– About –
Making Art
Artist Statement
Like many, I began drawing at a very early age. Drawing was a medium I could get lost in, with my imagination and thoughts. Painting for me is a natural extension of that process. While it is a completely different medium, the emotion I bring to it is the same. As with any medium, it is a form of expression.
I have been painting for over 15 years with this latest series started in the past year. I grew up here in Kansas City, graduating high school from Lincoln Academy. It was there I was encouraged to pursue art as a profession from Ms Claire Martin-West. I attended Missouri Western State University where I took several painting classes from Jack Hughes. His approach was very hands off unless you were really needing help. I appreciated his approach as it allowed me to develop my own voice. I graduated from there in ‘98 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Commercial Art with an emphasis in painting and illustration. My first exhibition was at the Albrecht Kemper membership show in ’96 where I won best of show for my painting “Blue Funk.” My painting “Tom D” was just recently accepted to appear at the Kansas City Artist's Coalition Re:members show in July 2016.
There is a method to what I create. I start with a pencil or charcoal drawing on paper as a guide. Sometimes it’s just one drawing.
Other times it’s several, but it’s always in black and white. I reserve color for painting. I like the spontaneity it can bring to the canvas. I use color and deliberate brush strokes to create character, conversation or a feeling. I rarely mix colors when I paint. I like to use the raw color and have them mix optically. I enjoy creating a contrast between what you see far away and what you see up close. When I paint, I try to capture an emotion and feeling that you wouldn’t normally see. Painting is an emotional experience for me, so much so that it’s hard to put into words the way I work. Sometimes I have a conversation with myself and shape a feeling. Other times I just let go and let my subconscious take over where color and brush are the medium I use to communicate.
The human form and face is the subject that I gravitate to paint. I enjoy people and scratching below the surface to show the essence of humanity. We all present a mask to the world to protect ourselves from the unknown. I’m looking to get past that façade and show the human connection we all share. I try not to explain everything visually. I try to paint so that you look at something and see the emotion in it. I think we all bring something personal to the table. Your experience will allow you to see something no one else does, or you may have a similar connection with your fellow viewers. My goal is for my work to resonate with you in some way. I hope on some level it does.
Making the invisible visible
Capturing Experience
A lot of times I’ll take two or three months where I’m not really painting. But the wheels are constantly turning and I’m soaking in ideas in my environment, subconsciously thinking about the next thing I’m going to do, How it all starts is I see things that are just like, ‘Man, I really want to capture that.’ So, hopefully, I can capture that in a way that lets others experience that same feeling that I felt.
Sketches: ‘Just charming’
Tom Deatherage, owner of The Late Show Gallery, sat sipping a cool drink in his Crossroads space on Cherry Street. “I met Kwanza in 2009” Deatherage said. “I think he’s a good painter. He would show me his sketchbook and he would say, ‘What do you think of this and this and this?’ I was so charmed by his sketches, that’s why we decided to have the sketchbook show. I think he’s got a great way of covering a person’s personality. They are not exact drawings of people, but they capture the essence of the people. Some of them are strangers and some of them are people he knows. I think they are just charming.”
Striving to be ‘present and in the moment’
There’s a mechanism that always seems to be on — that I’m always observing, A lot of times I think that’s who I am: being present in the moment and really capturing what’s there. Really that is what art is about for me, to be able to, not necessarily see what is in front of you, but beyond that initial layer and capture the emotion of what’s just below the surface. And I think when you see that far, you start creating things that connect with other people.
