if you hit the link stevekilbeyart
you’ll find nine new paintings on there
for my upcoming exhi in oh-hi-oh
i realize some among you may groan…
i usually hate it when people move into other” disciplines”
e.g. ‘orrible singers trying to act n vice versa
so i guess i should try to get some kinda explanation together
once n for all
now you’ll remember that my dad painted as well as played
so there was some precedent for this
i must admit i was quite good at drawing
spending lots of time in class
drawing guys playing guitars n drums
the way some little girls draw horses
i drew bands
later i honed my skills
in doing mean little pictures of the dopes i worked with
in the canberra shiny bums circa 1973-78
wacka wain
ruffhead ryan
ali bear
rod the hawk thomas
bill gunky shaw
all these faces came to life on my blotter from ballpoint pen
i stuck em up on the notice board n i’d get my ear clipped.
during the eighties i made some little heads with clay-mo
but i never really was that interested in painting or paintings
in 2002 after having moved back to aust
jlk suggested i do the cover for freaky concs
he remembered all the little pictures
i did of my mothers then new husband….
so i cobbled up a bit of stuff
using some ideas from my screen printing days
which had consisted of cutting up nmes n melody makers
with a little stanley knife
and using the actual page as a one or two off stencil
eventually john auctioned some off
which led to more people asking for some
so i did some more
and for a little while
people bought em as a novelty
and i just muddled along
accidentally doing something good occaisionally
eventually i started to learn something
gravitating towards gouache n pastel
lucky a few people were buying my stuff…
anyway thats leads us to now
at the moment im painting heavily n furiously
trying to get all the paintings ready
for ohio in june
way to go ohio
anyway
my painting is one thing my music isnt
and thats 100% original
when i do paintings i aint imitating anybody
i wouldnt know how and i cant be bothered
whereas my music is about 50 % public domain
ie
i am heavily influenced by many others
so my latest bunch of paintings all aspire to movement
to vibration
to connection
eyes watch ominously
vegetation twists and seethes
colours rub up against each other in pastel/gouache interzones
the vegetalista is another me
walking through the jungle of my mind i came across him
enclosed by eyes and fiery skulls
the many plants seek succour from light
the vegetalista remains in shadow
his eyes pierce from the murky psyches fog
the light and shadows break down into fractured organic pixels
i try to paint auras and feelings and i mistakenly come up with this
i try to paint ideas
the way i would sing about ideas
my ambition outstrips my technique but i’m catching up a little
i painstakingly pointilistic detail and dot dot dot
the paintings are supposed to represent (re-present) the psychedelic moment
why?
just for the sheer hell of it
its quite safely impossible
but in attempts we come up with great stuff
the actual receding geometrics of dmt are forever beyond my scope
but i like what i do as approximations
so
we get the idea of the colour n movement of the psychedelic vision
rather than anything actual
because actually it contains nothing actual
in dmt download a somewhat fragile me
surrounded by the weird mental pyramids in my head
the colours are all bright
the psy experience is usually vivid
everything is supposed to be oscillating
this is what im drawn to , i suppose
the other bits of life
me playing my bass surrounded by visions of music
someone having a fix in a basement while a tv blurbles on
jims mirror and his jacket of many eyes
rickis multi colour hair
the mona lisa with a swirling magma background
the king of dope
i think these paintings are at least my own
you may find other bits n pieces in there
but unintentionally
this is the stuff i wanna paint
i wanna call up these feelings with art and music
the micro-life
the macro-life
the surreal life
life under the influence of art
believe me these pictures look better in the flesh
theyll sit on your wall n you can get lost in em forever
trying to emulate my songs
these paintings are a little door for you
a door into…
(cue eerie music)
the empty place