Today we’d like to introduce you to Killamari.
Hi Killamari, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Well, my name is Killamari, my close friends call me Rod, and people who don’t know me mess it up and call me Ben, which is my last name. I’m a multi-disciplinary artist, with a love for sticker art, character design, noodles and cartoons. I create both digital and physical medium art, but my favorite medium would have to be spray paint. You have to move quickly with spray paint, so it’s a nice go go go feeling when you’re working with it. Walking home from school I would admire the graffiti on the walls, even though most of it was territory stuff and less about making art. Despite that, kid me thought it was mad cool. As a kid, I used to tag CKC709 around DC/VA/MD. I did that for a while but my letters are garbage so I switched my focus to characters. Painting characters is my comfort zone. I love painting murals but I got my start professionally as an illustrator. My first gig was a comic strip I worked on for a local paper in DC. I did all my inking digitally, in Adobe Flash, back when it was still called Flash. Weird tool of choice, but I was studying animation at the time, so I was really used to the software and its drawing tools, even though it was meant for motion graphics and stuff like that. I remember because I was creating the artwork digitally, the client thought that I wasn’t putting in the work like this dude really thought I just pushed a button and the computer did all the work. Lesson one, clients don’t know shit about art.
While I was studying animation, all my freelance work was in illustration. So towards the end of my degree, I decided I wanted to be an illustrator instead. But when I switched it up and decided to study illustration instead, I got my first gig in the animation industry. You gotta roll with the punches and take what comes your way sometimes. I continued working as a freelance illustrator while I worked at the animation studio. I spent the next 12 years working as an illustrator and animator, working my way up to character designer, and then character design director in my final years at the studio before moving onto the next thing. Character design was definitely my favorite part of the animation industry, and even in my personal work. I love coming up with characters and developing their personalities. Trying out different variations of a character, designing their props, and apparel, all that is really fun to me.
As cool as making cartoons can be, I definitely was getting itchy for some physical painting. I couldn’t tell you what year it was now, but at one point while I was working at the animation studio, I decided I wanted to get into murals as well. My first paid mural was at a pizza joint called Liberty Pizza. Def go check em out, the pies are great. I think that wall took a couple of weeks, with tons of help from friends, and I learned a lot from that first wall. 30 ish murals later, and I’m still learning something new, every time I do a wall. I just wrapped up a five story wall, with the homie Arah Kang, and I gotta say it’s the mural I’m most proud of. It’s one of the tallest walls I’ve done, I got to do it in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month (Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month), with a fellow Asian American artist, have it represent a Viet/Khmer character, which is my heritage, and get to take my wife and 2 daughters to see a wall with a character that looks like them. Representation is everything, and I’m so thankful to have been able to provide that for my girls, and to others.
Murals are dope, art is everything, and representation is everything.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I wouldn’t say it’s been a smooth road, but I’ve always had my hands in several pots so that I’m always able to be creative or involved with something creative in some way. I think even if one is lucky to be constantly busy with art or design work, it usually comes at the expense of health, time, and relationships in one way or another. Being an artist is a constant hustle and one of the hardest things one can choose to be. But no matter what we come back for more.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a multi-disciplinary artist so I think there’s various spaces that different people might know me from. For example, I’ve worked in the animation industry for 12 years, so some people know me from that space, although I think that most people who follow my art, actually don’t know that part about me cause I don’t really share it. I think what I’m most known for is my work with murals because it’s something you can literally run into while you’re out and about.
Murals are definitely my favorite form of art. My proudest mural is also one of my most recent murals. I had the opportunity to paint a large, five-story tall, female, half Vietnamese, half Khmer character on a building that you can see from the highway. What makes me so proud of it was I got to do it during AAPI Heritage month, and that I got to play a part in creating representation for my two girls.
I don’t know what sets me apart from other creatives but I know I got the dopest crew. Shout out to Lotus Eaters Club.
What’s next?
This is my first year in a looong time going freelance full-time. My goal is to make this work and be able to take care of my family without having to go back to a desk job. Big changes? Who out there wants to collab? Hit me up!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.killamari.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekillamari/
