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| A very close and dear friend, Mae Kwan, who happens to be associated with "Chit Chat" brought this gentleman to my attention and I'm glad she did. His work is fascinating, beautiful, brilliant and captivating.
The New York City born artist, Patrick Keefer, earned his BFA in Graphic Design. According to his bio, he visualizes the world as art and in 3-D and 2-D realms. I thought it would be interesting to explore the genius of the man. What does he really see? What makes him unique? Genius comes to mind.
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INTERVIEW
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| John: According to your bio, you wrote graffiti all over your neighborhood. How old were you and why did you express yourself in this manner?
Patrick: I was 10 or 11 when I started really writing graffiti. Graffiti was a way to spread a message or an image really quick across a wide spectrum of people. It became a playground for my characters to live.
John: How old were you when you realized that you have this gift, this talent?
Patrick: I have been creative since as long as I can remember. I have always been interested in art, design and architecture. I was always drawing characters, painting on things I was not supposed to and taking apart everything I could get my hands on just to see how it works.
When it came to stenciling, it wasn't until college when I realized I was on to something unique. What I fell in love with about it is the whole process an image goes through from start to finish.
First I take a photo of a particular subject, bring that into the computer and using Adobe Illustrator create vectors on the images, print out the layers on paper, with an X-Acto knife sit for hours cutting the tiniest of details, build canvas and prepare if for paint, spray each layer a certain color chosen prior to painting, spray the final layer and step back and see what you have created.
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The process for me is so relaxing. I get engulfed in being so focused, I loose track of time. The more time you put into a stencil, the more detail and clarity of the final image will have.
John: Where does your inspiration come from?
Patrick: My influences come from all around me, things I see, people I meet and especially other artists. Currently I live in Queens, NY.
I go on walks most days after work constantly observing my surrounding for anything that catches my eye. Such as a rusty sign or new graffiti, someone wrote since the last time I have been there.
John: Have you had any showings at any of the Art Galleries in NYC?
Patrick: I have never been featured in a NYC Art Gallery, I have participated in a few Art shows, and one night events.
John: Can you paint from a photograph?
Patrick: All of my stencil work comes from original photographs that I have taken. They are the basis of every piece. I have learned over time to carry a camera around with me so no opportunity gets missed.
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| John: When I visited your website, I noticed that you specialize in "paintings", "graphic" and "photographs". I would imagine this keeps you busy. Do you have assistants?
Patrick: Currently I have no assistants, I work full time doing Graphic Design, Painting is a passion of mine and I find time in my busy schedule to be creative with that medium. Photography is where my imagery is derived from.
I also work for an apparel company Wildboy! Clothing, designing T-shirts and other promotional materials. You can check them out at wildboyclothing.com.
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| John: I see that "Think more Ink" the name of your company, has a "photographs" option. Would someone who needs headshots or family portraits come to you?
Patrick: I am more of an artistic and edgy photographer. I became interested in photography as a direct correlation to my need of better imagery to stencil. I am self-taught, the better and cleaner my photographs are the more detail I then can capture in my paintings.
John: Do you have other paintings, graphics, and photographs not shown on your website?
Patrick: Yes I have walls, rooms filled with paintings, drawings, and sculptures.
John: Is your work one of a kind?
Patrick: My stencil work is genuinely one of a kind, in the sense there is only one painting made for each stencil I create. In the process of making the painting the stencil becomes too fragile and destroys itself after being sprayed over with paint.
John: I love your series, "Faces". Do you have any other "series" and if so, how would one be able to view them?
Patrick: I have created other series before such as my "Food" series. All my paintings I do have images of for people to view upon request. In the near future I would love to have all my work up on the web for people to view.
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John: Your paintings are amazing. Do you have a favorite piece?
Patrick: Bridge 1 is my favorite as of now. Bridge 1 is from a photo I took on from the Brooklyn side shooting up at the Manhattan Bridge.
To me it is an accomplishment within myself to be able to create such a clean piece of art without using machines or silkscreen only a knife, spray paint and a lot of time.
John: Another favorite of mine, in Graphics, is "Fruit and Textures", again, what inspired you?
Patrick: Fruit and Textures is a book I designed to showcase fruits in groupings and then close up. The book in created in an accordion fashion allowing both sides of the book to be viewable. An interesting part of the book is that I fabricated it out of black foam-core and when completely closed it turns into the little black box. They book also contains no words, only images captivating its viewers attention.
John: Paintings, have you painted with your subject, model being present, as in a sitting?
Patrick: Yes, I would much rather have live subjects, when painting with oils. Oils to me is more of expressing a feeling or a gesture with the brush as opposed to stenciling where I strive for clean, exact with every cut of the knife.
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| John: Your painting, "Bridge 1", is another beautiful piece. The colors stand out, looks almost animated. Its spray painted on canvas. Do you first draw then paint?
Patrick: For my stencils I work from photograph. I vector (clean line draw) the whole image first on the computer. Test out different crop areas and then move forward to printing and cutting. The choosing of colors to spray comes from a feeling I get out of the image. For this particular piece the image is very balanced. The blues and browns compliment each other.
John: How long did it take to complete "Bridge 1?" Its size is 24"x36", how much would something like this cost?
Patrick: "Bridge 1" is made up of 8 stencils, totaling over 130 hours to create from start to finish. It is currently priced at $2,600.00
John: If I were to stop by your studio or place where you create, what would I find?
Patrick: Drawings, sketches hung all over the walls, of ideas for projects. Paintings stacked up finished or started, Tools lying around on the ground and a MAC Computer sitting on my tiny little desk, where I spend most my time.
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John: When you're not working, how do you relax?
Patrick: In my free time, I hangout with friends, get outside and enjoy the day, listen to music, skateboard, sketch in my notebook. The usual stuff.
John: While creating, do you listen to music? If so, what kind?
Patrick: All the time! Music helps me get in the groove of sitting and staring at a computer screen for hours on end making vectors. When I am in the process of cutting out stencils, I usually put on my headphone playing all types of music. Some of my most played music is, Radiohead, Lupe Fiasco, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. I love music in general; it is just another creative outlook on life.
John: What makes your work different than the other artist out there?
Patrick: Stenciling is a rare art form to begin with. The details and imagery are based only on the eye of the artist creating them. Even if to stencil artist started with the same image, their final paintings would never be the same due to person styles of cutting and color palettes used.
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John: Many artists are legend, like Andy Warhol. What would you like to be famous for?
Patrick: Fame is a hard thing to achieve in the Art world today. It was a different time when Andy Warhol was around. His status was that of today's Rock stars or Movie stars. Everyone knew who he was: Larger than Life. I would just like people to perceive my work for what it is.
Each image whether it be a person face or scenery, it was painted to show some kind of emotion. The colors chosen or expression on a face was done for reason. Something I want people to take away from my paintings is the time in which it takes to create one of these works. The time is worth it when a person says how much they appreciate something I create.
John: How would someone inquire about your work?
Patrick: By E-mailing Patrick@thinkmoreink.com or on my site Thinkmoreink.com, there is a contact page which allows you to write comments as well as inquire about all artwork.
Thank you Patrick for taking the time to answer my questions. It was very enlightening. You are indeed talented and gifted. Let's chit chat soon.
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