Artist Lecture - Kiel Johnson

Kiel Johnson is a drawer, videographer, illustrator, and sculptor from Kansas. He is often inspired by daily life. Hey would often work with wood and cardboard  before he became more known and received more money, his lack of finance only allowed him to get the cheapest materials. Sometime his drawings/illustrations would inspire him to make a sculpture out of them, such as the printing press sculpture he made. Most of his work is neutral color, black and white drawings and the brown color of the cardboard, never painting the cardboard except for the letters and masks. Only a few of his works that he showed during the lecture have color. He also did television commercial work and posters for Sundance Film Festival.  He even did work for a music video by making robot costumes out of cardboard. Then he moved onto working with kids, making card board art and having them paint upon cardboard. What seemed to be one of his biggest on going project for him was the making of miniature cities. He would make it out various materials, but most of the cities were made out of paint and paper. He did one on his own, which was feature in TED show but got so much recognition for it that other cities wanted him to come do a workshop in their city doing the same thing, but having the community involved, making their own version. The final artwork he talked about was his 3D cardboard letters cutouts and he would paint them different colors. He also made this into a workshop as well getting people in the community to make their own unique letter.

Overall, I like his presentation. He was very relaxed and not boring at all. He spoke with good flow, without too many stumbles when talking. He was passionate about his work and was enthusiastic to share his work with the school. He gave good advice, to always say yes to a project, for even if it's not a high paying job it may lead to bigger things, and having experience is important. He was easy to listen too, not monotone, and the way he presented his work was very organized and altogether great. I just felt sorry for him when he was showing his videos, he wanted to sit down, and instead of receiving a chair for him to sit on he had to sit on the stage and get back again and again.