We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful KEVIN PERSAUD. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with KEVIN below.
KEVIN, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Currently working on my show What Kinda Brown Are You. It’s a show dealing with identity and double consciousness. As a person on the scale of melanin we’re met with the question almost every interaction. Sometimes our first instinct is to give a history lesson. But sometimes self identification doesn’t involve skin tone. The show involves several artists with a piece that speaks to how they self identify. We are all more things than just skin tone. The show allows artists to show up how they wish to be seen.
KEVIN, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Bronx born to immigrant parents. I was collecting letters of recommendation from my high school teachers for medical school before I won an award for a charcoal drawing. That’s when I decided to go to art school. I’ve changed school paths and career paths more than anyone I know. I was a teacher, a janitor, film student, I sold shoes… Eventually I found myself.
I recently started an organization called Cultural Mentorship for the Arts. It started as a way for artists to learn about llcs, intellectual property, how to build a portfolio and talk to galleries. The idea has since shifted to create workshops and classes for all of disenfranchised communities.
I went to school for Art but I never chased it until a few years ago, now with a show at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center and at the ENT center GOCA.
I was a handyman, welder, mine worker, call center employee…. I realized I didn’t want to destroy my body anymore, and that I needed and wanted a more fulfilling life. I was avoiding my true passions. Now I have a chance to give back to a community, to give kids and adults alike a chance I never received.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I was working in the mine I had some decent money. Eventually I chose to give myself a place to be creative by renting an art studio.
Being at the mine felt like penance. I was fulfilling my duties of paying bills and surviving. Destroying my body to be good at destroying my body. It was 12 hour days 14 days straight with a week off. It was a lesson in work life balance. On one of my days off I chose to chase a childhood dream of having a studio and painting. The day I moved in was also First Friday. I was immediately reminded of what I wanted. What my brain craved. Creativity and community was surrounding me.
Going back to the mine reminded me of how isolated I was both physically and mentally. Caught in the sun with dirt in my eyes and nose. All I had to keep me going was thoughts of paintings I was planning.
In the middle of the day while pushing pipes for the drill, I was inundated with high heat and wind. Then the clouds moved in and rained which quickly turned to snow. As beautiful and magnificent as nature can be in that span of 4 hours, it reminded me of knowing that being in that mine was a choice. That was the last hitch for me. I never went back.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
When an admirer of art stops me and says, what you created means something to me. I have a piece about emotional abuse I am healing from. It was never meant to be up in a gallery or a show. It was purely a piece for me that’s hung outside of my studio to take up wall space. In the span of a month I’ve had 2 people, one of which knocked on my studio door to talk and the other found me on Instagram. Both of which wanted to say thanks and to hear more about it. Knowing I created a piece of work that allowed others to feel seen and heard and not alone in the struggles they face is the most rewarding feeling I’ve ever received.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Robert Gray (main photo)