If you’ve been to our house, then you know that Samantha, our fifteen month old daughter, has the best art collection of the family.  Her room explodes with energy from the numerous paintings that hang on the walls.  Two of our favorite paintings in Samantha’s room are by Kelsey Brookes.  And the reason why we love them so much is because there’s a spiritual quality to them that reminds us of being back in India.  Kelsey’s paintings make you feel good, and we want Samantha to wake up to this positive energy each and every day. 

Recently Sara and I wanted to learn more about Kelsey so we asked him to give us some Q’s to our A’s.

Enjoy:

Age: 30
Hometown: Denver Colorado
Where do you now live?: San Diego California
Where would you most like to live? Inside of a wave
Who was your first “hero” in life?: The first hero in my artistic life was Picasso followed closely by Basquiat. In my life outside of art my parents were and still are.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Surf
What is your favorite color?: I have 8 favorite colors right now! they look like this

Who (or what) do you love?: Love its self, Curiosity and Creativity.
Who and/or what are some of your influences? I am constantly surprised by and absolutely enthralled with Hindu art especially from Tibet.  I love the art of Heinrich Kley and I love quilts. Giuseppe Arcimboldo‘s paintings are a continued source of amazement. Traveling, surfing and hallucinations too.

Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?

There are so many and for so many different reasons. Here is the incomplete short list; Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Heinrich Kley (as I have already mentioned but they deserve a second mention I think). Indian and Tibetan folk artists, Quilt makers from around the world, CocoRosi, Folkert De Jong, Raquib Shaw, Andre Ethier, Swoon, Dave Choe, Antony Micallef, Paul Insect, Banksy, Andrew Schoultz, Lister, Kill Pixie, Faile, Maya Hayuk, Os Gemeos, Clayton Brothers, Yang Shaobin, Aurel Schmidt, Gee Vaucher, Alex Grey and so many more.

Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?

Figurative art depicting various forms of the human body deconstructed and loosely put back together using animal parts surrounded by psychedelic and spiritual patterns,
animals and colors.  Do blind people get visual hallucinations?  The art would be way easier to explain if they did.

Wooster: What other talent would most like to have? Mediation and Music

Wooster: What do you fear the most?

Losing my mind

Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?

Losing my mind

 

Notes on Creaton:

Everything in the universe comes from something more fundamental than it self, united with accident and out of this union creation and novelty are born.

As a crow is attracted to shiny and colorful items it finds in its environment our human consciences can work in a similar fashion. As I sift though my environment separating artifacts of beauty from the ordinary, these relics settle into my unconscious. They dance within my subconscious as they freely associate with one another and through a combination of recollection and accident, they migrate once again back into my active conscious when I paint. Painting is the spark that my unconscious needs to liberate its new patterns. Random and seemingly thoughtless marks are visualized as animals and matter, all that is left to do is place the paint where it asks to be placed. I am a crow adhering to the universal laws of nature.

Notes on Conscientious and Painting:

Conscientious has 2 states of being in this world, aware and unaware.  Awareness is the state you are in at the moment if you are reading this unaware is what you were before and what you will be after you are aware.  These paintings represent
the only exception to that rule. Creation exists beyond the scope of physical parameters and universal constants, unseen by tangibility and rationality. A place where rules are fluid and dynamic, forever changing in accordance to the unknown.
These paintings are a product of this place this limbo between 2 worlds. When I close my eyes these paintings are what I see.

Notes on Introspective Conscientious:

Introspective Conscientious is the humans minds evolved ability to take images from the real world pull them into there minds, divide them into parts and start turning those parties into abstractions.  Was art born when Introspective Conscientious
was evolved?

You can see more of Kelsey’s work on his website.