GLAS VISIONARIES

With roots in art, photography, board riding and filmmaking, the Southern California brand Glas Apparel has been fun to work with over the years. Recently they interviewed me as part of their Visionaries page.

What drew you to Glas?

I’ve been an obsessed camera collector for years and love to make art with cameras in it for CameraLuv, so when I ran across the Glas “16mm” tee way back in 2008, along with some of their other cool hand-drawn tees, I knew these guys would be cool collaborators, because they love cameras and waves as much or more than me.

What pieces did you create for glas and what was the inspiration for those pieces?

I’ve worked on a bunch of tees over the years and my own camera collection has been the biggest inspiration for most of my work for Glas. The cameras, the shutters and components all combined with patterns and textures and anything hand-drawn make for some fun stuff.

When did you decide to become an artist?

I knew from a young age I wanted to be an astronaut or an artist. Around 4th grade, my hopes for space travel were dashed when I realized I inherited my dad’s bad eyesight, needed thick glasses and probably couldn’t be a pilot … so ... art it was. I always remember drawing and I learned how to airbrush and paint with watercolors and inks and learned how to screenprint in high school. I didn’t know how to make an art career happen until I heard out about "graphic design" from art school brochures from SCAD and Ringling College. With design, I realized I could do it all and use my drawings, photography and other art in my designs. I didn’t really even use computers in high school, but I knew graphic design or industrial design was what I wanted to do. I was working at a surfshop in high school and whenever I wasn’t surfing, longboarding, or wakeboarding, I was probably working on my art portfolio. It actually was a bit of a joke to some of the more unmotivated upperclassmen in my high school art classes, that I wouldn’t be partying with them, I’d be working on my portfolio. I got in, they didn’t.

Where did you train?

After graduation, I stuck around my hometown working, surfing and got an AA to knock out my prerequisites and took all the art classes I could from my community college and then I transferred down to Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL to get a degree in Graphic and Interactive communication with a minor in photography.

How did your training influence you?

I really learned a lot from professors and my classmates in all majors at Ringling. I worked like crazy trying to push myself and our group of friends. Everyone was an artist around me so it was really cool to see what everyone was doing by day in class, and by night in the labs, studios and around campus. A bunch of my friends now work in the movie industry doing animation for sony, pixar and all that stuff. It was inspiring that they were creating whole worlds etc…

Where do you get your ideas?

They come from all around. You don’t know what will strike you and each project has it’s own needs. It’s the old signage on the street, it’s the sunset, it’s the way the tide has pushed in the driftwood, the line of that new Audi car ...you just never know.

I mentioned earlier liking to collect cameras, but I also collect all kinds of cool print ephemera or vintage skateboards… I’ve got a bunch of flat files in the studio full of random cards, tags, letterpress stuff and posters.

I guess I'll have to admit I also have a little bit of an obsession with Pinterest as well. I’ve pretty much run out of room for my cameras, so I’m filling up pinboards instead. I think it kind of satiates my appetite for collecting random stuff, without the clutter. You can waste a bunch of time here: (pinterest.com/cameraluv).

What artist or artists inspired you?

I’m inspired by those who seem to have way more time to draw than myself. Artists, designers, letterers … people like Joshua Noom, Mark Tesi, Jon Contino, Jackson Chandler, Jen Mussari, Jessica Hische, Dana Tanamachi, DKNG, Anne Benjamin and so many more are doing great work.

Is there symbolic imagery in your work?

Not really. But hopefully I leave a little stamp of myself into everything i do. I used to design magazines and books a lot, and would hide stuff in the gutters or illustrations all the time. I always try to find a connection to the work i’m doing so that I can learn something and grow from it no matter what it is. It’s always cool to take something that was just an idea, a few words or just a word doc from a client and turn it into something visual and something people want to keep.

What medium do you use and how did you decide on this?

I pretty much use all the mediums at different times. I’m on the computer probably more than I used to be, but for Glas stuff I’ll use pencil, pen and ink, and a little paint and the most recent batch of tees some of my photography was mixed in. If I’m doing a camera or something I’ll compose one of mine, and photograph it or just draw it.. then scan stuff back in and work in Illustrator or photoshop to get it ready for print.

What do you hope to accomplish as an artist?

I’ve always been really goal driven, but my priorities have shifted more to family as a have a few young boys and a beautiful wife. I don’t really aspire to have a one-man gallery show or be known by everybody. I just want to create and collaborate on things people love to wear or hold or read or experience, and all the while have fun and support my family.

CAMERALUV INTERVIEW ON INDIE ICING

Check out our recent interview about Cameraluv written by the lovely Alison Fraker of Indie Icing.com.

Here's the transcript:

Have you ever stopped to think about all that the camera does for us?  Where would we be without those wonderful contraptions capturing our memories on a thin strip of film or on those tiny memory cards?  They give us the ability to see into the past and to share feelings and experiences of our friends and family.  Jeremy Kennedy, of CameraLuv.com and CameraLuv on Etsy, gets it. He really, really, gets it. I had the chance to talk to him about his craft and how he has taken his love affair with cameras to another level.

So, tell us a little bit about yourself, Jeremy, and how Cameraluv got its start?

I've always been interested in art since a very early age. During my high school I started to explore photography and darkroom techniques with the help of a great art teacher, Vivian Komando.  I used to take tons of pictures of my friends while we skateboarded, wake boarded and surfed. I loved seeing how the images would turn out after we got home from riding, etc...

I think the summer after my first year of college we visited my grandma's home in Nebraska and in her basement I found one of my dad's old cameras from when he was a kid. A Sabre 620 in seafoam green and I was like, 'This is such a cool camera' and I couldn't believe she still had it. It was probably made around 1954.

Wow!

After finding that one I found an old Imperial camera that was my uncle's from around the same time. This is where Cameraluv was birthed because I left from that visit with about 8-10 cameras, the oldest was my grandmother's mother's from the 20s.

That is so cool. So, how many cameras do you have today?

Haven't counted in a little while, but I'm thinking more than 130.

And, do you have a favorite? Or, would that be like naming your favorite child?

The first eight from my collection can be found here (shown above). I really like my dad's Sabre. It's so cool. I'm a big fan of the old Polaroids and cameras with billows, etc.

Very cool. So on your etsy store you seem to utilize quite a few mediums... do you have a favorite medium?

I like painting cameras probably best. I tend to simplify them a bit in my drawing style and then color them a little bit unconventionally. Like making them red or teal or yellow. I try to stick to those colors mostly so that there's a bit of a consistant vibe across the mediums. Being a designer I wanted to create a cohesive brand that I can build onto and make whatever I want.

Yeah, you definitely have a distinct 'feel' to all your pieces.

Thanks.

So, since the initial basement dive, in what or where do you find inspiration?

I draw inspiration from my collection mostly. By that I mean those are the subjects that make it into my art.

Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to be around when these cameras were first made, or what it would be like to be in the advertisements, etc. So a year or so ago I recreated a whole bunch of ads and put cameraluv into them. This became the whole backdrop of an installation I did in Tampa (first image above).

I created the whole background black and white to allow the bright paintings to jump off. I actually even put my wife into a few of the ads as a surprise.

And, what keeps you motivated to design and create new pieces?

I make the most art around the time of the shows I'm in, but I'm always thinking about making stuff. I have a notebook of ideas I've yet to draw or paint.  Sometimes I can't sleep or I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and I'll put it in the book.

Overall, how would you describe your style?

The style is very graphic/pop oriented. Simplified forms and brighter colors...

Would you say it has evolved since you started?

There's a consistency about it, but I'm evolving in the things I am attempting to put cameras on, I don't think how I've rendered the cameras has changed too much since the beginning. I really like mixing mediums, but I've been a little bit held back by my workspace so I think that has been a bit of an influence on my clean and precise renderings etc.

Do you have plans to try new mediums in the future? Any chance we can get the inside scoop to what's next on Cameraluv?

I've wanted to experiment with some block printing methods and work on more paintings. I enjoyed putting art on skateboards last month so I'll probably do some more of those, too.  I'm continually inspired by the cameras because they are beautifully designed objects that have a direct connection to us capturing and immortalizing memories. That's what makes me so crazy about them. They just make me smile.

That's why I've chosen to collect them and create with them because they connect us to what we love most.

​Thanks Jeremy. Good insight! We'll be on the lookout for what's next on the Cameraluv Blog & Etsy!