We were lucky to catch up with Kennis Baptiste recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kennis, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Looking back at my childhood, I’ve always been creative. Always excelling in my art classes. As a teen I applied and got excepted to a few of the top art High Schools in NYC. I ended up attending the High School of Art & Design for one year but decided to transfer to my local high school because of the long commute. My local high school was a five-minute walk compared to a 1-1/2-hour commute by bus and train from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

After graduating my local High School, I decided to pursue a degree in Electrical engineering. After graduating college, I returned to NYC and attained an Electrical Engineering position at the MTA.

After doing some soul searching, I realized that my creative spirit and the need to create kept calling me, especially when I was around other creative people. During that time, I started to pick up painting and drawing as a hobby to see if I still had it, and how far I can go with it. I started to explore my limited knowledge and experience from my art high school experience and continued my own studies in art history, painting, drawing, and art philosophy. Most of my original works were created in the traditional style of figurative drawings and paintings. The traditional stye of expression was amazing to see on all levels, but the work that I created did not speak to me. I eventually set out to find my own drawing and painting style that was totally unique and original. I started experimenting with different ways to capture movement and energy in paintings and drawings and eventually found my unique style of expression. I then dedicated my free time to evolve and master that unique style.

I eventually build a body of work, joined a few local art organizations, and established my own small art gallery. The Gallery project gave many local artists in my community an opportunity to show their work. The art organizations along with the gallery projects gave me an opportunity to network with the community, build friendships with a variety of local, academic, and professional visual artists.

Instead of taking the academic path of a visual artist, I decided to focus on educating myself on the fine arts. I started reading doing my own research and studies to enhance and development this creative style of expression. I’ve also had some great people, professional and academic artist in my circle that helped me advance my craftsmanship skills.

After creating a body of work, building my exhibition experience, and generating followers and collectors that appreciated the art works. I then decided to fully except this talent and pursue it as a part time passion/career, along with my engineering career. Juggling both careers is extremely challenging, but the joy of creating and the benefits it provided for my and the viewers, gives me the energy and determination to continue creating and advancing a passion to a career.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am originally from the Island of Grenada WI. I relocated to the US when I was eight years old. I grew up in Brooklyn NY during the 80s and 90’s. I’ve been an artist all my life, but the environment growing up in Brooklyn did not encourage the evolution of my creative talents. As an adult I was able to except and embrace the evolution my creative talents. I have been working in the Engineering industry for over twenty-five years and worked as a professional visual artist for over twenty years. My journey as a professional artist started back in 2000. I was lucky to be able to find my unique artistic style of expression and I’ve been dedicated to master it.
My work is primarily figurative paintings and drawings created with oils, acrylic, or mix media. The unique aspect of the drawings is to capture a subject where no lines intercept. It’s the unity of a line and solving a puzzle. Those puzzles can then be manipulated to represent different things. For example, creating a drawing that can produce a five in one painting. At this stage in my art career, I still cannot find another artist that’s creating this style of paintings and drawings.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

One of the most rewarding aspects of being creative is seeing and experiencing the different reaction my work brings to its viewers and happy clients. The positive feedback is one of the motivating factors that drives me to create. Knowing that my creations can inspire, make you feel a certain way, tell a story, and have a lasting emotional impact on its viewers, is a powerful thing. Its so powerful that its beyond the artist, it will continue to have an impact as long as it continues to exist.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

To help support artists our society will have to educate themselves about the value and the creative process of creating art. It’s important to respecting the value of the arts and the important benefits it has on our society. I believe that a creative piece of work represents the time and a part of the life of the artist. An artist is creating a timeless piece of artwork at the expense of his or her creative time and process in their lives. That time cannot be replaced or given back. By supporting artist, the society is retaining the value of the creative process along with adding and maintaining the value of the priceless creations an artist creates and the collectors possesses.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kennisbaptiste.com
• Instagram: @Kennisbb
• Facebook: Kennis Baptiste
• Linkedin: kennisbaptiste
• Twitter: @kennisbb
• Youtube: Kennis Baptiste

Image Credits
Cochrane Williams