draw like someone he/she isn’t. If you are working with an artist, just understand they have their own style and this is to be respected and is represented int their artwork.

What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps and pursue art? For those that love to involve themselves in the process of creation I would say to always use your imagination. Its the Power of Imagination that I love and that has helped keep my fire going. The possibility of creating something that is completely unique and different and has meaning to your own personal being. Young artist are also growing up in a era where everything is instant, there is no patience anymore. If anything, find the patience within yourself to just be happy with taking your time on certain projects. Let it build up naturally and enjoy yourself. And always remember to be original, copying others original characters and style is being done to much nowadays. Social media has exposed younger artists to unique styles and techniques other artist personally use and mastered over years apon years of practice. I think it’s important for younger artist to find out what works best for their own self instead of copying their idols techniques and characters.

Whats your best Art School tip you want to share with folks? Honestly the best ART SCHOOL tip would be the words from Ted Geisel. “You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”

When you aren’t drawing or hustling, what do you do to relax or just stay fresh in life. Honestly, I love hiding away in my mancave, reading Snoopy Comix, Dr. Seuss Children’s Books as well as listening to some Willie Nelson, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys Records. I enjoy relaxing to episodes of King of the Hill, Seinfeld or The Simpsons as well as watching whatever Wes Anderson movie that I’m feeling. If I decide to go outside for the day, you can find me skating with all my cronies, enjoying life. Some days I’ll just take off for an adventure into the woods and mountains to camp and fish for a little before getting back to the grind.

What are your favorite style of VANS? My Favorite style of would be the VANS ROWELY PRO. The black and white shoe with the red lil stripe along the bottom.

Anything you can share that is coming up? I’ve got a couple children’s books in the works as well as a few adult books, and of course a bunch of TOP SECRET projects I can’t talk about just yet. haha, but on a more personal level I’ve been trying to get into the animation process and bringing my characters to life. So expect some fun things to come to life soon.

FOLLOW KALEN | INSTAGRAM| ETSY

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