Kevin, you discovered art early in your childhood. What was it that developed that passion for art?

 

I received a lot of encouragement as a child, which I think is essential. At first art was simply fun; as time went by it became something I could do well, then developed into a process of exploration, of giving visible form to what was in my mind. It gave me the ability to create a world of my own.

 

Why did you choose the medium that you did?

 

Oil was the medium taught me by my first painting teacher, Bill Martin. It's also the most versatile tangible medium known to me. There's a sensuous fluidity to oil that's very seductive, very rich; it's almost infinitely flexible. However I've found myself wanting to branch out into other media as well, particularly the three-dimensional. The medium I think in, so to speak, is drawing. I find it's vital to my well-being to do at least a little drawing every day.

 

I’m sure every artist would love to study art in Italy as you did. What were the circumstances that afforded you such an opportunity? What was your experience like?

 

In 1991 I was a painting student at San Francisco State. I had the good fortune to get into the overseas studies program of the California State University. I was among several students who had the chance to study through CSU at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. It was a real privilege to study there, and I learned a lot; but overseas study isn't all roses and chianti: it was a tough, academically demanding year. I really grew as an artist, changing my technique and my style.

 

How is it that you chose to be a commercial illustrator? And who do/did you illustrate for?

 

As an artist I must live by the skills I've developed over a lifetime, and this is a viable way to do that. My clients range from ad agencies to architectural designers to entertainment companies. I also take portrait commissions, which I enjoy quite a lot. Most recently I've been doing storyboards for a science fiction film.

 

What led you in the direction of visionary or imaginative art?

 

I was a child in the 1960s, so that period left a powerful imprint on my imagination. I've always loved the hallucinatory intensity of the popular art from that period, notably the album covers and concert posters, with their brilliantly-colored eclectic melding of forms and styles. At eleven, I saw a book on the works of Salvador Dali; they amazed and fascinated me. I was also very impressed by Maxfield Parrish, whose landscapes entranced me. I began to perceive that art could be about something deeper, an expression of spirit. At age 14, I  discovered the paintings of visionary artists Bill Martin and Gage Taylor, which fully opened my eyes to that possibility. This pursuit has been my passion ever since. 

 

What inspires you? Where do your ideas come from?

 

The best ideas come to me when I'm not looking for them, but just drawing in an open-ended,  stream-of-consciousness fashion: in short, when I'm doodling. Once I've come up with an idea that strikes me as worth painting, then it's a matter of putting it into a form that lets other people see clearly what I have in mind, which is a more deliberate and labor-intensive process.

 

Beauty inspires me: beauty of light, color, form and space. In my art, I prefer to concentrate on the beautiful and the transcendent; I'm not really interested in creating works that explore the dark side of human experience, although I acknowledge its existence. I want to create works that awaken spiritual longing, which are characterized by immanence and transcendence.

 

How is it that you developed your unique perspective system?

 

Many years ago I read a book entitled "The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher," by Bruno Ernst. From it I learned how Escher developed his system of cylindrical perspective projection, which he uses in prints like his lithograph "High and Low." I soon realized that one could extrapolate this to a spherical projection system. I was particularly taken by the idea of creating an image that would be immersive, that you would walk into and which would form your visual environment, projected on the surface of a sphere that immerses the spectator. You could say it was a primitive form of virtual reality, at any rate in its visual component.

 

Your globes are absolutely beautiful! What gave you such an idea? What are the globes made of?

 

Once I'd figured out how to make a spherical perspective system, there was nothing for it but to go ahead and create something  based on it. I didn't have the resources to create a walk-in spherical painting, so I turned the whole affair inside-out, making small globes with images projected on the outside rather than the inside. It's as though you've taken a person's field of view and turned it inside-out.

 

The globes are made of paperboard, which contrary to what one might suppose is quite solid and durable. Each one began its life as a standard globe of the moon, which I sanded and gessoed to create a ground for oils; it was a laborious process.

 

Since your artwork seems to involve mathematics, are you involved at all in sacred geometry?

 

I've never studied sacred geometry per se, but I am sympathetic to that way of looking at the world. I'm interested in geodesics, which involves the geometry of regular solids, which in turn are rich with instances of the golden mean and other numbers which are often traditionally regarded as having special significance. I also find fractals extremely interesting, although I haven't yet used them in my work.

 

Where do you see yourself going from here?

 

As I mentioned, I'd like to do some three-dimensional work, which I suppose would be sculpture. I'd like to design gardens, which to me are a form of sacred space. Right now I'm working on a geodesic form of my walk-in painting; it's really a kind of temple or shrine. Stained glass might make the best realization of this idea. I'd also like to do more work in film, including design and conceptual art as well as storyboarding. And I think it would be fun to make a graphic novel. So there are many directions in which I may go, and which comes first depends on my choices and on the opportunities that present themselves.

 

What advice can you give to fellow artists?

 

I feel it would be presumptuous of me to advise other artists what to do. When I find the answer to the vicissitudes of the creative life, I'll be sure to let people know!

 

If you were to paint an ideal vision of the future, what would it be like?

 

To me, an ideal future is one in which human technological society has achieved balance with the natural world, so that we're living in harmony with nature and with one another. I'm convinced this will involve optimum utilization of resources, and the application of Buckminster Fuller's "livingry not killingry" approach to technology. I also feel that a high degree of individual freedom is essential to a desirable future.

 

What would this look like? I imagine that visionary architectures will be among the artifacts that will help to transform our relationship with nature. A much higher standard of esthetics in the things we make would also be a sign of a more evolved civilization. I feel we need to respect the natural world of which we are an attribute, and that reverence for it will be manifest in the way we live our lives, in the things we make, and in the way we treat each other.  We have the potential to create a world far better than has ever been seen, or to wreck the biosphere while building a dystopian state that makes George Orwell look like an optimist. It's up to us.

 

To view more of Kevin Kihn's inspirational artwork, please visit his website: http://www.starfireart.com/.  If you would like to send him an email, his address is: kevin_2050@yahoo.com.