Kenay Kash Blog

New Sensory Drawings

2012-05-25T16:59:00.000-04:00

Hyped from Coffee, Engorged with a Whopper. 2012. Graphite on Moleskine. 8 x 5 in.

Headache, Arm Sharp on Table, Back Smooth Against Chair. 2012. Graphite on Moleskine. 8 x 5 in.

Melting into Sleep from Scott Woods' Voice. 2012. Graphite on Moleskine. 8 x 5 in.

Sleepy, Laying in Bed, Arm Asleep, Foot Warm. 2012. Graphite on Moleskine. 8 x 5 in.

Making Faces Photo Booth

2012-05-24T00:24:00.000-04:00

How many faces can you make? Find out for yourself the Columbus Museum of Art's Making Faces Photo Booth in the Center for Creativity. I painted all 92 digital overlays that randomly appear in front of the screen when you take a picture. You'll have five seconds to figure out what kind of face to make before the shutter clicks.

After you've spent some time testing your facial muscles (not to mention your creativity), you can select photos to upload to your Facebook profile. You might also want to spend some time looking at the photos that other visitors have taken. Below are some of the best responses I've seen.

Birthday Mnemonic

2012-05-03T04:35:00.000-04:00

I drew this mnemonic for a good friend. Her name sounds like portmanteau of "assy cat" or "cassy," followed by a well-known brand of faucets.

Emotion Metaphor Collages

2012-04-23T14:51:00.000-04:00

What color is happiness? If sadness were a shape, what would it look like? I asked these questions to a group of 3rd and 4th graders as part of a Studio Thinking Workshop at the Columbus Museum of Art. I wanted to get them thinking about visual metaphors for emotions. Together, we brainstormed about ways to represent emotion through color, line, shape and symbol.

I had students randomly draw the name of an emotion from a hat. Student selected the color that best represented their emotion to use as the background. Then, the students cut out pictures and shapes to collage onto their paper. This activity was inspired by the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique. Below are some of my favorites:

Confidence

Happiness

Nervous. I see it in the colors.

Regret. She made a collage of all the things she'd regret if she didn't see in her life.

Sadness. This collage features Maurizio Cattelan's La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour). (I guess the Pope would be sad if he were crushed by an meteorite.)

Figure Drawing at Ohio Art League

2012-04-22T22:11:00.003-04:00

Today was my first time drawing at the Ohio Art League. Every Sunday they have a model from 1–4 PM at their South Campus gallery, 1552 North High Street. I had a good experience; it was very therapeutic. Just be sure to bring $8.

Working on Some Wedding Caricatures

2012-03-23T03:19:00.001-04:00

Caricature: Luis

2012-03-23T03:15:00.004-04:00

Design Your Own Playing Cards

2012-03-19T05:14:00.000-04:00

I drew these face card diagrams for a drawing activity in the Columbus Museum of Art's upcoming Making Faces exhibition. The activity is inspired by Larry Rivers' Queen of Clubs print, which will be on display in the exhibition.

CMA Chalkboard Connector: Interpretations

2012-03-13T22:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks for this one, Jen. Poor birds.

Thanks for the trip, Chris. Props for transition from insect "fly" to Flavor Flav "fly."

My personal solution. Every bad shark needs to settle down sometime.

In the words of Jame Geary, "Anger is a heated fluid in a container."

There's always a bigger fish.

Mnemonic for Ryan Trecartin

2012-02-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

Ryan Trecartin sounds like "tree carting." I drew Ryan as he appears in his video I-Be AREA. If you commit this image to memory, you'll be able to remember his name.

This is my first drawing in a series of mnemonics to remember contemporary artists' names. I base these drawings on Dean Vaughn's memory system in How to Remember Anything. By the way, you can remember his name by visualizing Vince Vaughn in a graduation cap. As with all mnemonics, the more outlandish the image, the more memorable.

Proprioception Drawings

2012-02-01T16:54:00.001-05:00

Headache, Listening to Last Train to Paris. 2011. Graphite on Moleskine. 8 x 5 in.

Cozy Couch, Listening to Mama's Gun. 2012. Graphite on Moleskine. 8 x 5 in.

I've begun incorporating auditory sensations to my regular haptic feelings. I included the album name in the title of each drawing. I only seem to "feel" music in my head and face, so the musical influence should only be near the top, or "head," of these drawings.

Chalkboard Connectors at CMA

2012-01-24T22:23:00.003-05:00

Next time you find yourself in CMA's Center for Creativity, be sure to pick up a piece of chalk and draw the craziest Rube Goldberg machine you can imagine. I designed each problem and drew the prompts on the boards using paint marker.

This board makes museum-goers say, "Oh my!" I had fun drawing this solution today. I call it "Jurassic Park Ding Dong Ditch."

I think this board is my favorite. It's a little challenging because you have to figure out how to turn mechanical movement into air movement.

This pirate needs some booty. I gave him the quintessential mark of surprise: the Metal Gear Solid exclamation point. The shark obstacle makes this one just a little more challenging.

Crop Photos

2012-01-19T15:51:00.001-05:00

I took photos of a scrapbooking crop that my mom held in my hometown church. I like the spiral composition in the first photo, and I like my aunt's excited expression in the second photo. Also in the second photo, the reflection of the fluorescent lights creates a nice diagonal that leads your eyes into the background.

Caricature

2012-01-03T15:54:00.000-05:00

Leah, Kyle & Gunner. 2011. Marker and pastel on paper.

In November I drew this caricature of the director of the Columbus Arts Festival. It was her Christmas gift to her husband, so I had to keep it on the down-low until now. They tell me gun-fishing is pretty popular in Wisconsin.

Photography: Christmas in Chicago

2011-12-29T22:31:00.001-05:00

Caricature: Aschliman Family Christmas

2011-12-21T14:19:00.002-05:00

My mom successfully enticed me to draw this caricature for this year's family Christmas card. Because of our family's social hierarchy, I knew that one relaxing and cracking the whip had to be my sister. She looks good with a beard.

Kash + Grant = Robin Williams?

2011-12-19T03:02:00.000-05:00

My attempt to make a Moneyface bears an uncanny resemblance to Robin Williams. I'm thinking that when you look at the mashup, your mind combines the distinctive features into one face. I'm wondering if this phenomenon is something similar to the McGurk effect, where two contradicting stimuli create the perception of a third discrete stimulus. It would be interesting to explore this further.

Steve Jobs?

Ozzy Osbourne?

Proprioception Drawings

2011-12-18T00:27:00.001-05:00

These drawings are my attempts to convey the perception and presence of my body in time and space. My goal is for the viewer to "feel" (with mirror neurons) the same sensations I feel when drawing them. They're inspired by Tantric body diagrams.

Mnemonic: Pareidolia

2011-12-08T14:21:00.001-05:00

pareidolia (pronounced: 'per ī dō lē ǝ pare-eye-DOH-lee-uh)

(noun) psychological illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct, e.g. seeing shapes in clouds or seeing religious figures in toast

Commit this image to memory

Focus on the illusion that there is a "pair of eyes on a Dole banana"

Shorten to "pair eye dole"

Sounds like "pair-eye-DOH-lee-uh:" pareidolia

Cheese Head

2011-12-08T13:59:00.001-05:00

I really like this random photo I took of my mother trying on a cheese head. The composition is busy and a bit awkward, but I like the lines, color relationships and everydayness of it all.

Presentation to Project Pivot at CMA

2011-12-08T13:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I spoke to Project Pivot high school students about personal interpretation, creativity and open-endedness in art. I gave them a simple Cube personality reading, had them describe the things they saw in abstract drawings (a phenomenon called pareidolia), and had them rename famous works of art (Kelis' song "Milkshake" was a frequent lyrical muse). I wrapped it all up with a presentation of my artwork and a discussion of new possibilities for art.

Cat Lynch also gave a presentation. Check out her blog.

Palette Painting

2011-08-25T06:48:00.004-04:00

While cleaning out my apartment in preparation for my move back to Fort Wayne, I rediscovered this one-session oil painting from 2009. I kind of like it. I remember using the canvas itself as a mixing board, so that explains the color daubs on the right.

Wedding Portrait

2011-08-20T09:38:00.010-04:00

Chris & Therese. 2011. Oil on canvas. 16 x 20 in.

I painted this portrait as a wedding gift for my next door neighbor from Fort Wayne. It's been over a year since I've gotten out the oil paints, so this was the perfect opportunity to get back into it. I kept track of my hours, and it took 60 of them from start to finish. If you want a portrait, let me know!

From Cubist outlines through the Uncanny Valley and to Photorealism – this was the progression.

Synesthesia Self-Portrait

2011-08-18T08:28:00.006-04:00

Synesthesia is the ability to perceive specific stimuli through another sense. In this painting, I translated touch sensations into colors. Working on top of the finished value study, I would lightly brush my finger over each area of my face; then I would select the hue and intensity of the color I felt for that area. The color contrast is the most intense on the lips, in and around the eyes and along the hairline, as these areas felt the most sensitive.

I'll have to try this again in a month or two, to see how arbitrary my color choices are.

Some Caricature Sketches

2011-06-07T21:06:00.006-04:00

Today I did some caricature sketches of my supervisor and her husband for a future commission. I'm liking the two faces on top and the bottom left. I still have some work to do here.

The two faces on the left have good energy and likenesses. Actually, I'm thinking the bottom left is the best.