Paul Kimball

Name: Paul Kimball
Website: www.carelesshearts.com

What do you do?
I sing, play guitar, and write songs for the band Careless Hearts.

Where can we find your work?
You can find our recorded music in the digital music stores (iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc.) and in the cool local record shops, like On The Corner Music and Streetlight. But the best place to find our music is in the space right in front of the band during live performances, which we do frequently all over the Bay Area, and occasionally beyond.

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
Things getting tough IS what inspires me. When I am struggling in some situation, or wrestling with my own feelings about something, music and lyrics are usually how I attempt to sort it out. But it's also where I turn when I think I have solved something, and in those cases it's a desire to share any insight I think I have, to hopefully help other people feel a little less lonely while they sort out their own situations.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?
Content and finished product are more important. I know a lot of people who can play guitar with far greater skill than I can, but when they try to write a song they get hung up on a million little things and can never call a tune DONE. You just have to finish it, then start writing the next one. I had an art teacher who told our class that we would have to do 1,000 crappy drawings before we'd do our first good one, and I think it's the same with anything in the arts. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll get to the good stuff.

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
Maybe a bit surprisingly, but lately I've been really inspired by folks working in modern comedy, like Doug Stanhope, Marc Maron, and Louis CK. These guys are fearlessly digging deep into themselves, and they pull things out that others are bound to connect with because of the integrity with which it was harvested. I find myself trying harder to do the same under their influence.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Sherlock Holmes… Dude was just too badass. (Or maybe Buckaroo Banzai.)

When do you get your best ideas?
When I sit with pen or guitar in hand and actively ignore the voice in my head telling me how lame I am. When I successfully shut that voice down I can produce all sorts of interesting ideas.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
Notebooks of all shapes and sizes, the Voice Memos app on my iPhone, the beat-up guitar in the trunk of my car, the gorgeous Martin acoustic in my studio, and an old Mac running an old copy of Garageband.

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
A little of both. I studied some music in college, took my first guitar lessons at Blue Bear in SF, took voice classes for a while… Never had any discipline in any of it until I finally felt like I had something to say. But I learn more from playing with other people and by just throwing myself headlong into writing than I ever learned in school.

If your creative work was edible what would it taste like?
In my dreams, it would be as delicious as crawfish étouffée.

When you are not creating what do you like to do?
Shower the people I love with love. And I also really like to sit in my hammock in the shade and read.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?
I was one of the millions of kids whose lives was saved by punk rock. What keeps a lot of people from being creative is an assumption that you need sharp skills before you even start. Bands like the Minutemen revealed that for the bullshit it is, and helped me feel good about sucking in public. Do enough of that, eventually you stop sucking.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
Whatever you are doing to lower the stakes for yourself, stop doing those things as soon as you can. Get out in front of the people who scare you the most, and then pay close attention to whatever happens next. Chances are you're in much better shape than you think you are.

Kim Christman

Name: Kim Christman
Website: http://kimchristman.blogspot.com/

What do you do? I’m learning seamstressing in college, paint, draw and run an online vintage store called Condor Cave.

Where can we find your work? On my blah-g and I currently have an exhibit at Curl Up & Dye beauty parlour in San Francisco, see the flier. I have another coming up at On the Corner record store 11/18/2011 in Campbell CA.

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough? Women in roles is huge for me, be it fantasy or reality. Labeling or grouping of women “The facade of association” from witches to nuns, princesses to maids, etc. Persona, duty and the specific style of dress that goes along with it. Vulnerability, impending doom, confined spaces. I’m no raging feminist but certain subjects concerning women, historically and currently fascinate me. Endangered species, cult heroes, Egyptian art, catholic paraphernalia. The look in one’s eyes, what there saying or not saying have all had inspiration. Motivation is a car sometimes stalled on the side of a road, for me it sparks up suddenly and I must go with it at that time. It can be a combination of my love for the arts and being disenchanted with what’s going on in the world. The media puts a bad taste in my mouth, the modern portrayal of women in popular media is enough motivation for a lifetime. It’s fake and dehumanizing (they love it though) like a rat being hand fed cheese. If you don’t relate, you can’t sit and complain, get off your ass and do something different.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process? I feel all of it is important, from start to finish. Having the idea or concept and going through the process of formation. When I start with an idea, part of the motivation is to see the end result because it’s never really how I imagined it. The final interpretation is a special thing.

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you? Germ free adolescents, hard boiled Barbara Stanwyk, Raymond Pettibon, Egon Schiele, I’ve always absorbed art through music, film and styles of paint. The aesthetics of the expressionism era and Soviet art of propaganda are amongst my favorite.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be? I would be Medusa; she was an innocent curious girl who became a victim of circumstance and lived life under a curse. Kind of like me. I’d love to turn all kinds of assholes into stone and have the most beautiful head of snakes. I’d also love to be a Mermaid, they lived a much more carefree existence.

When do you get your best ideas? When I’m in a disconcerting state of mind is when I feel compelled to drive myself most. An undesirable yet enlightened force. Usually when I’m desperate; struggling to survive, the build up of poverty, hunger, longing and restlessness. That sort of energy has to be directed somewhere. I go through the motions with the art and it distracts me. When completed I feel a sense of rebirth and those trivial day to day stresses fade. I see beauty in most things, being in nature, colors and shapes, the changing of seasons all play an effect on my mood.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work? Acrylic, watercolor, gouache, chalk, variety of inks, pencils, fabric, recycled goods

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work? I’m self taught. I’ve never taken an art class, except in high school. It’s affected my work in positive and negative ways. I struggle with certain techniques. I never had a teacher tell me it was wrong or do it like this, which I’m grateful for, it’s influenced my art to come from a personal place. There are flaws, unevenness, that isn’t necessarily done on purpose, it’s how it comes out and that style is an interpretation of the piece, it fits into what I’m trying to convey, whatever it is. When it comes down to it, I believe above being self taught or educated, one must possess imagination and life experience, although kid’s art is the epitome of pure.

If your creative work was edible what would it taste like? Blood orange juice and vodka. A bloody screwdriver?

When you are not creating what do you like to do? I scheme on how to get out of this town. Travel or stay in, I know how boring. Relax, cook and escape through books, music and sleep. I whip it up once and awhile.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience? Frances Marin and I had a DJ night called Red Alert. I started out drawing/designing the fliers for it, the music we played had an influence on the art. I didn’t want to cheapen ourselves or disrespect the music by copying already made graphics (although out of laziness I did a time or two) no matter what though it was cut and paste, none of it was ever computer generated. It was a start that drove my desire.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures? Don’t make art for zen, well, do whatever zens you but from my experience creating can take it out of you. It can cause anxiety and takes time. If it’s in you, you won’t need advice, the desire will be present and you won’t have a choice really. Work hard! Keep a journal of ideas, turn your computer off.

Some want in Some want out

Kim Christman