“It may sound cliche, but doing art can be very therapeutic.” Here’s what else he had to say about his art: RAFU: How did these little creatures come about? RK: I was trying to do this T-shirt company called Season. I observed that a lot of successful companies used an animal of some sort as their mascot. I decided to use a snail as my company mascot and began working with that idea—that in a world where everybody and their mom is in a hurry, the snail is seemingly in no real hurry to get anywhere. He’s chilled out like me. It was my way of telling everyone to slow the heck down already before life passes you by. Take some time to stop and smell the flowers. This whole idea sort of filtered into my painting. RAFU: Tell me about this particular bear (pictured above) which seems to be in many of your works? RK: I was doing little weird alien type characters when—inspired by artists such as Joe Ledbetter, Craola, Angrywoebots, Daniel Fleres and the like—I decided to try my hand at some animal characters. So I chose the koala bear, ‘cause he’s also in no really hurry, and on the chilled out tip. Then somehow, the koala’s nose shrunk and he acquired these weird, funky specs, and these strange, spiky ears, and before you know it, he’s some weird, funky, strange, spiky bear dude. I have this thing with eyes, and with listening, as opposed to talking, and I guess that’s where those features came from.

Then, basically, you tack on a goatee and some thick, somewhat devious looking eyebrows and all of a sudden it’s me. Which wasn’t a real conscious decision at all, believe it or not. Like some sort of sub-conscious narcissism or something. Cause I’d really like to believe that I’m not all that self-absorbed. But I know I am. But so are you, and you, too. Basically.

RAFU: Do they have names?

RK: I was going to name them “swear bears” and have them be all vulgar and curse all the time. But turns out that wasn’t a very original idea, cause some dude already had that idea going. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing is original, and everything has been done before. “We all stand on the shoulders of giants,” “Those who are too afraid to imitate anything create nothing,” and stuff like that. It’s all good. These fellas have no names as of yet. I might call ‘em “bear-bots,” but then that idea is probably already taken. Or it will be by the time I have enough money to purchase the domain name. Starving artist status.

RAFU: What are the steps in making them? How long does each take?

RK: Sometimes I sketch out some ideas in my sketchbook before I start a painting. But a lot of times I just pencil in something right onto the canvas, or wood, or whatever it is I’m painting on, then get up in there with the acrylics. Basic process I would imagine. And, as far as how long it takes, that’s always sort of a hard one to answer ‘cause I usually have a few pieces going on at once that I go back and forth to. I’d say a few days, in general, is usually how long a piece takes. Unless I’m extra motivated, or psyched on a certain piece. Then I can sometimes make it happen in a few hours, but that’s not always the case. But yeah, good stuff.

RAFU: What was your first art project ever?

Whoa! Takin’ it back like “Knots Landing.” Hmmm... my brain’s not going to appreciate this one. Let me take another sip of this refreshing energy drink with taurine and think about that one. Okay, maybe like third grade or something. If my horrible memory serves me right, I did this book report type project where I sculpted out of clay this dragon from the book. I can’t remember, for the life of me, what book it was though. But I remember I got all tech with it and used a pen cap to make the scales of the dragon, and I painted it these awesome colors. Okay maybe it wasn’t third grade... hmmm... Wait, what was the question again?

To view more of his works, visit myspace.com/RandomKono