Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Kittle.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Alex. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Like many artists, I’d been doodling since I was a kid, and taught myself to draw figures by copying pages out of comic books and manga. I studied art history in college and minored in the studio, where I tried painting and sculpture but really kept my attention on drawing in different media.
After school, I was unemployed for a few months and spent most of my time watching and blogging about movies, so I decided to make myself more productive by starting a weekly art project, creating works inspired by films I was watching.
I practiced using a tablet so I could draw in photoshop and began designing movie posters, growing the project into a small business on Etsy by making prints and taking on various commissions. In the past few years, I’ve expanded into product design, creating stickers, pins, tote bags, and postcards, which I sell both online and at artist markets.
Has it been a smooth road?
The eternal struggle is balancing between creating the work I’m passionate about and doing something that actually pays the bills. I’ve never really thought I could make it as an artist full time, but I always try to make art a priority outside the various day jobs I’ve had over the years.
I’m lucky in that being a primarily digital artist means I don’t need a huge space to work or a lot of materials, I mostly just need my laptop, my tablet, and free time (the most valuable resource of all). I’ve also gone through the challenge of learning to take myself seriously as an artist, a moniker it took several years for me to use to describe myself, and still gives me a mild feeling of imposter syndrome.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am primarily a digital artist making work inspired by film, tv, and other niches of pop culture – this includes poster designs, portraits, and other illustration. For a lot of my posters and illustrations I like to pull out specific scenes, often small moments or tableaux, that highlight certain aspects of characters’ relationships and experiences.
For example, Jack Lemmon noticing Shirley MacLaine’s haircut in the elevator in THE APARTMENT, or Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins pledging sisterhood at the beginning of GINGER SNAPS.
Of course, a lot of artists make pop culture-inspired work so I don’t know that I stand apart in any particular way, but my taste in film is somewhat eclectic and I like to make work for films that are a little more on the fringes of the mainstream, especially cult, horror, classic, indie, and women-directed films.
I try to promote media that I really love but don’t see talked about as much as something like The Dark Knight or Pulp Fiction. My current focus is a portrait series on women filmmakers throughout history, which I’m turning into a zine in multiple volumes. I’ve tied this into another side project, Strictly Brohibited, which invites women and genderqueer/nonbinary folks to watch and discuss movies made by women in a comfortable, welcoming setting.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think there are a lot of challenges to being an artist no matter where you are, and the Boston area is a mixed bag. There are so many amazing artists here and of course a lot of excellent artistic institutions, but living here is also prohibitively expensive and most artists I know must work other jobs to make ends meet. Space is also an issue, with a lot of smaller galleries and closing because of rent or other financial problems, and the neverending construction of luxury condos over affordable housing or artistic spaces.
But at the same time, I’m excited to see so many groups that are seeking collaborative and innovative ways to support local artists, whether it’s something like Spaceus, which uses vacant buildings for exhibits, performances, and studio space, or the Boston Women’s Market, which holds markets, pop-ups, and workshops for women makers all around the city, or the Boston LGBTQIA Artists Alliance, which curates shows and promotes the work of local queer artists at a variety of existing galleries.
With so many artists in one small city, I think collaborations like that are integral to maintaining a strong cultural community here.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/panandscan
- Email: panandscanill@gmail.com
- Instagram: panandscan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PanAndScanIllustration/
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