http://www.thadkellstadt.com/
Lady Bird and I sat down with Thad, our featured artist for the month of June. Below is a piece of our conversation. We were interested in Thad's work in general and also what he is up to for his Solo show here on June 1st (www.onestrangebird.com)
Growing up near a charming rustic town in Ohio, Thad Kellstadt jokes that his simple
farm upbringing has no impact on himself or his work today (but he digresses.) An
Ohio boy indulging in comics and skate boarding, he later went on to get his BFA in Pittsburgh
at the Art Institute. As of 2007, he now finds himself in Chicago with his wife Jesse
McLean, a video artist in Chicago. (http://jessemclean.com/)
TK: I took a break from painting last June. I was just needed to take a break from
painting. I stopped because it was just getting muddy. Everything I was making
sucked.
So I stopped. And I thought about it, and honestly while my wife and I were traveling
between Ohio and Pittsburg we had conversations about it. With those rides, it started
to change the way I made work. Those conversations with her were really helpful for looking at my process and changing it, making it more economical and easier. Cause who wants to waste paint
you know?
And that was really helpful. So when Nicole asked me to be in the show, I was ready
to make a new body of work. I agreed so it was inevitable that I needed to start
painting again. With taking a break and coming back I definitely use more of a plan
and thinking about it a lot more. Which sounds silly, because why wouldn’t you? But
in the past I would do a lot of things more....
AB: Off the cuff?
TK: Yeah and more working things out on canvas, which I do sometimes now too.
