Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Kendall James.
Brian, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born in Worms, Germany to a military family that continued to relocate across Kansas, Virginia, and Georgia. At the age of four, my parents noticed my drawing interest when I would use the kid’s menu to draw a portrait of our waiter/waitress on the blank side. From then on, art programs were always in the schools I attended. I loved these programs as they were a space to draw freely and learn new techniques. From pencils to watercolor and oil pastels to ink, I depicted my surroundings in many different mediums.
When I turned 10, I auditioned and was admitted to John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School. This enriching school, located in Augusta, Georgia, introduced me to symphonic and jazz band, piano, tap dancing, and stagecraft; all of which funneled back into my love of visual arts. By 14, I was introduced to graphic design and my art-making became much more analytical. Through Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS3, all traditional mediums could now be used with the click of a mouse at pixel precision. Suddenly, visual art became formless, expressible through both my gut and brain.
Today, I am a marketing designer by day and artist by night, with visual communication being the one constant between the two fields. As an alumnus of SCAD Atlanta at 25 years of age, the greatest lesson I have learned is to acknowledge who you are regardless of the implied rules of your career field(s). Creativity is when you are faced with the same problem as everyone else yet solve the answer differently. The problem we all face is how to make a living, and my solution is art and design, each one supplementing the other.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My current body of work consists of ink wash portraits of African-American men and women. These portraits are a commentary of neglected mental health and treatment within the black community. Yet, through acceptance and healing and despite societal disadvantages and internal divisions within our own community, the modern African-American’s growth potential is undeniable.
I begin with the loose structure of the brow and eye socket to establish the angle and direction of how the viewer will be engaged or dismissed by the subject. From here, I draw the essential facial features to distinguish a male or female, while aging him or her with sunken or wrinkled skin, indicating the length of life and experience. This phase is when I instill the subject’s state of mind. Rather than an expression that can come and go like emotions, a state of mind is fixed, pervasive, and ingrained. These states of mind come from the empathy of someone’s distress nearby or my persistent depressive disorder.
Prayer beads, a safety pin, and baldness are the motifs of normalized stigmas limiting society’s and our own perspective. The exaggerated prayer beads are the weight African-American shoulders are all expected to bear while balancing a fine line between the “angry black woman” or “thug.” The safety pin references the false sense of security behind the “left is right, and right is wrong” belief, meaning that if a black man pierces his right ear, he is now “suspect” to both men and women and a candidate for homophobia. Each subject is bald to embrace his or her true crown without inauthentic weaves or superficial waves masking the identity vital to self-acceptance and healing. From here, despite the background of society’s piercing scrutiny, the glimmer of black magic expands within and around us as these stigmas no longer limit who we can become.
Each portrait is drawn with a Japanese Sumi ink brush using a stroke weight and gesture similar to the Heian Period calligraphy. The period was a “golden age” when Japanese scribers began to acknowledge their own cultural identity and splinter from calligraphy’s Chinese roots. This medium is used to reflect the modern African-American’s effort to reinvent our own identity from the bitter roots of origin in America.
In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
I’m cautious to speak on behalf of such a broad community, so please take this subjectively. I think the biggest challenge facing artists today is to not compare to one another.
Not to be confused with learning from or challenging one another, but looking to your peer, who speaks in a similar visual language, without anxiety.
Being a minority that expands the majority’s conscious, we all have a uniqueness that should be supported, encouraged, and strengthened, so we express every conceivable facet of our modern society.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
People can view my work primarily on my website or Instagram at the moment. Support of my work can be done through purchase, collection and/or commission inquiries of course. Following my online presence and vocalizing support and encouragement will also go a long way to help me find my place in the artistic community.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1806 Garrison Plantation Drive
Marietta, Georgia 30060 - Website: briankendalljames.com
- Phone: 7068296418
- Email: briankendalljames@gmail.com
- Instagram: /briankendalljames
- Facebook: /briankendalljames
Image Credit:
Personal photo: LVNASA
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
