Kevin William Kresse

LITTLE ROCK — For as long as there have been artists born in Arkansas, many have grown up and moved out of the state to pursue their craft.

The names that make it big are known, of course - Johnny Cash, Mary Steenburgen, to mention two. The names that don’t make it either move back or stay put in whatever big city they find themselves. It’s rare when artists can make a living at what they love, and rarer still when they can do so and keep an Arkansas license plate on their car.

But that’s been the case for Kevin Kresse, a painter and sculptor who was born in North Little Rock and 51 years later lives with his wife and three children not far from where he grew up. Kresse set out on his artistic path at a young age, but he had few role models to help him navigate his way to success.

“The problem was that I didn’t know if I was any good or not,” Kresse says. “You get into that whole thing where you are getting advice from people. Then you get into the cliche conversations of, ‘Well, art is a nice hobby but you can’t make a living at it.’ I didn’t know any artists so there wasn’t a lot of evidence to refute that.”

Not only has Kresse made a living at art, he has added significant beauty to the area that he calls home. His public sculptures - everything from a working fountain in the Citygrove Art Park in downtown North Little Rock to a bust of the late Win Rockefeller - dot the landscape. He has recently returned from a year-long trip to Italy and is working on a new public sculpture that will be incorporated into Riverfront Park.

Over the last 30 years, Kresse has been a reliable fixture in the state’s art scene. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded him a painting fellowship in 1996. His work has been included in a number of the prominent Delta shows at the Arkansas Arts Center.

“He was there at the beginning of the gallery,” says Renee Williams, owner of Gallery 26 on Kavanaugh Boulevard in the Heights neighborhood. “He was involved before we even opened and held shows in houses. That was before e-mail and we would send out invites through the mail.”

Williams recognizes that Kresse isn’t always painting benign subjects.

“He was always really interested in his craft. He takes some risks. Some of the work I thought would be most difficult to sell wasn’t. He is not afraid to deal with difficult issues and that’s what makes his work more powerful,” she says.

Kresse, not surprisingly, believes in the ability of art to move people if they take the time to stop and look.

“The great thing about art is that it can throw you out of the details and busyness of life,” Kresse says. “It suspends you for a moment. It gives you a broader sense of things.”

THE PHOTO BOOTH

Two big forces - the Catholic Church and his large family - framed Kresse’s early life. As the next to last to arrive out of 11 children, Kresse remembers a crowded house and a battle for resources that nevertheless didn’t create resentment or lasting scars.

“Yeah, for a while we had one bathroom,” Kresse says. “Let’s just say I had great bladder control. Really, it taught us how to get along. To this day one of the things Mom always talks about that she is most proud of is how everybody - all the brothers and sisters - are so tight. There’s no infighting or one of us is not speaking to each other.”

The members of the Kresse clan developed unique interests and a variety of careers.

“My parents did a great job of providing an environment where all my brothers and sisters were encouraged to have their own path. I have a brother who is a geologist and a sister who is a financial adviser and a brother who used to train dolphins but is now a paramedic. They have been very supportive of everybody.”

During the first part of his life, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church was within walking distance of the Kresse home. The church served as an early wonderland for the artist-to be.

“As a Catholic, you grow up around all that imagery,” Kresse says. “The church had great stained-glass windows. So I spent a lot of time looking at the art, including the statues inside the church. There’s also a heavy narrative in Catholic imagery. That definitely carried over in the things I do.”

While other kids were obsessing over quarterbacks and basketball stars, Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo fascinated Kresse.

“I remember when my oldest brother came back from Europe and he had pictures of sculptures, some that were just out in the streets,” Kresse says. “That really hit me because these weren’t just pictures in a book but somebody I knew had seen these things.For the first time it hit me that these things didn’t just fall out of the sky.”

High school wasn’t all dreams of art for Kresse. A friend casually showed him a photo that would end up having a significant impact on his life.

“I think I was having breakfast at McDonald’s after taking my little brother to class,” Kresse says. “I saw this girl that I was friends with there and she asked me to go to her house and hang out. She showed me this photo booth strip of her and Bridget. I hadn’t met Bridget before - she was at Hall High. It was weird. When I left the house, I was sitting in the car, looking at the steering wheel and saying, ‘Why do I know I am going to marry this girl?’ I didn’t want to meet her. It freaked me out.”

Kresse overcame his fear and eventually asked out the girl in the photo-booth strip. Years later, Kresse’s premonition in the car would come true.

“For our first date, she worked at Sears and got off at 9:30 and so I picked her up at 10 and took her to some pizza place,” Kresse says. “Then we went to the midnight show of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. How could she resist after a date like that?”

NO MORE PORTFOLIOS

The first heavy dose of art instruction that Kresse received came in college at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The art classes had to be mixed in with an otherwise packed schedule.

“When I graduated from high school, I had five brothers and sisters in college or med school,” Kresse says. “My mom had taken a part-time job. I was waiting tables at Sir Loin’s Inn to throw some money in.”

Kresse worked for the first time with live models and took illustration and graphic design classes because “they were practical, concrete classes.” While at UALR, he landed a part-time job at a small advertising agency.

“I would run over [to the ad agency] at lunch between classes and then I would wait tables all night,” Kresse says. “When I finally got a real job and got off at 5 and didn’t have to be anywhere, it completely threw me.”

The first full-time post college job for Kresse turned out to be his last. He was half of a two-man promotions department for the Arkansas Democrat.

“The Democrat had just gone from using ad agencies to doing it all in-house,” Kresse says. “They hired Estel Jeffery and he hired me. And it was just me and him doing everything. We did Pops on the River posters, which was fun. Billboards. Radio spots. Everything and anything that promoted the paper, we did it.”

The artwork he did for the newspaper paid the bills but left him unsatisfied. It wasn’t long before he was headed out the door.

“I knew I wasn’t going to do this my whole life,” Kresse says. “I gave Estel a year’s notice. When I quit, I realized later that I didn’t put together a portfolio to find another job. So I had made the leap.”

THE GUNBUNNIES HOUSE

In the late 1980s Kresse was able to witness the rise of a significant creative enterprise - The Gunbunnies,the first rock band from Little Rock to sign with a major label. Kresse befriended Gunbunnies leader Chris Maxwell and for a time lived in the “Gunbunnies house” with Maxwell and the other band members.

“Chris would work very hard in the morning,” Kresse says. “Both of our bedrooms were upstairs. I could hear him in there going through scales or talking to record companies. He was very driven. He gave me an insight. I was able to sit there and think how could I make this art thing work. He seemed to be getting his share of the bills paid just like I did. But he seemed to be having more fun doing what he wanted to be doing.”

Maxwell, who now lives in New York but has remained close friends with Kresse, says that period “was an incredible time for both of us.”

“It felt like we were standing on the edge of something big and encouraging each other to jump off. At that time, we were inspired by Joseph Campbell’s credo of ‘follow your bliss,’ which is exactly what Kevin did. He went to Europe and quit his job and never looked back. I think that incredible energy he had back then has never left him. That energy is clearly visible in all the faces, hands, shapes and colors that Kevin creates. They tingle.”

Kresse says it was during that three-month backpack tour of Europe with Bridget that he really committed to being a full-time artist. Then the real challenges began.

“When we get back, my sister Sharon let me use her garage as a studio and I started painting. It was weird.In advertising they say be creative but you have these parameters. But when I sat down to paint, it scared me because my parameters were gone. This whole new set of questions came up. ‘Who am I? What do I want to say?’”

By Kresse’s measure, there were a lot of fits and starts in his journey to figure out exactly what he wanted his art to look like and be about. Then he found a studio in an old apartment above Vino’s pizzeria and brewery in downtown Little Rock.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Where did you study?’” Kresse says. “That [studio] was where I studied. To me, it’s just a holy place. It has amazing energy.That is where I figured out who I was. In a big way, I am self-taught. I didn’t come from a school of fill-in-the-blank. I just discovered myself on my own.”

As he settled into a regular routine of art creation and selling, Kresse’s family started to grow. Three kids later, Kresse needed a more reliable revenue stream.

“The hard thing is when you are supporting f ive people doing this you never know what is going to be selling.”

A new avenue opened for Kresse after he completed a commission for a bronze sculpture for a friend’s father’s home.

“P. Allen Smith had seen my work and brought me on to do the Baptist Hospital sculpture in 2001,” Kresse says. “That was my first public sculpture. That then opened up a whole new world.”

Not only did several more commissions follow, but the experience of working on the Baptist Hospital sculpture on site gave him a new appreciation for the power of his profession.

“People would come up to me while I was working and ask questions about the piece,” Kresse says. “These were people who didn’t know me and clearly hadn’t seen my work elsewhere. But I was amazed by their questions and interest. Wow, this is art working.”

SELF PORTRAIT

Kevin Kresse

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH Aug. 22, 1961, Little Rock

WHAT IS YOUR GREAT SINGLE ART EXPERIENCE Finished reading The Agony and the Ecstasy as the train pulled into Florence, it’s my 23rd birthday, then I go see Michelangelo’s David in the hallway of his unfinished sculptures. I really could feel the hairs on my neck standing to attention.

NOBODY KNOWS THAT I AM A FAN OF Chopin and derekart.com.

I’M MOST RELAXED WHEN I’m about 20 minutes into a brand new piece, also when I’m watching my kids run in a big, open space.

I WORK BEST WHEN I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I feel excited about what I’m doing.

A GREAT MEAL WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT Equally great company (even greater if they’re picking up the tab).

THE LAST GREAT BOOK I’VE READ IS Oh the Thinks You Can Think by that genius Dr. Seuss. I love that I can read a book to my son and be challenged and reminded of our capabilities at the same time.

EVERY GREAT ARTIST HAS TO A. See and digest as much art as possible. B. Totally forget about “A.” C. Trust yourself.

A WORD OR PHRASE THAT SUMS ME UP Evolving (in an appreciative, happy sort of way with a cherry on top)