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Catching Up with John Kascht (2012) (view source)
Revision as of 04:33, 5 August 2020
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'''What would you describe as the main differences between what you do in your studio and drawing live caricatures at parties or at retail?'''<br>
I’ve never done event or retail caricature and respect anyone who can work under those conditions. I suppose the main difference has to do with the immediacy of live caricature as opposed to the artificial nature of studio work. In the studio, I assemble photos and video to make up for the fact that I don’t have a flesh-and-blood subject in front of me. I often wish I did, if only to soak up that sense of personality you can only get in someone’s presence.
Unfortunately, it’s rarely part of caricature-as-illustration. Live caricaturists probably wish they were in a studio with nobody staring back at them!
I know that live caricaturists envy the amount of time that illustrators have for an assignment. But any illustration job can turn into a sprint to the finish line. There is always some conceptual back-and-forth, and, depending on the client, there might be several people who have to sign off. That’s usually the case with advertising jobs. Theater posters are insane. They require an OK from the agency art directors, management, the producers of a show and, finally, the stars.
When I’ve finished any piece, it never represents my best work ― it’s the best I was able to do under the circumstances. I don’t really even know what my best work looks like. My portfolio contains some good stuff, but it’s all inherently compromised work. I’m sure that live caricaturists can relate to that completely.
My caricature work has always been created in response to what other people need. I’ve never carved out time to explore the subjects that I most want to do, on my own terms. I’m pursuing funding for a new body of work that does that. It’s exciting.
You’ve had opportunities to meet several of your celebrity subjects. Which of them has impressed you the most?<br>
Katharine Hepburn was the most memorable by far. I spent quite a bit of time with her and have some very funny and poignant memories. She was sweet and cranky and completely lovely. I promised Steve Hearn that one of my presentations in San Antonio will be heavy on the celebrity anecdotes. I’ve got some good stories.
You mentioned that you’ve been assigned to draw certain celebrities numerous times. Who are some of your favorite faces to tackle?
It’s inevitable that certain figures get assigned over and over. Nicholson, Bill Murray, Letterman, Barbra Streisand, Mick Jagger and Bill Gates are faces I’m always happy to revisit. A random one I’ve been assigned to draw over and over is Kevin Costner. He’s not somebody you see caricatured that often, so I have no clue why I’ve drawn him a dozen times. One of my favorite illustrators, John Cuneo, made me beam with pride when he said that he hated me because I nailed Costner’s likeness. Costner has one of those faces that’s kryptonite for a lot of caricaturists, but he’s never given me trouble.
Who is your kryptonite?<br>
Tom Hanks.
Anyone else you’d rather not see again?<br>
Jay Leno. He’s simple to caricature. I’d just rather not.
Is there any one person — famous or not — whose caricature you’ve never drawn but always wanted to?<br>
A local farmer who goes by the name “Chicken.” Seriously, the greatest face I have ever seen.
Your short film “Funny Bones” features a great deal of narration from you, along with several shots of you at work. When did you discover you were comfortable being in front of the camera?<br>
If I seem comfortable on camera, I guess there’s some acting involved. After a few days with camera and lights around, you do get used to it, but it’s all so unnatural. Being filmed can make it tough to do good work. The overhead shots in “Funny Bones” were especially tough. Whenever I tried to forget the film setup and just get lost in work, my head would drift in front of the camera. The videographer watching the monitor would yell “SKUNK!” which became the running joke when I stunk up the shot with my skunk-like ponytail. So he set up a barrier over my desk to keep me out of the frame. It solved the problem, but I had to work at an angle. The lights couldn’t be moved once we started filming, and I kept getting reflections off of the paper and the watercolor washes. There were several sequences where I literally couldn’t see what I was drawing or painting. The sequence was supposed to show this great process, and I’m drawing sideways, blind, struggling like crazy. The final soundtrack is voiceover with nice music. The live soundtrack is swearing.
In spite of that sort of challenge, working in film is so much fun. It’s a return to the raw spark that I felt as a kid just creating for the joy of it. Film structure comes naturally to me and I love to write, so it brings several of my strengths together.
How did your work come to be on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.? Is there a lengthy selection process?<br>
The Portrait Gallery began collecting my work in 1990. As unlikely as it sounds, one of the curators just called me one day. She was interested in a caricature of Katharine Hepburn that I had done for the Kennedy Center. The piece went through their acquisition process, and in the end they decided against it. But ― a couple of the curators and historians became interested in my work and kept in contact. Every few years, they invite me to come in with a pile of drawings and paintings for consideration. Their acquisition process is mysterious. I have something in the works with them now but can’t say much about it.
What does it feel like to have some of your pieces hanging alongside those of Hirschfeld and Levine?<br>
Seeing my work hanging at the Portrait Gallery is always a bit of an out-of-body experience. It just doesn’t make any kind of sense to me. It’s humbling.
Which artists — living or dead — do you admire the most, or have influenced you the most?<br>
Man, that is an impossible question. So many — most have no obvious influence on my own work, but they move me. I tend to be drawn to work that is expressive or elemental ... Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Edward Hopper, the abstract expressionists. Paul Klee. I also really love aboriginal art, and Navajo rug patterns. Van Gogh may be my favorite artist. I’m in awe of his work and even more, his spirit, his connection to life. I’m sure he was a disastrous person to know, but as an artist he was an inferno. He just consumed the world around him.
As for caricature artists who influenced me early on ... Hirschfeld, Levine, Mort Drucker, Ralph Steadman and to some extent Pat Oliphant. When I was growing up, caricature had waned in popularity. It was much less prevalent than it is today. Those artists and a few others were the main ones carrying the torch, and I gravitated to it. I remember being so excited by their work. Something in me was getting activated.
Please tell us a little bit about the genesis of your iPad app.
The app was created by the Joe Zeff Design studio, as part of a series of interactive iPad books called “Above & Beyond” about creative people, their art and the stories behind it.
I worked with Joe Zeff Design on a project a few years ago ― turning Justin Timberlake into a yellow M&M for an ad campaign. Zeff is a fan of my work, and after seeing my Smithsonian film about Conan, he decided I was a good candidate for the “Above and Beyond” series. Last spring, he and one of his designers came roaring up the dirt road to my house on their Harleys with an invitation to make the app. They drove from New York and got lost on rural routes that don’t show up on GPS. It was an over-the-top way to make a pitch. I had seen the “Above & Beyond” iPad app on National Geographic photographer George Steinmetz and really loved it. I was honored to be asked and excited to learn about interactive design from some of the best in the business. I jumped on it. The project, not the Harley.
How long did it take to create it?
Four months from the handshake to the iTunes store. Most of the work took place in 10 weeks. Very ambitious. There was a huge learning curve on my end, but Zeff wanted to debut the app at a publishing event in New York, so we had a deadline. Always a deadline.
Did the finished product turn out exactly the way you imagined it would?
It evolved into something different from what each of us envisioned. We lobbed the framework back and forth and kept throwing curves into the mix, up until the end. It was an intense creative collaboration.
Because iPad is so dimensional, each part of the app consists of parts which are made up of other parts. The user can choose to skim the surface or tap deeper into successive layers. To design it, every layer and every possible navigation route had to be considered from all angles. Everyone involved had overlapping duties, but basically: I mapped out the interactive portfolio and recorded audio clips. Photographer Greg Raymond and I produced the films, photos and 360-degree panoramas of my studio. Joe Zeff Design composed and programmed the app, did the CG and wrote all of the copy. Wendy Reeves of the National Portrait Gallery contributed a terrific audio essay about my work.
It was an amazingly happy collaboration, with the only friction coming up around the biographical features. The “glimpse into John’s world” stuff makes me cringe. But I understood that they were interested in telling a larger story. I made my points and drew certain lines of privacy, but in the end I let the designers have final say because they are great at what they do. They knew the market we were aiming for. And they were picking up the tab.
I’m proud of the quality of the finished product. My favorite thing about it is just the fact of it — it’s an interactive iPad ode to traditional materials.
In addition to your website (www.johnkascht.com) and your app for iPad (Above & Beyond: John Kascht), what other ways can our readers get a heavy dose of John Kascht?<br>
Well, we could all get together in San Antonio in November.
You do a GREAT Katharine Hepburn impression! Can people attending this year’s convention look forward to any more celebrity impersonations in San Antonio?<br>
It’s inevitable. The voices need to be let out.
''Learn even more about John by visiting his website at http://www.johnkascht.com''
