Local stickers tell a story

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole,Wyoming - A man takes a step into a different dimension, from a dream world to the real world, and his dog follows.

That’s what’s happening (according to the artist) in the scene on a sticker I noticed on a buddy’s fridge three weeks ago.

The scene on the sticker is cosmic, and in it a gumby-like man is stretching his legs from some bright, landscape of shapes and colors to a balanced, black and white framework of patterns and strong lines. I invited the artist, Kevin Petersen, to stop by Planet JH offices to talk about his art a couple weeks ago.

As someone who passes hours pondering curved four-dimensional space-time (A.K.A. gravity), how people travel through it, and the metaphors it presents for other things in life, I wanted to meet the kid who drew the cosmic sticker.
After our interview, I read in the JH Daily that he was arrested for burgling cars in west Jackson. He never did let me interview him in jail, but the content of our first interview now seems more meaningful.

Petersen is a 19-year-old local kid who returned to Jackson last spring from his first year of art school in California. When I met him, I was a little surprised, expecting someone with his head in the clouds, but instead met a guy wearing a white button-down with a black t-shirt underneath, earrings, jeans and a businesslike, mature respect for himself.

When we spoke, he didn’t wax about dimensional reality, but spoke humbly and simply about his plans to be a professional artist some day.  He said that Cosmo and Sonar, the man and his dog, are like himself and a companion, “moving through different dimensions in space and time,” and he is working on a series about their inter-dimensional travels.
Petersen said the dimensions represent different emotional realities that he has faced, and overcome.

When Petersen finished his first year of art school last spring, he would have been a senior in high school, had he not stopped attending school regularly around the eighth grade.

Kevin’s father died when he was 14. He had been installing carpet a couple of years earlier when he slipped and cut his knee with a box-cutter. He got a bad staph infection and spent the next two years fighting, but eventually died.
Kevin started working, stopped attending school and dabbled with drugs. He had to step up to be the man of the family, but he was unfocused and overwhelmed by the chaotic emotional environment created for him.

But at 16 years old, he got serious and began working with a family friend, J.P. He spent two winter seasons, refinishing houses in Southern California with J.P.
During that time he was exposed to new cultures and new ideas, he said, and was inspired by the people there who were making things happen for themselves. He got serious about art, and took out a loan to attend art school, after earning his GED a year before his would-be graduation.

After his financing fell through last year, he returned home to work and save money, pay off school loans and figure out a way to get back into art school.
Kevin’s art reflects his story, he said, but without the darkness. The colorful world that Cosmo leaves is like the chaos that Kevin emerged from - a “dream world” he called it, and the black-and-white world is a more balanced reality. He said that he could have used dark imagery – like skulls or other trite negative symbols - to depict the chaos that he emerged from, but wanted to keep things bright.

 “A lot of people do like dark art,” Petersen said. “But even if there is all that behind my art, the reason I do such uplifting stuff is that’s the way I want to feel.”
And the bright colors also have appeal, he said. It catches people’s eyes and draws them to it. Since he hopesart will be his bread and butter someday, he’s already exploring its appeal.

But he'll have to wait until he can get another loan, which he hopes to have lined up by next fall, to attend art school in California or New York City.
In the meantime, his art evolves. He introduces metallic colors and raised 3D surfaces. Each piece is a great improvement on the last, and they all reflect hard work and ambition – something a young, creative artist needs. PJH
Peterson’s work hanging at Ciao Gallery, 1921 Moose-Wilson Road, and his stickers are available at the Boardroom.

Image: Cosmo and Sonar Entering Reality by Kevin Petersen. Original work hanging at Ciao Gallery or stickers available at the Boardroom.

PERMALINK:
Local stickers tell a story | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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