Andy Kittmer Episode #11 Under The Beast

Being a self-taught artist has been empowering for Andy Kittmer. He has been passionate about drawing and illustrating since he can remember. Comics drew him in as a youth, which led to graffiti and even connected him with automotive designs and detailing. 

His art career has come full circle, bringing all of these influences together. Kittmers' paintings illustrate the fusion between graffiti, comics, and the automotive world, thus creating a new language that is both symbolic and uniquely poetic.

Moving freely as a traveling artist deeply set in his ideals on family and community has given Andy a distinct approach to his creative practice. He anchors himself in his passion for storytelling while pushing the envelope in abstraction and colour combinations. Join me as we do a deep dive into his creative development and career. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Creatively Thinking Podcast. Join Carolyn Vitello as she uncovers the inspirations behind some incredibly creative minds that are orbiting our local Andy. Hi, Andy Kidmer. How are you? Good to be. I am so happy to have you on the Creatively Thinking podcast with Carolyn B. You are a multidisciplinary artist residing in St. Mary's, a small town outside London and Stratford, Ontario, Canada. I like to ask all artists what inspired what inspired you to choose this career path? Was it loving what you can do with your hands, your emotional insights, or something else?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

I think it originally started out as kind of uh a way of communicating. I feel like when I was younger, the family was going through divorce, and it just felt like something that I could kind of dive into. Something where you can't find the words and you can use it as a mode of expression. And I think just from there, it became more of a meditative process. I would just constantly kind of paint, get lost in painting, and yeah, you'd come about the next day feeling refreshed.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Yeah, that's that's really good. Yeah. Nice way to just sort of process things. Yeah. Yeah. I first learned of you and your work from the now closed hashtag gallery in Toronto. Can you share with our audience how your connection with this gallery came about?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah, that that was uh I was actually trying to think about that the other day.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

I know so long ago, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Me and Graham. Yeah, it it's been a while. Me and Graham originally met on social media, which I think was kind of the the birthplace of how hashtag came to be. It was before social media kind of took a grip on the art market. I think Graham was kind of ahead of the curve with that the naming of the gallery. And yeah, it was just kind of through social media we kind of crossed paths, and yeah, it was uh it was a pretty cool time to be at hashtag. There's a lot of really good artists that were coming through those doors. And it almost seemed to be kind of a hub for the creative circle at that time. It's been really cool to see a lot of the artists that I've met through there, their their journey since. But yeah, it's uh it was kind of an odd scenario for me because social media wasn't really a big presence in my life, whereas I know Graham was coming from a graphic design background, so that was kind of his reality, and kind of having that meld and cross paths was kind of a cool experience. And I know he's he's now moved down to Mexico, so they've got Casalienzo down there, it's an artist residency.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Yeah, yeah, it is amazing how he's just been able to progress so so much from where he started, right? Yeah, you have experience with many media like automotive painting, woodworking, and graffiti. These are some very unique media. How did this come about? And was it per purely exploratory, or was there other influences that sort of directed you?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I'll start with the woodworking. My dad was a cabinet maker, carpenter by trade. So that just passion for cars, like doing bodywork, mechanical work, and I thought my artistic practice would kind of jump in well with custom painting. So I did a co-op when I was younger doing automotive painting, and it turned into a four-year apprenticeship where I was doing airbrushing, pinstriping. We were painting drag cars and a bunch of stuff, and and that's where the portraiture actually stemmed from in my work. Surprisingly, a lot of people actually want portraits painted on their vehicles opposed to flames and racing stripes. So that's where I had to kind of take on that shift in my artistic practice and get better with doing portraits.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

And then the the graffiti thing that was mostly just kind of in high school, just kind of trying to find which path I was going artistically.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

It does seem really strange though, with like you were saying, the automotive can you always lean towards portrait, like this. I never would have thought that at all. Because yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, it it was very surprising for me. Like when I first started doing that, I was doing a lot of similar to kind of what I do now with the geometrics, but I was doing more organic stuff in my my pieces, not so much like animals or people, but yeah, it was definitely an eye-opener when people were coming in and they were requesting like, oh, I want a portrait of my grandmother. Um, it was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_04 6:54

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

A lot of countless hours spent practicing portraits and then figuring out the the painting.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

With the cars as well. That had to be a whole learning curve, too. But yeah, the graffiti.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Sorry. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah, a lot of the custom paints we were using in the industry, what they call a candy paint. So it's almost like like a cough syrup. So your undertones, like your brightest undertone is actually silver. So figuring out your your base colors, that's where it started to get really tricky. And that wasn't all the time, most of the time you just use regular paint. But if you're doing like a high-end custom paint job, it'd be with a candy base coat over top of everything. So you'd have to figure out your what tones would affect.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

You have a very obvious love of family and relationships that I discovered on your Instagram. How would you say this influences your creativity? Does your technique of covering the model's eyes in your artwork connect with this, or does it symbolize something else, or is it up to the viewer to interpret?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

I try and leave it up to the viewer. I find when like I try to cover the eyes whenever I'm doing a portrait, just because I find the eyes carry a lot of emotion, and I feel like it it almost sways viewers' perspective on what they're looking at. A lot of times they'll look at the eyes and they'll be like, oh, why are they sad or why are they happy? And I would want more of a complacent, kind of a numb look to the portraits. I don't like people to read too much into it. I want it mostly just to be to focus on the person themselves and not read too much into the feeling of what they're feeling. Because if I find portraits are already kind of a hard sell.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Yeah, like it's becoming separate from the actual personality by by changing how you're looking at the eyes, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

That being said, I do have a few small pieces that I've been doing lately where it is just focusing on the eye. And again, like there, there's a a strong juxtaposition between portraits where they have their eyes covered and ones where it's focusing just on the eye. And you you can even me personally, like, I'll look at them and I can kind of judge all this person's sad or they're happy or they're confused just by the look on their from their eyes.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah. It's kind of well, and then you can look at how how portraits have been done throughout history. 20 plus years. How people have engaged with it or thought of what it represents and and all that as well.

SPEAKER_04 10:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

I mean, imagine the Mona Lisa if you couldn't tell like if her eyes were covered, right? It takes away a lot of that emotion that you're looking at.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

And we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Traveling from for you is an important part of your practice. How would you say this shines in your creative content? Do you or have you considered incorporating upcycling into your work?

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Traveling's always been something that we've enjoyed. Even like raising two kids, we we've spent a lot of time road tripping around. And I think that's kind of displayed in my work. I I enjoy seeing different cultures, the way people well, different outlooks from people, and I think that's the beauty of society, is everyone has a different take on everything. And I think that's beautiful for society. But as far as upcycling, I used to use doilies in a lot of my original works, and I think that was just kind of a connection. Like my my grandparents, they used to have doilies everywhere, as I'm sure everybody's grandparents did. And I used to go around to a lot of thrift stores and I'd find old doilies and I'd actually cut them up and use them in pieces, kind of similar to my works now. I'd cover the face with them, and it just creates kind of an a pattern but a connection that a lot of people would look at and they'd recognize. Yeah, so I've I've played around with a few things like that. I know some of the new pieces I've been doing, they're smaller pieces just on paper, just kind of playing around with some ideas, but revisiting kind of that upcycling by going back to what I used to do, where I would cut up pieces of paper and include that in the pieces. Kind of a nod to backwards. Yeah, I feel like is kind of where I was going with it.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah, it sounds like you you had like a very, very important memory with your with your family with those. With that, uh yeah, yeah. That's really good. You are originally from Tobago. Do you see any influences that you have brought from your home country?

SPEAKER_00 13:43

We just kind of grew up in Tobago. It was kind of a second home. As far as influences, like I suppose the color palette that I used more of a vibrancy. I suppose that could be a connection. There were a few pieces that I was doing that had like flora involved in a lot of the pieces. Most of the time I'd be using kind of tropical flowers. But yeah, I haven't really delved into that much recently. So I suppose there could be a bit of a connection there, but haven't really given it much thought.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

And we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Yeah, we never think how we're influenced generally. You have indicated that you do not see yourself as an abstract painter online. Do you describe yourself as a realist painter? As I do, I really do not see sort of this. Really, like it just I mean, I see some of it, but then it's like, I don't know, your your hard edges is you is a unique sort of sort of technique with like how you're you're doing the models with their eyes covered. And and then you're like you said, your your palette is is definitely unique, and then your juxtapostapositions and everything, but I don't know, it's just I'm like, then well, I gotta find out what he's what he thinks he is then.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah, I mean, uh I would love to strive to be a realistic painter, but I feel like I've always kind of looked at artwork as there's always well, pretty much anything, there's always going to be somebody better than you. So I mean, when I when I look at being a realist painter, I feel like I'm as realist as I can be, to the point where I'll I'll drive myself mad. Like I could spend months on end trying to perfect the lips or the geometry of the face, and I feel like at some point I have to say, okay, like I'm done. And I find that's the hardest part is an art. And I've always tried to be as real as possible with my details, but I did start to incorporate some abstractions. I I enjoy abstract art. I can't do it because I feel like I'm too controlling when it comes to the artwork. Like you have abstract artists where it's more ebb and flow, whereas I feel like realist painting, you're very detailed and in control of all your lines and structure. So I started adding more structure to it. So I started adding some abstractions just so I could kind of pull myself away from that. And I actually started to find it was a bit more therapeutic because I found I wasn't so caught up with the structure of the work and the detail. And I found I could just kind of let go and say, okay, that's that's done. But it added kind of a certain element to the piece that uh raises more questions for the viewers, but it just to me is more so aesthetically pleasing. And again, it just adds more to the juxtaposition of the piece.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

But did it leave you like because you're you're more like you were saying, more into the structure of the sort of realist technique, but adding all that abstraction, did it leave you a little unsettled when you were done, kind of thing? Or did you get to that point where you were like, okay, no, this is okay, I like it.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

I I I did find I I was a little unsettled when I was first doing it. It just felt like it it wasn't it didn't come naturally, it felt like it was forced. So I felt like it took a few times before I said to myself, like, okay, I'm happy with this. But yeah, at the start, it was very scary as an artist to to spend months on end doing a piece and then just to take paint and smear it across and tell yourself that this is good. Yeah, so I I've I definitely found that that was more therapeutic towards myself than anything. And I felt like it just felt right.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yeah, you're getting comfortable with it.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

What medium do you find is the most challenging? And what medium do you find is the most rewarding? Are they the same medium?

SPEAKER_00 19:12

I know I'm gonna get stick over this, but I find oil painting is probably my Achilles heel. I've been trying to incorporate it more and more into daily practices in the studio, and I know there's gonna be a lot of oil painters out there going, what are you talking about? Oil painting is so easy. But I've I've used a lot of different mediums, oil not being one of them, so it's still very foreign to me, and I and like all artists, I'm learning as I go. But yeah, I've definitely done a few pieces lately where I'm incorporating more oil paints in just because I love how vibrant and the depth of oil paints, but primarily I just use acrylic just because it's comfortable. I also try and do a lot when I should actually be taking my time. So I'll be moving on from one color to another color, and if I'm using oil paints, I find stuff gets muddled. Whereas I find acrylic, it has a quicker drying time, so it allows me to kind of keep moving. But yeah, primarily acrylic. I will use acrylic sometimes as a base coat just to kind of get undertones, and then I'll use say whites or blacks in oil for highlights, just because I find they pop a lot more. But yeah, primarily it's just acrylic.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yeah, it's a nice fast drying medium. In one of your more recent Instagram sort of time-lapse reels, you are working on a portrait study where it resembles fragments of the person's face. What are your thoughts on removing or adding to a piece? Your works seem to do both. Can you expand on this?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Uh so kind of going back to the whole portraits and removing emotional connections. I find the fragments to me kind of resemble technology moving into more of a digital era. It's not your typical symbolism for technology or digital era or like a circuit board or something like that, but I feel like it's more. Hard edged. Yeah, so I find some of the new pieces that I've been doing. I again I just I feel like I'm kind of going back to early days with some of my pieces and adding to it, but yeah. That's kind of been the direction I've been going with the geometrics and pieces and fragments.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Well it's how your sort of your sort of practice is is developing, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Yeah, and again, it's one of those things that I kind of have been doing for so long, it feels comfortable, and I feel like straying away from it would be kind of shooting myself in the foot. It's kind of that identity that you work on.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Yeah, and persistence is ultimately the reward, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yep. And it all also the geometrics of fine, as you said, the the fragments. I feel like that that is also the emotional connection. It shows someone kind of broken up into pieces and and kind of what makes them who they are.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

And it brings that sort of futuristic element to each piece that I think will also connect with people that yeah, people that are interested in your work. You enjoy working with acrylic paint underneath your oil paints, as you were saying. How did this technique come about? Does this not lead to drying or pigment issues?

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Yeah, that that just kind of came about with my fear of oil paints. But my my ultimate respect for oil paints and oil painters. Again, I love the vibrancy and the depth that it brings to a piece. And I want to incorporate that. I want it to have more depth than it already has. So I find using acrylic just to kind of do the piece, and then oils as a highlight has worked for me in the past. And I know there are a few artists that will use acrylic washes to kind of get the tones for oil paints, and then they'll paint over them. I haven't had any issues with layering acrylics underneath oils. I know it's been kind of a used practice for years by other artists, but yeah, it it I find it extends your your cost of your paint. And I don't know that sounds kind of cheap as an artist, but I mean we've all been there where it's like, oh, I don't want to waste this $13 tube of oil paint completely painting a background. So I'll just use acrylic to get the bulk of it covered.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Yeah, well, no, you want to save money. Art materials are expensive.

SPEAKER_05 25:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Your art has been described as being inspired by things that are full of life and death. Does your media and colors show a dichotomy between them? And how do you see your unique portraiture as fitting amongst these two states?

SPEAKER_00 25:46

I mean, there there's a lot being said in the pieces without saying much. I I do again, I feel like the geometrics kind of show a persona broken up into fragments. And again, covering up the eyes kind of takes away that emotional connection, but it it kind of speaks for what you've taken away, if that makes sense. Yeah, I try and kind of leave it more neutral than speaking loudly, and I think that's where I kind of come in with the bold colors, is I try and use that to kind of convey emotion, I guess. Um, but yeah, as far as life and death, I mean that there's not too much that I try and go to those two extremes. I try and kind of stay neutral. Yeah. So it's uh I mean I have done some pieces where they have skulls in them with flowers. I suppose it could be misconstrued as death. I know there was one painting that I did, totem, where it was the woman that had the jawbone around her neck and arrows going through her, and that that was kind of a I was reading Season of the Witch, and that was kind of what that was inspired by. And that kind of came out in my artwork not on purpose, but it was definitely uh a fun direction to kind of play with.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah, and that must be how people have just decided, oh, it's life and death. That's it. We'll just describe it as that. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Being primarily a portrait artist means you do commissions, right? Sometimes that's you have been sharing several reels where you show your process from start to finish. What about the mystery behind being an artist? Is there another sort of value I'm not aware of?

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Um I I find people like to see that process, whether it be before and after or the process in between. I mean, if you were to show somebody a before and after of a painting, it'd be a blank canvas and then a finished canvas. But the the process between, I think, is what people are most intrigued by. But yeah, as far as commissions, the that's a tough one. With doing portraits, it's a quick way to make friends into enemies.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Oh, yeah. Yeah, never thought of it like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

I do I do do some commissions. I'm actually working on some proposals right now for a commission, but it's not too often. I find when you're getting asked to do commissions, they're very left field. And a lot of them are like, Can you paint my dog? It's like, well, I don't I don't paint pets. So yeah, I try and keep commissions to a minimum. Albeit I have had a lot of people say, like, oh, do me a commission, whatever you want to do in your style, just do these colors, which I'm okay with.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

And yeah, I guess that commission work is really sort of a difficult way of really sort of doing a business because people are very vague, right? They're not really, and then that is about it's about time and it's about okay, what it what monetary value are gonna put on things and materials, and yeah, it's being able to sort of nail someone down to all that is it's a bit tricky.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Yeah, and then trying to fit that in with your regular workflow and trying to kind of keep up with your own personal work, it really cuts into your time frame. But yeah, a lot of the times it's it is very vague. And and trying to get some sort of a reference photo that that I find is the biggest hurdle.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

And then lighting, right? Um lighting and shadows and and perspective, and just making, yeah, making sure everything's accurate or as accurate as you want it to be for what you're making, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Yeah, and that comes the whole realist artist part again. It's uh it's how much time do you want to spend on it?

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Well, we have actually reached the end of your questions for the podcast. So thank you for for being here today, Andy. Andy Kidmer.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

That is my pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

I love talking about art. Uh sort of the great, great to be part of the sort of the creativity in the city.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Yeah, it's it's been uh it's actually been quite a while since I've gotten back into Toronto. I I'm I think I'm due for doing some art crawls again.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Yeah, they are fun.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

All right. So thanks again, and uh maybe we will talk again in the future and uh see where your creativity takes you.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Of course. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

I'll get this off to you soon and remember to like, share, and c and comment. Humanoids. Talk to you soon. Okay, take take care. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

All right, bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

Join me next time as I go down another rabbit hole with another creative professional on their insights, their inspirations, and their ingenuity.