INTERVIEW | BEHIND THE ARTIST: KEVIN CARMODY (@kevincarmody2)

Tell us how your jour­ney star­ted as an artist?  

I star­ted very young.  I can remem­ber draw­ing a pic­ture of Roger Rab­bit at the age of 7.  I showed my par­ents and they thought it was decent enough to put me in art classes.

Your art­work is mainly of Hip Hop artists, how do you select the artists you want to draw? 

There are so many artists on my list for the future.  I have not even come close to fin­ish­ing every­one I want to draw.  For the most part, I draw who I enjoy listen­ing to.  I also listen to their music while I am draw­ing them. I also select musi­cians that have upcom­ing shows in my area. This is because,  every now and again, I try to get my por­traits signed by the musi­cian I have done a draw­ing of.

How long does one piece of art take you to cre­ate, and what are the tech­niques you use? 

Hmmm. That really depends.  A lot of my skate­board art/designs are very layered with a lot of col­or­ing involved. There­fore, my skate­board work takes the longest. As far as my por­trait work goes–I always start in the begin­ning of the week in the even­ing time. It usu­ally takes three nights.  Each night involves about 3–6 hours of straight draw­ing. I’d say no more than 20 hours a por­trait.  When it comes to tech­nique, I’m pretty much self-taught so my tech­nique came nat­ur­ally. In short, a lot of my tech­nique involves col­or blending.

What are your biggest influ­ences that have helped you cre­ate your style? 

That depends.  If we are talk­ing about teach­ers, I’d say my col­lege pro­fess­ors gave me the most cre­at­ive flexibility/freedom dur­ing assign­ments. They influ­enced me to stay true to myself.  So, I’d say that when I got my bach­el­or’s degree–this is when my own style truly developed. But, if we are talk­ing about out­side influ­ences or interests that I enjoy, one would obvi­ously notice that my art­work is heav­ily influ­enced by music and skate­board­ing.  I am also influ­enced by oth­er con­tem­por­ary art and artists.

Who are your favour­ite Hip Hop artists and why?

That is a hard ques­tion to answer.  There are so many to choose from. I’d say the group that has held the most longev­ity in my col­lec­tion is the Beast­ie Boys. I have been listen­ing to them for years and every time I revis­it one of their albums none of them ever seem to get old.  I’m into Boom Bap hip hop (a lot of the golden era, earli­er stuff). And to me, all of the Beast­ie’s albums are bangers.  A Tribe Called Quest and Wu-Tang are up there too.

Have you ever met any of the artists you have drawn in per­son? 

Yes, quite a few actu­ally,  I men­tioned that in a pre­vi­ous ques­tion.  I have pic­tures of  a lot of these encoun­ters on my Ins­tagram page.

 Art is a strong form of expres­sion. What is the mes­sage you hope to send out through your work? 

Wow.…this is a tough one.  There are so many ways to answer this.  I could write a lot about this one. In a nut­shell, I’d say do what you enjoy as much as you can.

Have you got any exhib­i­tions or upcom­ing pro­jects planned? 

Ha ha.  I have had many exhib­i­tions in the past but noth­ing planned for the future (at the moment).  If any­one is read­ing this and knows of any upcom­ing exhib­i­tions or pro­jects you believe I am the right fit for, please let me know.

What do you like to do when you are not drawing? 

I enjoy my friends, my fam­ily, and a good jog in my neigh­bor­hood.  I am also always on the hunt for the next best burrito or hamburger.

Check out more of Kev­in’s work below:

INS­TAGRAM: @kevincarmodyart

FACE­BOOK:www.facebook.com/kevincarmodyart

TWIT­TER: @kevincarmody2

WEB­SITE: http://www.thelumberjackartist.com

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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