Inspired Interview: Karen Kurycki
I’m incredibly stoked to have this interview to post. Karen Kurycki is one of my favorite local artists. Her use of watercolor and design constantly blow me away. So without further ado, here it is!
How did you get involved in art in general? When you were growing up, what did you want to be?
I think I’ve always been involved in some form of art since I was very very little—my family used to call me “the bag lady” when I was little because I would go around with no less than 3 or 4 bags filled with crayons, markers, colored pencils, basically any art supplies I could get my hands on! I was also heavily involved in music and sports growing up—played the piano, clarinet and sang in a travelling choir that even did a couple of operas, played softball and volleyball (I actually played softball for 2 years in college). I consider myself extremely lucky because I come from a very supportive family and my parents always encouraged us to pursue things that we liked, even if it meant spending money they didn’t have or driving us around town to lessons, etc.
So when I was growing up, I think I knew I’d always be involved in a more creative profession because that’s what I’ve always been drawn to.
What drew you towards doing graphic design and illustration?
I think I’ve just always leaned toward that side of art. Growing up, I used to sit and work on that computer program “Print Shop” on our Apple IIGS (old school) making flyers and signs and wasting all of my parents’ ink ribbons because I’d print so many things out. I guess I didn’t realize I was designing at the time…to me it was just me having fun and creating things from image and type. It wasn’t until around 8th grade where I learned what a graphic designer really did—my mom had been a journalist/editor at the Democrat and Chronicle, the main newspaper in Rochester, NY, where I grew up and she had worked with tons of designers and illustrators at the paper and kind of explained to me what they did. I think it suits my personality more than the fine art side of art—I never got sucked into drawing and painting for hours and hours like most fine artists—to me I preferred the layout of information, to focus on projects and then move on to the next one. The more interesting I could make the layouts by using my own art, the better. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a huge art department at my high school because we were so small, so it wasn’t really until college that I really got into design and typography and hierarchy and everything else that goes into the field.
Describe your work. What influences you and your work? How do you get inspiration?
Describe my work…hmmm…well it’s kind of hard to completely describe it because as a designer, it’s always varying for me. I LOVE the projects where I get to combine my illustration with design because I feel like all of my heart and soul go into that project. But there are other projects that I will use type and photo without illustration and feel just as passionate about, so it’s hard to say. As a “commercial” artist a lot of times you have to adjust according to your client and what’s going to work for them, so I can’t say that my design has one specific style because I work with all sorts of clients, but my illustration style is obviously watercolor, often combined with image and type. And in my fine art/watercolor I try to use humor as much as possible, because although I’m a pretty focused and goal-oriented individual, I’m kind of a kid at heart that refuses to grow up.
I get inspiration from everywhere and everything, so it’s hard to pinpoint what I do to find it. I am very drawn to and inspired by items/things from my past. I am a HUGE vintage toy lover. I could sit for hours and look at old toys, especially specific ones from my childhood. And I love new toys that look like old toys, I think that’s why I’m so drawn to the Mighty Mugg series of toys—the flat paint and the way they are all shaped the same but all so different—so beautiful to me.
Other things that inspire me: music, humor, 80s pop culture, hardworking humble people, color, the unexpected, old school Nintendo, happy accidents, thrift stores, flea markets, philanthropy, vintage magazines, the smell of newly opened pool toys…the list is endless.
Of course I look at design blogs all the time to see what’s going on in the design scene (although I’ve been MAJORLY slacking on my blog feeds lately…haven’t had time to check in a couple months to be honest!). There are so many artists and designers out there that I’m just downright jealous of and I strive to kick ass as much as they do, and that includes a handful right here in our city. Some of my very close friends are in that mix! And I think that’s what I love about AIGA—I have come to know each and every one of those people and we support each other like a happy family. It makes me happy to have that support network.
I love your design style with the elements of watercolor. Can you explain your process a little? What draws you to this style?
Well thank you for the compliment! I actually didn’t start doing watercolor until my junior year of college. My teacher and mentor Jerry Kalback was the best teacher in the entire world. He was the one who inspired me to develop my watercolor skills and taught me so many things about illustration that I could have never taught myself. So he has been a HUGE inspiration for me, not to mention a kick-ass illustrator himself. My process varies, sometimes I’ll paint first, scan and add type on top, sometimes I’ll paint the actual type and combine with image, sometimes I’ll print directly on the watercolor paper and paint on top of that—it’s all pretty much experimental for me a lot of the time. Lately I’ve been collaborating with my friend Ashley Hazen—she’ll draw and I’ll paint, or I’ll paint and she’ll draw—I feel our illustration styles are very similar so it kind of works for us. I think I’m drawn to watercolor because it’s so unpredictable, and it breaks me out of that control I get with design, where if you want something to go somewhere on the page, you move it there. With watercolor, it’s like, “oh shit!” But then you kind of adjust to make it work. It’s unpredictability adds spice to my life.
collaboration with Ashley Hazen for the book Things Drunk People Say. available at Urban Outfitters.
Connected to your influences and inspiration, who are your favorite artists and musicians?
Favorite illustrators/designers: Such a tough question to answer since I have so many people and design groups I am inspired by, so I’ll just list a few that come to mind: The Decoder Ring, Frank Chimero, Stina Persson, Andrio Albero, Adrian Johnson, Andrew Bannecker, Design Army. And though I don’t really screen print myself, I am so inspired by the simplicity and concepts in gigposters designed by Aesthetic Apparatus , The Small Stakes, Methane Studios and my friends, the Bubble Process. I’m also enamored by a lot of the letterpress I see coming from Hammerpress, Studio on Fire, the Mandate Press and Yee-Haw Industries. Locally, I’m loving the stuff that Halftone Def and Dog & Pony are creating. And of course I love Ashley Hazen’s work as well.
Music: I have a pretty random taste in music, I try to stay pretty current with new indie stuff but will always go back to the old stuff as well—50s, 60s, Motown, the Four Tops, the Supremes, Sam Cooke, the Beach Boys, that’s my “comfort music”—music that just seems to kind of have this innocence about it, that I can feel and relate to more. I love old country too (not so much new country), bluegrass, Spanish music, anything that reminds me of my childhood really. My iTunes collection is pretty random.
How has your work with AIGA Jacksonville shaped your design, style, aesthetic, and even art in general?
I’m not sure that I can attribute my work and style to AIGA Jacksonville—I CAN attribute A LOT of things to AIGA, like my network of like-minded designers both in Jacksonville and across the country, the opportunity to give back to the Jacksonville community through hands-on activities and design. AIGA provides the forum for us as designers to discuss current design topics and be inspired by what’s going on around us in the design world, but I see my work as more of a personal thing, where I’m gathering inspiration from everything in my world, not just AIGA necessarily. But AIGA is very important to me to be a part of as a designer.
Where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years? Where do you see your art going?
This is a great question! I don’t even know if I can give you a straight up answer to this because I’m not really sure. I’m actually about to start a new job as Senior Art Director at BroadBased, which I’m really excited about. But I’m not sure what the future holds, to be honest. I know that I’d be sad if for some reason I stopped the art or didn’t have time for it. I think it will always be a big part of my life—creating is my passion, and I could say, yeah I’d like to own my own agency one day, but do I? It seems like it would take away from my chance to create if I had to focus more on the business side of things, and right now that doesn’t interest me as much as creating. Will that change in 5 or 10 years? I don’t know. So it’s really hard to say.
What shows have you been in recently? Any planned for this year?
I recently had a piece in the Totem if you Got ‘Em show that Jack Twachtman put together at Bogda in October and I will be in the Designers in Toyland custom toy show coming up on December 2nd, during the December Art Walk, which I am also helping organize through AIGA.
Where can we see your work?
You can see my work on my website: cmykaren.com. I don’t have anything in any galleries at the moment so unless you come to my house and look at the various print pieces I’ve designed the past 5 years, just check out the website.
What are your thoughts regarding the Jacksonville art scene? Have any suggestions for improvement? Do you read any local jax blogs regularly?
I wish I could say I’m SUPER involved in the fine art scene but with my design job, freelance, illustration and AIGA on the side, this girl doesn’t get enough sleep as it is! I would love to do more collaborations with the fine artists in town, like the toy show and the artists of 229 Hogan. They are putting out some REALLY cool stuff that I’m really digging. I think the art scene has been blowing up from what I’ve seen over the past couple of years and becoming less “exclusive” in the fact that we have these collaborative shows like Chad and Clay’s skateboard art show and the toy show coming up where anyone can pretty much enter. I know that a lot of the artists in town would disagree and say we need to be more exclusive, but I think having a mix of both types of shows is awesome for the city.
Thanks again for spending some time and letting me interview you. I’ve been a big admirer of your work for quite some time. Any last parting words?
Well thank you very much, that’s very kind of you to say. Thank you for interviewing me and taking an interest in my work. I do what I do because I love what I do and when I stop loving it, I’ll stop doing it…just can’t foresee that happening anytime soon. I just want to tell Jacksonville to keep kicking ass and for the people involved in the art community to stay positive and supportive of each other because so much can grow from that positivity. Collaborations rule.
collaboration with Sean Tucker of Dog&Pony Showprints.
