Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kevin Gentilcore. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kevin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
Overall I am happy as an artist and I do also have a day job as a graphic designer so in a related field. I do wish that my full-time job would be to make the art I want to make and have my career be on my terms and that’s something I’m striving for currently with my plans and goals.
There are times where I’ve wondered “why did I choose to be an artist” and not say, a lawyer or accountant, or something like that that is typically more secure and not so sporadic, or that has clearly defined societal and economic value associated with it. Especially on the more down days where the creativity isn’t flowing or I feel like people aren’t into what I do, and sometimes those funks last minutes, days, or even months.
What I’ve found is that when that happens I need to refill the creative well and change up my art and output. For instance I was doing comic illustration for over a decade but I grew away from it and it started to become more anxiety then fun so I shifted to more of an traditional single image illustrative approach.
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’ve been drawing and making art since I was in grade school. I started to take it more seriously in high school and then when I had to think about college I decided I wanted to do a trade/art school thing and ended up at the now defunct Art Institute of Colorado because they had a “media arts and animation” BA of Arts that I thought would be the way I could draw superheroes an monsters for a living, as opposed to graphic design, which is what the other schools I toured were offering. Funnily enough, my day job for the past 16 years has been as a graphic designer.
After college I bounced from design jobs and eventually wound up connecting with Will Tooker, an amazing writer and good friend and we started making comics together, for near a decade, if not longer. I particularly proud of what Will and I built with Creephouse Comics.
Currently I work as a graphic designer for a non-profit health organization. I continue to pursue my personal art projects outside of the 9 to 5, which more recently have been focused on my passion for music, particularly punk rock and heavy metal, as well as incorporating my other passions like veganism and fighting games.
: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Yes, my goal is to be a self-sustaining artists making a decent living that supports my family off of creative projects that are true to me and my values.
I love to share my passions and obsessions and I’m greatly inspired by music and books and video games so that has all been coalescing in my season of art making.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
These are something that doesn’t interest me. Aside from the considerable environmental impacts I take umbrage with the segmenting and intentional scarcity making of the whole thing. The influx of rampant capitalism into the art community and the overall assumption that if you aren’t on board with NFTs then you’re against artists making money is toxic. I choose to make art without NFT influence, and if it ends up actually being what all the supporters claim it to be I would rather just do something else creative.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.kgentilcore.com
- Instagram: @kevingentilcore