Brian is one of my favorite artists. Thanks Brian for taking some time to answer a few questions.
1.What interesting project are you currently working on?
I am currently in the aftermath of the show at the U of U Museum. That show involved painting quite a number of rather large canvases with a very inflexible deadline. Fortunately it all went well, but I am enjoying a rather less structured period and I have snapped back to rather small works. It is a very different thing psychologically to work on pieces that I am much bigger than, rather than the reciprocal. The paintings and I are getting on very well so far. My next show obligations are quite a ways off, and though it is none too early to begin preparing for them, it is nice to feel that there is plenty of time. It has been some time since I have felt that.
2.You lived overseas during your youth. Tell us a little about that. How has that impacted your life and your art?
I wonder about that myself. Since it is the only experience I have had I don’t know quite how to compare it to something else. I think that there are some very universal ideas of desiring to belong, of being foreigners, or pilgrims, that may have been rendered emphatic by my being a foreigner and a pilgrim. I see evidences in my work of much exotic and so called “primitive” art from countries I have lived in and also countries I have only visited or experienced through books and museums. I really believe that what ever our experience is there is excellent material for art. The foreignness of my own life is fun enough to talk about (in that “foreignness” I include my current residence in Kanosh) but hardly a necessity to making vital work. It is not so much your experience, but how you are willing to process it that matters.
3. What is the one thing you have done that has helped you move from a person who likes to paint to a full fledged artist?
I didn’t really do that. When it occurred to me that I might become an artist I just jumped in with both feet and knew that it might take a minute. I received help from my parents and in-laws to be sure, but I was never a hobbyist. I don’t know how to make that transition. I suppose that if pressed for “the one thing” it would be that I did (and do) a lot of work. Statistically that will just improve the odds.
4. Do you feel any special responsibility as a Mormon Artist?
I acknowledge right off that there are several priorities ahead of my art. In fact, art and these other priorities must be positioned in the context of my discipleship and not vice versa. I have more of a responsibility to become a good man than a good artist, even though becoming a good artist is hugely important to me. Although my work rarely deals with specific doctrine, I do feel a cosmic need to be more a part of solutions than problems. But art is not easily confined by policy and I must always be conscious of, and responsible about, that precarious reality. When I acknowledge that there are more important things than my art, then I must be willing to explore my physical and spiritual worlds with wit and courage and faith and willingness to receive course correction from trusted advisors in both worlds. Art is a spiritual pursuit, but I am really just a dunderhead and I must always be very mindful and careful in the way I mix any spiritual pursuit with revenue generation. I don’t want to complicate that part of my interviews with God.
Check out Brian's work at:
http://www.kershisnik.com
