Case Study: Kathrina Rupit
Artist Name: KinMx
Work: Street art
Links: www.kinmxart.com
Hi Kathrina, thanks so much for taking time to talk to us, to get started, we would love to find out a little bit more about you. How long have you been painting?
I have loved painting and drawing for as long as I have used crayons and spray paint.
Where did your creative practice start, did you study art at school? Has this been something you have always been interested in? Where did it all begin?
I didn’t go to art school, however I studied graphic design at an Arts University. Really it began much earlier when I was a hyperactive kid who loved painting, and then I grew into a rebel graffiti teenager, and from there kept growing into the mixed media medium I currently work in.
One of our favourite elements of your work is your technique of layering patterns and texture within the painting. We would love to find out a little bit more about what inspires you and this layering process?
I think my passion for layering comes from my early stencil work and graffiti, and is comprised of a mix of techniques that I’ve been exploring for many years. I’m very experimental with materials, and often find different things to add layers to my pieces.
Scale is often a factor in your work, creating large paintings and murals. Do you find the sense of scale when working that big liberating, or does it present its own set of challenges?
I love working on large scale artwork. Creating the big shapes requires using my whole body, and I really enjoy the process. It’s also really fun to drive big machines like cherry pickers and scissor lifts!
Do you work collaboratively and if so what is your favourite element of this?
Not generally, although I have collaborated with other artists in the past, including The Minaw Collective, but is not something that I do often. I do however love painting around other artists who are also working on their own pieces, I thrive off the sense of community spirit.
We love your bold use of colour, do you have a favourite colour pallet to work with or does this change depending on the portrait?
My favorite colours to work with are black, white, red and sepia, with a dash of fresh blue, although recently I’ve been experimenting with different colour pallets in the name of variety.
What are some of the challenges you work with and overcome when working outdoors and on a mural-size work, as opposed to painting in a studio or traditional gallery setting?
The weather can be challenging if it’s raining, windy or even extreme sunlight, but it really just affects the time it takes to finish it. It’s more liberating outdoors, and more intimate in the studio, and both are enjoyable.
Street art is arguably often seen as a socio-political statement, do you see any of this in your work? Are there certain contexts or messages that are emitted personally for you when you paint?
Yes, certainly, I paint what I perceive in the world around me and my experience of it. ‘The eye of the Nagual’, a witness of the world.
I used to try to portray all the natural and human made disasters happening around the world, as the injustice was filling my heart with anger and frustration, and at the time I thought the solution was to express it that feeling in my art. However as the years moved on, I realised that the key message I should be portraying in the face of all this adversity, was love.
Now I believe that bringing calm and serenity can inspire positive change far more effectively, as opposed to creating images of sadness, separation and disempowerment.
How did you find out about Noisily? Have you been in previous years?
Through friends, I haven’t been before and it totally surpassed my expectations. There was so much creativity in every corner of the woods, very inspiring!
We believe that being a live painter there is a certain degree of interactivity between you, the artists, and the festival-goers passing by. Did you have any magic moments with this year’s woodlanders?
Yeees! Love it! Completely! The people were so open and so happy, that was one of the most interesting live paintings I have ever done. The location was also great for a mural and people for passers by to engage throughout the process.
What was your favourite part of being a live painter for Noisily 2019?
The interaction with people!
Do you have any advice for budding young artists who want to get started in creative practices?
Do what you love the most, follow your heart, overcome any fears and doubts you may have, and trust the process.
What’s next for you? We would love to find out about any upcoming projects or what you have in the pipeline?
I have a solo exhibition in San Francisco at the First Amendment Gallery, and after that another exhibition at the Mexican Embassy in Ireland in August. I’m very excited about these projects. At the moment I’m travelling in Latin America to gain inspiration for these shows.
