Utah native Brian Kershisnik presented at Art Insights on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. He started off by presenting his many well-known works, Kershisnik began by sharing paintings so new that he still has the paint under his nails from working on them.
The event was open to students and the general public, and he was received by a full auditorium.
He gave the audience a glimpse into his process and his studio in Kanosh, UT. That process includes working on anywhere from 20 – 100 paintings at a time, finishing only when he feels the paintings “start to breathe.”
He also exposed the not-so-picture-perfect aspects of his nearly 30 year career as an artist.
“I thought when I was your age that I would get over the troughs and the times that I felt like I didn’t really know what I was doing,” Kershisnik said. “That never happened. I’ve come to realize that what you do as an artist is more decided by what you do on bad days than it is by what you do on great days. Your career is more defined by how you learn strategies to be productive and useful and make good use of that time.”
One of those strategies that he recommends to his audience is a sketchbook that he always has in his back pocket.
“I recommend that you have some means of holding on to things that occur to you… I have a theory that so-called creative people don’t have more good ideas than other people, they just develop habits that capture those good ideas.”
When asked for the stories behind one of his paintings, he opted not to share it. He explains that the meaning in his paintings is not found in his story of why he painted it, but rather in the viewers’ interpretations of it based on their own experiences.
To learn more about Kershisnik and view his work, visit his website.
Art Insights is hosted during fall and spring semesters with new presentations every week. For more information visit www.suu.edu/pva.
Story by: Larissa Beatty
lulubeatty@gmail.com
Photos by: Christopher Dimond
