Check Out Kennedy Lindsay’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kennedy Lindsay.

Hi Kennedy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m a Denver native born and raised here, my family is from Park Hill, I went to East for high school, I have deep roots here, I’ve been drawing my whole life, literally since age three, there’s books and bits of paper around my house with scribbles on it from me trying to express myself around that age. I’ve always wanted to be an artist, one of my first tastes of comics was a Spider-Man book where I learned about Stan Lee, I wanted to be Stan because I thought he drew all the comics (I didn’t learn about his partner Steve Ditko till later) after that I started devouring comics at a fast rate trying to learn as much as I could about the art form. I didn’t find my people though till I got to high school. I was blessed to meet peers who were incredibly passionate about art in multiple forms, music, acting, graffiti, etc. I started doing art shows towards the end of high school and throughout college, my focus for a long time was more visual arts like painting and more street art like work, but I’ve always been studying comics. After doing numerous shows in Fort Collins, I felt like I had proven myself and towards the end of college I set my focus to comics and started work on my first official debut project. I took influence from Kanye West and Moebius and put together a brief 5-page comic that I wrote and illustrated and got one of the homies to help me with the letters, and commissioned this coloring duo the Skipper brothers to help me with the colors. While a lot of great things happened because of that book (famous co-signs, a television appearance) I knew I could do better so I set to work on my follow up that I just released this February.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t think creation in and of itself is a smooth process at all, it’s messy and frustrating and occasionally lonely and sometimes you don’t know where you are in the process. With the exception of this newest project, I do almost everything myself, not only the creative side of things but also the business and advertising side of things, it’s hard to envision and expect certain things out of your work but to not have a team behind you to help you achieve them. So I really value the team of artists I worked with on this recent comic that allowed it to be as close to the vision I had for it in my mind. The biggest challenge I’ve faced as an artist is a lack of funding, it’s interesting that we as a country value art so much but we are more likely to invest in technology and war than we are into art and creativity, in some ways we need a stock market for the arts, where people can invest in work and people they believe in. I face hurdles in every area of my life, I may not be able to surpass all of them but I can handle them but my biggest struggles are the lack of the resources both financial and social. I think most artists can relate and it’s that lack of resources that keep us tied to an unfulfilling 9-5 and keep us further away from our medium of choice.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
To put it simply I make art, right now though ninety percent of my focus is on comics, to quote Kanye West “I haven’t even made my College Dropout of clothing yet, I’m still on mixtapes” my main focus is trying to tell the best story I can in the least amount of pages possible, to honor the past and the OG’s that came before me. While I’ve been doing more short stories, I’m slowly working on more long-form projects in the graphic novel realm. Its been very important to me to tell stories about people who don’t get stories told about them and to tell stories about my generation and our perspectives on the world, I think in most creative industries, specifically comics, there’s a lack of not only fresh blood but specifically passionate young blood. I believe representation matters, and I believe in its power, so I want to give people as much as I can. People know how much I love creating and my passion for the work and the culture. What sets me apart from my peers is my work looks like no one else, and the moment it does it transforms again. My influences aren’t limited to comics and superheroes but rather all of art and world history, my goals as an artist are far different, My endgame is world domination. At the same time, I want to use my work and ideas to help and save the world.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
There’s a lot of things I’ve learned, I went to school and got my diplomas, I’ve got a BFA, but there’s a lot I’ve had to learn and figure out by myself. I studied fine art in school and I’ve had professors who taught me technique and I’ve had teachers in high school who taught ME the importance style and work ethic. But no one taught me comics, Everything I’ve learned I learned from reading and studying other’s work. I’ve always considered myself a student of the game. I’ve gotten advice from pros I’ve met and kudos from my peers and supporters but if anyone deserves the credit of support, it would be the people who’ve supported me now at the beginning when my work looks its roughest. Whether financially as a fan or creatively my biggest inspiration has always been the homies. I’m blessed to know some of the best artists in the world.

Pricing:

• Indomitable#-1 $10.00

Contact Info:

• Email: kennedylindsayart@gmail.com
• Website: artofkennedylindsay.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: @kennedylindsayart

Image Credits
Morgaine Lee – Profile photo