Interview with Kyle Field

q)Tell me something about yourself….What’s your background…?

a) I used to get up really early as a child and prided myself on being self sufficient.I would eat raisin bran and draw in the early hours (raisin bran is cereal) I can remember the first morning I forgot to put some sugar on my cereal and how sour the milk tasted in contrast.I would dress up in costumes constantly,making masks often from grocery sacks.

q)When growing what was the greatest force pushing you towards art?

a)The desire to constantly create and realize visions,the love of being totally alone.

q)Were you inspired/encouraged by any one person to pursue your craft?

a)My parents were always totally encouraging,I think they were excited by what I was doing.And teachers and people throughout school,everyone was pretty supportive,so much so that I stopped trying to draw well when I was about 22 years old and started trying to draw poorly for about 8 to 10 years to avoid the spotlight of attention.

q)How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?

a)I might say that it is a picture of what it would look like if invisible things and concrete things could become each other and be a new third thing,that is like liquid.Or that I draw weird cartoons,do they know what a cartoon is?These people?

q)Are certains colours,shapes that you’re drawn to?

a)Certainly,though maybe too many to mention,I like all types of different everything (music,food,etc.) so there is a rainbow out there that I look to.But to answer,I like oranges and blues together and always have and I like whatever shape I need to make to make the picture that I end up making.And the pictures are hopefully in constant evolution,so the answer can always grow too.

q)What other talent would you like most to have?

a)Probably fearlessness when it comes to heights soI could go rock climbing with no ropes and achieve incredible heights.

q)What’s your favourite mediums to work in/on?

a)Ink on paper is the most practical in so many ways that that should be my answer.

q)What artists influence or have influenced you(these need not be visual artists)and how have they done so?

a)Kids I grew up drawing with when I was young.This one kid in first grade that always drew much smaller than me probably has had the singls greatest impact on my work ever because he never accepted what I did as being good,and he was a superior artist to me.I would show him something and he would shrug his shoulders,like,"so?"And I can remember sort of crumbling then a bit (we were both drawing spaceships) and I said "mine are a little wide,right?"Getting so much praise and then rejection from the person whose art I most admired was like sharpening the knife all at once,and a very sharp knife was I rewarded with indeed!

q)What non-visual art interests you and does this have an impact on your art?

a)I would say that anything one enjoys has an impact on their life.As far as how that funnels down to the output of new art,I am no expert on how that transformation occurs,and the mystery of that chemistry is a gift that might make more room for furthering the imagination.The specifics or labeling of that relationship seems irrelevant to me,as long as there is still juice in there,I don't need to know what it is made of.

q)What do you think about artists using the Internet as a forum for sharing their work?

a)The more the merrier?

q)What is your favourite toy,game or other artefact from your youth(and do you still own it)?

a)One that I don't own anymore which american kids born in the seventies might remember is stretch Armstrong which was a syrup filled superhero made out of stretchy tough rubber.you could stretch him and it was almost healthy like excercise,the resitance of his arms and legs was akin to wiggling a loose tooth in your gum cavity.He was destroyed when the curiosity finally got the best of us and we had to stab him to find out what exactly was inside.He had some sort of unsweetened syrup that looked like sweetened syrup.

q)Got any new projects planned?

a)There are always new drawings emerging and in the works.I have been allowed to start an imprint of my own called RAD on the marriage records label out of Portland Oregon. From this label we will be putting out three albums this year by little wings,be gulls and Lee Baggett respectively.this label will also act as an outlet for the release of :skateboards,books of drawings,cds and records,teeshirts,and stickers. marriagerecs.com

q)What advice can you give to other artists to help them improve their chances of survival in this global village we call our home?

a)I guess that I feel like professional ambition becomes the most unattractive thing in my mind,and that those with too much of this head down a hideously colored road,but perhaps this is what they want.I try to cut as many corners as possible and to be as flaky as I can get away with,for I feel it feeds my independence and creativity and freedom.I want to be my own boss in so many ways,for if I am lorded over I shut down and cease to produce.So I take my time and put things off and am very very uneven in terms of my daily discipline towards art.It seems that my main goal in life is to spend as much time in the ocean as possible because that is what makes me feel the best in so many ways.So in my marriage to surfing,many things play second fiddle,including at times,art and music.I want to be physically healthy into my old age and die surfing perhaps.

q)Favourite books/authors?

a) S.E. Hinton(that was then this is now),William Golding(lord of the flies),Richard Brautigan,Raymond Carver,George Orwell,kerouac,Dan Lucas,Michael Field,Alan Watts (the book on the taboo against knowing who you are),Ram Dass is cool,the gospels,Iceberg Slim.

q)Favourite music?

a)Easy listening unless it is Iron Maiden or Jane's Addiction.or Tupac Shakur.also friend's bands but if I start making a list I am bound to leave somebody out.

q)What do you fear most?

a)Heights

q)Your contacts…

a)Light blue

http://www.kyledraws.com/