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Friday, December 7, 2012

Interview I: Patrick Kelly


     Patrick Kelly, a Portland, Oregon based artist, utilizes traditional artist’s tools in innovative ways, creating artworks that blend the definition of mediums, defying categorization, and producing works that are beautiful and enigmatic. He has also worked with coffee for five years, and now bases his craft drink talents out of the Stumptown Coffee Roasters on SW Stark Street in Portland.
            Of his long-term projects, one prominent series is Carbon Traces, which he has been working with for around three years. These works are drawings, but also undeniably sculptural, based in abstract forms he hand-cuts, the contours of which he meticulously traces in pencil, moving the form ever so slightly and repeating the trace to create large-scale works. This laborious task often takes place over the span of several months before completion.



      Patrick aptly articulates of his Carbon Traces that they “[transform] notions of what the pencil can end up doing. And then there is the problem of how to define it… They’re drawings, but they don’t necessarily behave like traditional drawings.” Therein lies some of the magic of his art; the subtle movement during his painstaking tracing of the cut-outs is palpable, and the reward of his patient process is evident as the light plays against the detailed surface and is reflected and absorbed by the graphite, lending a three-dimensional element to this sort of drawing-sculpture.
            Patrick’s undergraduate education at East Carolina University focused on creating 2D art, but while working on his Master’s at The George Washington University he moved toward a comprehensive background in contemporary art and creating 3D works. For his 3D paper arts, Patrick uses a similar method of tracing, repeating shapes cut from paper. Although this technique is not new in his artistic repertoire, the book is his latest medium.


      He came to the book form through discussions with friends, and from a visit to an event at Portland's Publication Studio (PS), an independent publishing house printing innovative books of art, literature, and philosophy, on demand. His art needed a form that allowed for multiple points of view; realizing the sculptures he was making consisted of pages, he proposed the concept to PS, who immediately and enthusiastically agreed to take on the project of binding and publishing his book. The book form is unique to his work, which he named Aionios, after the Greek word “everlasting.” The completion of Aionios was also a fruitful opportunity for him to collaborate with others, since the work he does in his studio is, for the most part, “somewhat reclusive.”
            The book became the ideal format for his previously static sculptures, since the “reader” can start at any point, reverse, or go forward, reducing visual constraints and eliminating the need for a beginning and end. This has also changed how he thinks about his sculptures. “I wouldn’t go back to static [sculpture] now that I’ve defined [the works as having] pages, as being part of a book,” he explains. This medium of sculpture-book has complicated the identity of his works, deepening the demand from the reader, not only because of its myriad views, but also for being, as books should be, a physical object to touch and engage with in a tactile way. This interactive quality of book form connects the paper-cuts to the human world, lending it an element of ephemerality that is curiously complimentary to its name, Aionios, which implies the infinite.


            The reconciliation between Patrick’s job as a barista and his artists’ life is moving, for it is absolute. “Thank God my job is very social,” he grins, “otherwise there’s no knowing what would happen to me.” He finds the relationships he has with the people he interacts with on a daily basis rewarding. Working with coffee itself also suits him, “at heart I think I’m definitely a craftsman. To make something and present it to people, I definitely enjoy that.” His favorite drink to make? A cappuccino, of course, served in the traditional 5.5oz cup. 
            Patrick recognizes and appreciates the balance between his socially-oriented trade and the focused isolation required in his methodical and meticulous artistic practice. His studio is a space he has come to find necessary for his art, a place that’s quiet and where he can exclude outside distractions and obligations, regularly opting for headphones to make the dedication to this time one of admirable fidelity.  


            The studio itself is charismatic, hosting just the right amount of chaos. The floor is home to paper cut-outs from Aionios, as well as several glass Lurisia water bottles, duct tape, glue, bits of sculpture, and a rock. The two table surfaces host a menagerie of miscellany from a small paper cup stamped with the Stumptown logo and a tiny press pot, to various rulers and measuring devices, to a pho bowl filled with pencil shavings. Bringing notice to the crumbly white brick wall at one end of the space he says, “the studio is sort of like a living, breathing thing,” which seems appropriate, given that his artworks, whether static drawings or multifaceted books, contain hints of the life and movement behind their creation.
           A party to celebrate the release of Aionios will be hosted at Publication Studio this Friday, May 25, 2012 at approximately 7/8pm. Featured will be a hands-on copy of the book, and excellent company. Stop by: 717 SW Ankeny St. Portland, OR, USA
            Patrick’s recommended artist list: MK Guth (multidisciplinary arts, Portland, OR), Amanda Manitach (drawing and video arts, Seattle, WA), Jen Stark (paper arts, Miami, FL)
Click images to enlarge, photos by the lovely and talented Destiny Lane