Jon Beinart - "What motivates you as an artist Laurie?"

Laurie Lipton - "Ever since I was a little girl, I had the desire to draw. I don't know why. It's an urge, a need. I'm happiest when I'm sitting at my drawing table. The rest of life seems like an annoying interruption. I would gladly just draw and never go out or talk to anyone… but I'm afraid I might disappear up my own whatsit. What a horrible way to go!"

Jon - "Is there something in particular that you aim to communicate with these drawings? Are the themes you explore very personal to you?"

Laurie - "I grew up in the clean & cozy suburbs of New York in the 1950's and 60's. Everything was perfect. Everyone was perfect. I was a perfectly lovely, cute little girl. What the hell was I supposed to do with the swirling mass of anti-Disney feeling careening in my guts? How was I supposed to cope with fear and rage and all the other negative human emotions? If I hadn't found a way of letting out the horror, it would have consumed me from the inside out.

My parents were very proud of my work. They thought I was a child prodigy, a genius. They used to show my artwork at family gatherings. I'll never forget the faces of my aunts & uncles when they looked from me to my drawings! The look of confusion and suspicion…. I was a cherubic child and my imagery was brutal and bloody. One of the great things about my parents was that they never censored me. I was always encouraged to do exactly what I wanted art-wise. In everything else I had to be polite and obedient. Perhaps that's why my imagery is savage but my technique is extremely controlled?"

Jon - "Your technique is remarkably controlled and I assume that each drawing takes a phenomenal amount of patience (and obsession) to complete. I hate to ask you this as I'm sure you have answered this question a thousand times before, but approximately how long does one of your images take to complete? Do you get frustrated when putting so much time and energy into one piece of paper?"

Laurie - "If I sit down in front of a ginormous piece of paper and say, "Okay…. this is going to take me 3 months to complete if I work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week", I think I would just stare at it in despair and not begin. They take as long as they take. It's not the finished drawing but the process that interests me. In fact, once a drawing is "complete", I immediately lose interest in it. People ask me how I can bear to sell something that took so much time and effort. I reply, "It's the NEXT one that's going to be amazing!"

I set impossible tasks for myself; a thousand faces, a city with every window showing, a landscape with each blade of grass……… if I were aware of the time it took, I really wouldn't bother to put myself through it. I'm not a masochist. I approach each drawing with a "Wow! Can I?" feel, and damn the time and consequences. So….. when people ask, as they inevitably do, how long a drawing took me, I lie to them and make up a number. I really have no idea."

Jon - "Yes, I can certainly relate, which is why I cringed when I asked the question. (Although I believe you could fit one of my whole drawings in a blade of grass hidden in one of those ginormous pieces of paper you use). It's wonderful to hear that you approach each new drawing with such enthusiasm. Do you do a lot of planning before a drawing? How much of your process is playful and intuitive?"

Laurie - "While I am sitting doing all those blades of grass, or thousands of faces, images flit through my head. I keep a notebook by my drawing table, or with me when I go out, and I write down images. Yes… write them. They appear in words first: a title or a sentence that encapsulates an idea. Then I do a rough sketch. Then I revise it. Sometimes I play with the composition for weeks. Then I cut my paper and plot out the general idea; i.e. a woman standing in a room. Then I work on the face. The face takes me to the clothing. The clothing takes me to the room, the room takes me to the walls, the floor…and suddenly the drawing is off on it's own and all the plans I had start to shift & change. The deeper I go into the details, the more the sense emerges. It's as if I start with a fuzzy image and it starts to get sharper and sharper until I think, "Oh yes! THAT'S what it's about!" Then I go back over the whole thing and tie it all together, bit-by-bit, centimeter-by-centimeter.

So…. my work is planned but spontaneous at the same time."

Jon - "I’m sure you have received a lot of positive feedback from people who have been blown away by your work and I'm sure people have been distressed and even disturbed by your drawings (I know this happens because of the reaction I have personally witnessed when showing people 'Love Bite' in Metamorphosis). Has anyone ever been so disturbed by one of your images that they felt the need to take it up with you? Has your work ever been censored?"

Laurie - "Actually, my work wasn't "approved" of from the very beginning. My parents loved it, but all of my art teachers tried to discourage me. At my university, my first one woman show elicited an article in the school newspaper saying that figurative work went out in the Middle Ages and "shouldn't be allowed". I recently won a competition on the Saatchi Gallery art website, beating around 4,000 other artists. There was a Blog by the other artists saying that my work was the worst they've ever seen….. mind you, that was probably just sour grapes. I really don't care about other people's opinions of my work. It's lovely receiving compliments, but if people are disturbed, upset or turned-off by what I do, that's their problem. I'm doing these drawings because I must. If I could paint pretty, innocuous pictures and make a fortune, I would do it like a shot! (Just joking)."

Jon - "I have to admit, I find many of your images amusing. I think we share the same deranged sense of humor. Does humor play an important role in your art?"

Laurie - "Yes, Jon, it's major. The one thing I remember the most about my family gatherings was the laughter. We really cracked each other up with our gallows humor. When my mother was dying and I was alone with her in the hospice, we laughed a lot. That sounds odd, but we found life absurd to the point of ridiculousness. It is, isn't it, Jon? Life is surreal…. in a Monty Python kind of way.

I hide jokes in my drawings. I amuse myself with silly innuendoes. I did a show a few years back on "The Day of the Dead" and a lot of the images I came up with really made me laugh. "Family Reunion" and "Lady Death" spring to mind. They just struck me as funny. "Normal" people are not amused, I guess. Do you know any normal people? I've run into a few and they frightened the hell out of me."

Jon - "I couldn't agree with you more Laurie. Life is completely absurd and wonderfully Monty Python like. It's beautiful that you shared that tight bond with your mother up until her passing. Nothing is more bonding than laughter. I'm not sure if normal people exist Laurie. I think the people that appear to be normal are repressed weirdos, but yes. They are scary! Do you have any spiritual beliefs? And if so, do they have an impact on your creativity?"

Laurie - "Ever since I was a child I've been searching for God. This is strange as both my parents were staunch atheists. It may have started in a museum. My father took my brother & me to art museums every Sunday to give my mother some time to herself. I saw religious paintings of Saints and martyrs and spiritual ecstasy and it piqued my curiosity. I asked my mother if I could go to Saturday School (being Jewish, our religious studies were on Saturday in Temples). She was horrified but agreed. The classes were extremely boring…. all about exoduses and tribes and laws…. so I decided to do some research on my own.

After all this time and all my research I've come to the conclusion that I know nothing. Life is huge and marvelous and filled with wondrous, unimaginable things. Quantum physics is uncovering vast anomalies in our perception of reality. "Reality" is an illusion. What is possible? What does the universe hold? I really have no idea, but I'm willing to try to remain open to it all and to retain my sense of awe and wonder."

Jon - "Thank you Laurie. I really enjoyed getting inside your head and I am sure our readers will too. What exciting news is there for you in the future? Any upcoming exhibitions or publications? Do you plan to publish a book of your works any time in the near future?"

Laurie - "I would LOVE to publish a book on my work.

I've just joined the Strychnin Gallery and have a group show in New York on July 27th - August 31st. I also have a show in Madrid that starts on Oct.15th t- Nov. 3rd. I have works currently in the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore until Sept. and am in a touring group show called, "Fellow Travelers", curated by James Lawler, that is going around Denmark, Holland and Iceland throughout the year. You can see all my upcoming shows on my website: Just click on the NEWS section."

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Jon Beinart - "What inspires you to create art?"

Kris Kuksi - "What inspires me to create art is finding those things in life that should be brought to our attention, like that of politics, war, famine, discrimination, or just unnoticed beauty and bringing them to life in art."

Jon Beinart - "When you create one of your paintings, drawings or sculptures do you plan to communicate a particular message from the outset or does one occur to you as you work intuitively? Also, do you plan your compositions before a beginning piece? I'm interested in hearing about your creative process in general."

Kris Kuksi - "The overall layout is always planned ahead of time, but the small intricate things are improvised as I go. The ideas mostly are there before I begin but sometimes the subject comes together after a lot of work has already taken place. In the sculptures, there are certain rules. There has to be an axis in which all things follow, meaning if there are organic items (the objects representative of living things), follow their own free form axis. Meaning they can be titled or reclining. But any structural effects such as building or trusses, must be parallel and level. A good example of this is "The Decision", the figure follows it's own free form, reclining in a half circular fashion. But the objects seen in the torso area are all upright and level. Any smaller organic figures are also free of this axis."

Jon Beinart - "What is your favorite medium to work in and why? I am also curious to find out which medium has been best received by the public."

Kris Kuksi - "The sculptures for sure. They are a hit right now. And I enjoy doing them more than painting or drawing. Painting is a struggle for me which is good, we all need that. But intuitively I'm a builder and the sculptures satisfy that need."

Jon Beinart - "I have noticed you get a lot of feedback on DeviantArt and other web based communities. I have also noticed your work popping up all over the web, in Art Publications and group exhibitions. I have enjoyed watching the Kuksi craze spread like a disease ;) and I feel especially proud to own one of your original drawings. What kind of feedback have you received from from this recent explosion of successes? I am particularly interested to hear of any negative feedback you have received or controversy sparked by your works."

Kris Kuksi - "Oh, some of the political things I've done piss the conservatives off like I said before. But with that aside I've enjoyed the comments and there seems to be a consistent appreciation for the time spent in these works.

I'm very self-critical and never pat myself on the back, never. I accomplish things very well but I never spend too much time enjoying it. I have to do more, I think that it must be for a grand pinnacle somewhere that I will be at. Maybe it is only to inspire people to change things in this world. Money is nice and it helps to do the next big thing, but I do this out of selfless motives. I'm proud of the work but I know that I always have to continue making it and getting better. I'm in a prison so to speak, I am one who won't enjoy a nice married life with children. I won't enjoy a relaxing vacation in the Bahamas. I have to be getting this stuff out. I'd say I'm like the old cliché of walking the fine line of madness.

So it is very very nice to see the comments and praise and it helps to keep going through rough times.

So that is my rant."

Jon Beinart - Has politics always been a major theme in your work or has it grown since Bush came into power? I noticed your recent drawing of George bush (and must commend you on how striking and powerful the image is). I've also noticed that war has been a recurring theme in your sculptures. Are you very concerned about the future of the world? Is this something that keeps you up at night?"

Kris Kuksi - "Yes, I've gotten a lot more political since Bush has been in office. I'm concerned about it because of what the rest of the world thinks about Americans. I guess I want to let people of other cultures that not all Americans follow Bush's foot steps so blindly. War is something I am always fascinated with, and it has been a part of human history from early man. I like to probe into this aspect of psychology, and the irrational motives we have that create it. Aggression is something that isn't exactly inborn in us, but learned. We teach our children to hate and have biases towards other humans of differing beliefs and religions. In turn, it is loyalty that drives one to fight a war.

So here is the future upon us, war is present more than ever. The climate is fragile and changing rapidly. What happens in say 50 years? Scary to think about."

Jon Beinart - "I noticed an artwork in your DeviantArt gallery titled 'the complete Zodiac' and wondered if you have an particular interest in astrology or the occult?"

Kris Kuksi - "I do to some degree.  I fit what a Pisces is though I have many of the qualities of Aqaurius as well, being my rising and moon sign.  I think there is something to it, though I have more interest in numerlogy.  That I have found is more precise.  That is probably the extent of my interest in the occult, not really into Satan worship either."

Jon Beinart - "On a much lighter note. Does humor play a big part in your art? I may be wrong, but I interpret some of your works as dark satire. Perhaps I am just sick ;)"

Kris Kuksi - "Yes, dark satire is a perfect way to describe it. I tend to have a dark sense of humor when it comes to life. So many things are dark in our times, it is no wonder so much art is reflecting this. In fact we tend to make fun of how awful things are. But humor is a great way to expose something without coming across as crass."

Jon Beinart - "So what happening next in the world of Kuksi? Do you have any upcoming shows? Please do tell."

Kris Kuksi - "I plan to do a book for next year, complete with my broad range of work but also an autobiographical publication. As for exhibits later this year, there are a few art fairs I hope to be involved in that are in Europe, as well as solo show at the Strychnin gallery in October in Berlin. I have a few ideas for large scale work, so those will most likely manifest in the coming months."

Kris Kuksi's Gallery

Kris Kuksi is one of 50 artists featured in out first art book: Metamorphosis.

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