“I know we are on a journey to all we want to accomplish. I know we will get there. I don’t want to say it is a waiting game. It is a doing game,” David Kendall.

Stepping into the workspace of David Kendall you step into a lifetime of his philosophy of a varied but steady forward progress of the doing, the creating of art. Where his imagination flows out from alcohol-based markers, paint, scraps of paper and newspaper. Stories await to be told in the imagination of the observer.

“David Kendall is an award-winning visual artist, filmmaker, and educator from Goshen, IN. He earned a BS in Art Education from Ball State University and won the prestigious Educator’s Scholarship from the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he holds an MFA in film and television.” - Kendall website.

“I knew I wanted to teach. I had art teachers who inspired me” Kendall wanted to follow in their footsteps. Kendall considers art to be his through line. Teaching became a sort of daily stability and routine that allows him to pursue his art interest. Kendall is currently the Director of Career Networks at Goshen college. He creates in several mediums drawing, painting, mixed media and film.

In college Kendall became interested in theatre and film making. When Kendall began teaching in Goshen, Indiana video and recording equipment became more portable and accessible. “It became a golden age of experimentation for me,” says Kendall. He was making little art films, drawing and painting. He would make little soundscapes to go with pieces of art combined into film. The experimentation led Kendall to take film making a little more seriously. Teaching allowed him to pursue multiple media at the same time.

In 2006 Kendall produced a short comedy “Corduroy” with Bryan Falcon. “A lonely young man encounters a pair of pants from his past and begins a torrid love affair. He soon becomes overwhelmed by the sound of corduroy friction. Soon his love transforms from ecstasy into maniacal plotting of pant destruction.” From IMBD.com.

The short film played at the Midwest Independent Film Festival. The festival was an unexpected important moment in Kendall’s life, as he met his wife, Carrie Lee Bland Kendall. Carrie Lee Brand Kendall is a local vocalist and actress. The two have formed an artistic partnership supporting each other’s goals and creative imagination.

“We formed a partnership in what we do supporting each other’s artistic pursuits. We don’t look back.”

In 2009 Kendall went to the Savannah College of Art and Design to obtain his MFA. He was on a directing track there. He shot TV pilots, short films while at Savannah CAD. When he graduated, he and Carrie were trying to figure out where to live. East or West coast? Then they had their daughter, Poppy. “We decided Goshen was the place to live. We had our house there and close friends. There is a great art scene in Goshen that just keeps getting better.” Kendall states that Goshen has allowed him to pursue his art in ways, living in other parts of the country may not. Kendall relates several stories of collaboration and cooperation with other artists in the Goshen area. “What I do now still fluctuates between art and film making,” says Kendall.

For Kendall art seems to occur in spurts. He tends to create a lot of art, then takes a little time off. He credits his wife and daughter with keeping him focused and engaged. “I think my life fits my personality well. My 9 – 5 job as Director of Career Networks allows me stability and routine. That stability allows me to be more creative.”

Kendal says his parents encouraged him to explore and to find his own influences. “I love Edward Gorey. He snuck into my work in early 2000. He landed in my psyche and stayed there for a while.” Kendall also says, “If anyone does the type of work I do, and says they were not influenced by Picasso, I don’t think we are living on the same planet.”

“My art has no in-between; it is either very big or very small.”

The style Kendall developed over the years in his shadowing technique is borrowed from lithography. “The scumbling (adding shading to give a softer effect) is a sort of sloppy cross hatching. It is sort of where cross hatching meets a scribble. For me it is almost a Dremel motion with my hand,” says Kendall. Print making has had a significant influence on his art. Kendall brings some of the influence of print making from his undergraduate at Ball State into his current art.

Rauschenberg also influences Kendall’s art. You can see the influence in Kendall’s mixed media pieces and collages through the layers of color and texture. Recently his mixed media has taken on more of a graphic style. Kendall’s mixed media pieces applies a colorful background effect which is a nod to Rauschenberg. Kendall takes tissue paper, magazine and anything he can get his hands on to create layers and texture and feeling. Current mixed media contain a more realistic and enhanced feeling with temperatures in the background evoking moods.

“Rauschenberg was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his combines, a group of artworks which incorporated everyday objects as art materials, and which blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture.” wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg.

In Kendall’s collage multimedia pieces, he often selects words from magazines or newspaper clippings to enhance the images. For Amari, her favorite color is purple, so he tried to include purple in the image. For Desmond’s portrait he wanted to include words like strength and hope.

Kendall uses juxtaposition in his art to create a jarring and unifying effect. “Juxtaposition creates more contrast and attention to feeling. The piece “Social Distance Time” which came out of the pandemic draws attention to social distance we all went through. The juxtaposition comes in the gradated colors and the jarring distance of the color. The effect is further enhanced by the layering and the use of scumbling to enhance the feeling of distance. “All bought about with a slight nod to humor,” says Kendall.

Kendall says his imagination sees potential in shapes. He may draw a shape. Then think, what is possible here? From there he thinks, what is the story unfolding here? Kendal says humor is a big part of his imagination, and that metaphor plays a role in shaping his art.

“I always like when mystery is held intact in a painting. I like when people can take away their own meaning. I think some of the best artwork leaves it open ended. I used to think that was an easy way out. Now I think, no, that is what art is supposed to do, and it is harder to arrive at that point. Art is supposed to take people on a journey. It should be their own journey,” says Kendall.

“When creating,” says Kendall, “don’t stop doing it. Even if you are not doing it full time. Keep it as a part of your life.” Kendall went on to emphasize for him art is a journey, and he must keep creating along his journey. “It is the act of doing” He feels that creating is an ongoing and growing experience that takes the artist from point to point in the adventure of their creative process. “When you look at all of your art as a whole, even the little doodles you save, you see the whole story of your creative experience.”

“You did it! You made a mark on a page. When you make a mark on a page whether it’s painting, or drawing, or writing you are contributing to the creative knowledge. What other species on the planet do it? We make a unique mark. There is value in doing it. We get better the more often we make our mark.”

Make marks. Keep doing it, and that is how you get good at it. Some days you don’t create anything of consequence. But other days you reach an apex. By doing you are learning every day.”

DAVID KENDALL ART

DAVID KENDALL FEATURED ARTIST SUMMER 2021

“I know we are on a journey to all we want to accomplish. I know we will get there. I don’t want to say it is a waiting game. It is a doing game,” David Kendall.

“We formed a partnership in what we do supporting each other’s artistic pursuits. We don’t look back.”

“My art has no in-between; it is either very big or very small.”

Make marks. Keep doing it, and that is how you get good at it. Some days you don’t create anything of consequence. But other days you reach an apex. By doing you are learning every day.”