Meet Kyle Kinsella | Production Designer/Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kyle Kinsella and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyle, how do you think about risk?
Taking risk is about learning all the boring elements of your craft to the point where they are second nature. Understanding the software, the budgeting, the people managing aspects of what you do so that you are free to make spontaneous and subtle choices that can be risky.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a visual artist and painter who also works as a Production Designer on Commercials and Music Videos. I’m proud of my current body of paintings that examine the vast power and wealth we’ve endowed on tech founders. I’m also proud of the music videos I’ve done for Billie Eilish, an artist I believe in and inspires my own work.

I would say I got to where I am through a lot of hard work. Boring time spent along in my studio making mistakes or learning software like sketchup and photoshop.

I used to think life was a zero sum game. And that you allocated certain percentages of your attention to the different priorities in your life. So any time I wasn’t painting was taking away from it. I would give 50% to my family. 30% to my art. And 20% to my career as a Production Designer.

Then I discovered that once I threw myself 100% into whatever I was doing at the time (and never felt like I was taking myself away from something else) then it made all the other elements of my life better. It’s another way of saying you should live in the moment. Be present. Give yourself totally over to what you are doing. That attitude will carry over.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles is not one city. It’s 10 or so mini-cities all crammed in together. And the possibilities are pretty much endless. I think I would cater their visit to their personality and what they are into. Food, drinks and conversation would definitely be a big part of it. There are so many great places in my neighborhood in Highland Park/Eagle Rock and the immediate area.

Highly Likely, The Grant, Otono, Hermosillo, Wife and Somm…

I would want them to understand what it would be like to live in this city.

There are other places I’d want to take them to. The great museums and galleries in this city: LACMA, MOCA, The Broad, The Getty, Hauser and Wirth, Nino Mier Gallery, Too many others to name.

I’d want to take them on hikes and walks in the area. The crest along Debs park where you can look south and see downtown LA and Dodger Stadium. The Scholl Canyon fire road above the 134 where you can look south through Eagle Rock all the way to the beach.

More than anything I’d want to cater to who they are and see what they’re interested in because LA will have something for them.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My High School Art Teacher, Teresa McDaniel, changed (and probably saved) my life. She taught me that all art is coming up with a structure for understanding the world around us. That sounds super boring. But structure, at first copying someone else’s way of making art, and then, ultimately learning our own, gives us freedom.

Website: kylekinsella.net kylekinsella.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kyle.kinsella/

Other: (I have one website for my art: kylekinsella.net and one for my work: kylekinsella.com)

Image Credits
(all of these are my paintings =))