We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James Kanfoush a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

James, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was a child. It all started when I was 3-4 years old. My Mom said I was able to pick up crayons and pencils and start to draw. I have a brother and three sisters, none of them can draw. Neither of my parents can draw. I knew then that I must have been blessed with this extraordinary talent. I started drawing everything and anything that interests me, which was just about everything. I was also reading comic books and watching tons of TV and movies, and i began to form my own creative thoughts and found out I could think of something from my imagination and was quickly able to draw what I saw in my mind’s eye.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began drawing and creating things at a very early age. I had no formal training or influence from anyone when I began drawing and sketching. From my earliest childhood memories, everyone called me an artist? I would read comic books and watch TV and movies while growing up and I began to redraw the comic books heroes and started making my own comics. I created all of my friends at an early age and drew them the entire time from grade school until high school. If I drew someone, everyone in the school knew who it was. I did not even try that hard, I just let my talent take me away and I loved watching other people enjoy the art that I created, whether it was serious illustrations, paintings and cartoons. It always felt like someone or something else was controlling my hand when I began to sketch and draw. I still feel that way and I am almost 60 years old. I am a self taught artist. I went to college on a baseball scholarship and turned down numerous art school scholarships. The college that I attended di not have an Art major, so I took liberal arts and business and psychology and theology. I somehow knew that i would always be an artist, even if I did not attend any art schools. Later in life at the age of 33, I lost the full time job I had and decided to take art classes and go back to art school to get an art degree. I am now a full time artist during the day and the other time I am a caricaturist. I also started a TV show at my local TV station. I perform live caricatures of guests on the show and talk about what it means to create art in this way as well as other forms of media such as painting and playing guitar. My son and I have started a new comic book hero for the new age which I am illustrating!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Society would be lost without truly creative people.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I feel at one with other people, the world and nature when I am creating artwork. I feel at peace and I feel accomplished and satisfied when the client loves the artwork.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jimmykanfoush.com
• Instagram: jimmykanfoush
• Facebook: Designs By Foush / Jimmy Kanfoush
• Twitter: @JimmyKanfoush
• Youtube: @kanfoush1 or Jimmy Kanfoush
• TikTok: @jimmykanfoush21

Image Credits
Artwork created by Jimmy Kanfoush