My interview with creative Kent Curtis-Weakley, Artist and Designer
Artist and designer Kent Curtis-Weakley on drawing as meditation, working in focused 20-minute segments, and following your passion rather than listening to naysayers or chasing money.
While at my residency in France in July, I interviewed Kent Curtis-Weakley, an artist and designer originally from a small farming town in central Illinois who has been living in New York City for almost 16 years, working in Chelsea, Manhattan. Kent works primarily in graphite and charcoal, with some work in sepia or walnut ink, and is practising silverpoint – a centuries-old technique that predates graphite.
He describes drawing as a meditation for him and shares his discovery from figure drawing sessions that he can draw with great focus for about 20 minutes before needing to change focus – a rhythm he’s built his entire practice around, allowing him to draw all day in 20-minute segments with breaks in between. Kent traces his creative inspiration back to his grandmother, Grandma Weakley, remembering sitting at her kitchen table when he was five years old, drawing and colouring together while looking out the windows at their farm – and how he thinks about her every time he draws now.
As an interior designer, he’s always looking and noticing details – how chairs sit in rooms, where light switches are placed, how lighting affects mood. He began focusing on figure studies about 10 years ago after graduate school, wanting to work with curves rather than the straight lines of interior design, learning to pull figures and faces off flat paper and make them come alive. His work has evolved significantly during the residency, taking a huge leap beyond his expectations. Kent maintains a disciplined routine, rising before dawn at 5.30 or 6 o’clock and drawing from 7am until after dusk. His advice centres on not listening to naysayers – including his father who suggested business management or accounting instead of art school – and knowing yourself well enough to understand what you’re cut out for. He emphasises following your heart, not giving up, and doing it for the passion rather than the money, because if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing every day, it’s a recipe for failure and disaster.
Kent Curtis-Weakley, Artist and Designer
Interview with Kent Curtis-Weakley
Introduction
MD: Hey KC, thank you for agreeing to do this little interview about your creative process, routine and you as a creator. So just for the listeners, can you please just introduce yourself with where you’ve come from, your full name, what happened behind you and what your creative discipline is.
KC: My name is Kent Curtis-Weakley. You can find me on Instagram at Kent Curtis-Weakley, all one word, or on my website http://www.kcweakley.com. I was born in central Illinois in a small farming town, travelled a bit of the country through my life and have been living in New York City for the past almost 16 years, in Chelsea or Manhattan.
I draw, you can see some of the stuff here, there’s more all around the studio here, in the stables at Chateau Orquevaux, this glorious place. I draw in usually graphite or charcoal. I have done a little bit of work in sepia or walnut ink and I am practicing silverpoint, which is a century old, centuries old technique before graphite was discovered, invented, made readily available.
Creative process
MD: It is beautiful being here in your studio because I can kind of see some of your process, not being fortunate to have kind of seen that evolve also from like you hit the ground running when we got here at the residency, but I wonder if you could talk to me about your creative process.
KC: First and foremost drawing is a meditation for me. I discovered quite a number of years ago in figure drawing sessions that a model can sit for about 20 minutes and then needs to get up and move for a five minute break and the discovery that I can draw with great focus for about 20 minutes and then I have to change my focus has been kind of instrumental in how I practice art. I can draw all day here, morning till the past dark with 20 minute segments and then a break, 20 minute segments and then a break.
And that has freed me up in such a way that the creative juices just keep flowing. I said earlier that drawing is a meditation for me. In New York City there’s not a whole lot of time to meditate.
Work, people, finding food, getting places. So my intention for coming to this residency specifically was to have three solid weeks of just drawing. It’s magic here.
Creative inspiration
MD: Tell me a little bit about who or what inspires your creativity.
KC: Grandma. Grandma Weakley. I don’t have a picture of her. I brought some pictures of ancestors, legacy photos and I could have brought one. I’m just thinking of this now. Grandma Weakley, Grandma and Grandpa Weakley lived on a farm in central Illinois halfway between Bement and Monticello. Look it up.
There are tiny little dots on the map. And she and I, when I was about five years old, would sit at her kitchen table, looking out the windows, drawing and coloring. And now when I draw, I think about her.
It’s curious that I didn’t think to bring a photo of her. I have this beautiful photo of her. It’s a sepia that was taken probably for her high school graduation.
There’s no date on it, so I don’t know exactly, but she was gorgeous. Man killer.
Creative routine
MD: I wonder if you didn’t need to bring a photo of her. She’s etched in your mind so deeply. Tell me about your creative routine whatever that looks like, it doesn’t have to be.
KC: I’m always looking. As an interior designer, I notice details. I see if the chair is sitting in the right place in the room. I notice if the light switch is on the wrong side of the door. I notice how the lighting affects a room, how it affects my mood, how it affects the mood of the people who are in that room. Is it good? Is it not so good? How can we improve it? So I take a lot of photos, some of which are reference photos, some of which are just things for me to look at that are pretty.
Like I mentioned earlier, I really began focusing on figure studies, figure drawing, about 10 years ago in New York City. I had graduated from graduate school and wanted to do something that wasn’t based on straight lines. I have a degree in interior design and lots of straight lines.
You know, rooms are in squares or rectangles. They’re not curvy. People are curvy.
Faces are curvy. So I was very drawn to developing that shape from a flat piece of paper, a 2D piece of paper, and somehow pulling a figure off of it. Somehow making the figure come alive is such a trite way of saying it, but I wanted to allow the figure to come off the page or the face to come off the page.
Since then, if you look around the room, I’m not doing that anymore. I still do some of that, but the work has taken a huge leap in the past two and a half weeks beyond what I even expected, and I’m thrilled about that. So the creative process is ever-evolving.
MD: Yeah, and the routine?
KC: Yeah, absolutely. The routine is I am up before dawn, 5.30, 6 o’clock.
MD: This is at home as well?
KC: Yeah, and I get a couple of yogurts and a coffee, and I’m down here drawing by 7 o’clock. I will draw easily, giving time for breaks and lunch and breakfast and dinner, two breakfasts. I will draw until after dusk.
Creative wisdom
MD: If you were to meet someone who’s at the beginning of their creative journey, what piece of wisdom would you pass on to them?
KC: Don’t listen to the naysayers. Dad, when I told him I was going to go into art school and study music and art, he said, oh, why don’t you be a business manager or go be an accountant, something where you can earn money? Well, I didn’t follow his advice, and I’m really pleased that I didn’t.
Even at that young age, you know, what are you, 16, 17, before you go into college? I knew that I wasn’t cut out for the corporate world. I’ve tried it.
I can last about two years, and then I get bored, and I self-sabotage. So don’t give up, and don’t listen to the people who say no. You can’t do that.
MD: And is there any other wisdom that you would want to pass on to other creatives?
KC: Another trite comment. Don’t give up. Follow your heart, and don’t give up, and don’t do it for the money. Do it for the passion. It’s not about the money. It’s about how do you feel about what you’re doing every day, and if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it’s a recipe for failure and disaster.One of the frustrations I hear from people is, I can’t draw. And that’s just bullshit. Everyone can draw. To draw well takes daily practice.
MD: From KC. And here’s the evidence that it’s about practice. And it’s giving it a go and making a mark on the page. Letting it will be what it will be. Amazing, KC.
KC: And the fact that it’s practice means you never have to be perfect.
Connect with Kent Curtis-Weakley
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Podcast for creatives
If you haven’t discovered Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley podcast, I’d recommend having a listen. It has weekly drops of these bite sized episodes that feature creatives talking about their creative process, routine and inspiration. Each week has some great pearls of wisdom for everyone who is living or wishes they were living a creative life.
