Albania, Art & Music: An Interview With Keith Edwards
We're thrilled to present an exclusive interview with the talented visual artist, Keith Edwards. Keith is renowned for his vivid and thought-provoking artwork, which he showcases on his website, NovelArtMedia.com. His pieces captivate audiences with their unique blend of colours, and narratives, pushing the boundaries of visual artistry.
In this interview, we explore Keith's artistic journey and inspirations. So, stay tuned for an inspiring journey exploring the work of Keith Edwards.
Keith EdwardsSAH: Keith, can you tell us a bit about your journey into the world of visual arts?
How did it all begin for you? My artistic and musical training began at age seven. My Mother Ingrid was born in Switzerland and her family emigrated to America when she was a girl. Her father and her stepmother were both accomplished artists. She became a Broadway dancer and then a New York area Artist who gained recognition.
She dictated the household tenor, and it was very European. Lots of art and classical music. Her art studio was at home on our porch, it had a southern exposure, we called it the sun porch and I spent many hours there with her, living the life of an artist.
She taught me about painting in oils, acrylics, and watercolours. I learned to draw in pencil, charcoal, and pastels, and to stretch and prepare canvas. I was always helping her, and her artist friends load artwork into the car, then set up and break down exhibitions.
All this was set against the backdrop of my father’s work at home as a composer and playwright. His piano and workspace was in the living room and as I grew up, he wrote the Tony award-winning musical 1776 in that room.
So, whenever I was at home there was this creative thing happening that spanned the whole house. My sister was an oboist who went on to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and growing up we shared the unfinished attic space for our bedrooms, so she was always up there practising oboe and working furiously at her little desk with a sharp knife, making reeds for her instrument.
As hard as everyone always was working away, when I was a kid we never seemed to have any money and I was about eight years old before I realized that not everyone’s family went to “work” like this at home.
Keith Edwards. Olive Grove Vlore. Albania. Digital Painting Print. 90 x 70 cm.
Keit Edwards. Rider on the Silk Road. Digital Painting Print. 70 x 70 cm.SAH: We love that your artwork is unique and very captivating. What would you say is your primary source of inspiration?
Well, thank you. So, I think inspiration requires motivation to have any impact, to drive the implementation. I have always been a very motivated person. Creatively my Inspiration is a moment-to-moment thing.
It’s a very quick, bio-feedback loop process when I work. I try a lot of different ways to render a picture until something inspiring emerges, and I get a certain feeling. However, it’s not throwing paint against the wall as they say.
I know what triggers my inspiration, I have a process that brings me there. This influences my choice of colors, composition, lighting, and subject, and I think provides continuity in my style. I think of it as a “feedback loop”, a bio-feedback process; something that I have also studied in other management, but I use it as an artistic tool.
SAH: Describe your artwork in three words.
Energized, Colourful, Accessible.
Keith Edwards. Friends 'till After the End. Digital Painting Print. 90 x 60 cm.SAH: How has your style evolved?
Right now, I would describe my work as Postmodern-Eclectic-Pastiche influenced by various styles, genres, and cultural sources.
My style has evolved to consistently reflect the influences of Pop Art, Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism and Contemporary Realism.
I most often mix and blend several of these traditions into a single work, however lately since I usually create a series from each work, I have begun to use a different style or combination of styles for every work in the series.
As far as AI art is concerned, I developed proficiency using the AI program 3DThis and other apps and developed my style of 3D video art using my 2D pictures in short 3D video art pieces. In this style, I use multiple 2D pictures within a 3D diaspora, contrasting movements of background and foreground elements.
This style is markedly different than the better-known “Diffusion” AI style of video art especially since there isn’t any AI art being generated; it’s all from the human artist’s input, and the only AI element is spatial placement and movement of the artist’s artwork.
So far, I have not seen any other video artwork stylistically like mine.
SAH: Can you share more about your favourite piece and the story behind it?
Well, if it’s OK I’ll just share the favourite story behind a piece since I have several favourite pieces. I am an American living in Albania – during the Covid pandemic at one point the only destination country we were interested in that would allow Americans to enter was Albania.
We decided to go there, not knowing what to expect, but after an extended visit, my wife and I decided to spend a lot of time here.
At one point before we had our current residence in Vlore, I was staying in an old apartment during the summer of 2021, the hottest summer on record in Albania, with one hugely anaemic A/C located in a non-strategic corner. For some reason, I started taking photos inside the apartment.
One picture turned out to be an old beat-up set of candleholders lying on a wooden plank shelf. The unremarkable picture was stored in the cloud for a few months; and about that time, I was thinking about what my artistic philosophy was. I was trying to get a handle on choosing the subject matter. Originally my self-defined mandate was to create my art from travel photos, that’s how I started, and I had adopted the name for it as “Poster Arte”. I came up with the motto “creating remarkable art from the unremarkable”.
And looking at the candleholder picture it was just that unremarkable – and I decided to try and make something remarkable from that photo as per my new motto. This was an important assignment in my work because it had the requirement that I bring a picture further afield than I had before, I had to stretch. And I did many iterations of those candleholders with lots of experimentation with ambitious learning curves.
The result a year later was my piece “Cabaret” which is an energetic abstract representation of three dancing girls in a Paris Cabaret. So that is one of my favourite pieces and the piece with my favourite story behind it. That’s because it spans such an important period in my life and my artistic development.
Keith Edwards. Temptation. Digital Painting Print. 75 x 70 cm.SAH: What do you hope viewers take away from your art? Are there specific messages or emotions you aim to convey?
When I achieve the right “look” it not only looks right to me it “feels” right, on many levels. And I believe I have been successful when an audience can also “feel” something like what I did. I aim to transfer my emotions, thoughts, and mood to a viewer. When that happens I believe the work is unique and captivating. I think we’re all wired similarly enough, or tuned into the world similarly enough that this can and does happen.
My description of the message I try to imbue into art is one of transcendence out of the moment. I try to attach an energized state to the picture, one that the viewer then receives. I am naturally a hopeful person, I believe in people’s ability to rise above and overcome negative circumstances and if my art supplements this then the art is achieving its purpose. I’m aware of the frivolity of this perspective considering the terrible situation many, many people find themselves in every day, where artwork may not make any difference. Yet in total all positive influences count.
SAH: How do you think growing up within a creative family and experiences has shaped your artwork?
There are two sides to this. On the one hand art, music and creativity are “normalized” when growing up in a family like mine.
My grandmother was a piano player for Eddie Cantor’s stage show, her son my dad was a piano player with the most famous big bands, and then a Broadway author, my mom was an artist and a Broadway dancer, and her dad was an artist and NASA scientist, my older sister played Oboe with the Boston Symphony and other famous orchestras. So successfully being in the arts was completely normalized for me from the beginning, and I was trained in the arts.
However, besides actual hands-on art training with my mother, I don’t think the rest had a lot of influence on my art. In retrospect, other aspects of my life seem to be more influential. And these aspects specifically were my deep involvement in athletics and later as a pilot in aviation. I began sports also at age seven, with football, wrestling, baseball and swimming. For about five years I worked hard in all these sports but was not a standout. It wasn’t until I reached high school that I emerged as a star athlete, and again, looking back that was something separate from the “family business” of the arts.
It was something that belonged to me alone. It was athletics that moulded my resilience buoyant attitude and personality. The other influence was aviation. I took a flying lesson when I was in high school and entered flight school rather than a traditional college.
At age twenty-one I landed my first professional flying gig with a Cessna Sales Center and flight school nearby in Morristown NJ. I did all sorts of flying in general aviation – but the relevant piece is that going to work every day as a pilot in the busiest airspace in the USA taught me how to use my eyes. Flying at low levels in that airspace environment, with all kinds of varying visibility and air traffic affects the way a person uses their sight.
That never left me and it wasn’t until I began using my eyes artistically that I realized how years the years of flying were influencing me artistically. It has a big overall effect, including how I choose composition, focus and clarity, colour, and distance. I have heard about other pilots who have had similar experiences.
Keith Edwards. The Mad Dancer. Digital Painting Print. 80 x 64cm.SAH: Is there a particular artist, past or present, who has significantly influenced your work or style?
As a kid, I loved Frank Frazetta’s art, he pioneered Fantasy Art, and did the illustrations for Edger Rice Burrough’s Tarzan characters.
I’ve been influenced by Wassily Kandinsky; at one point I decorated my whole house with his work.
I’ve also been influenced by the Hudson River School of Art. I love the spatial balance of Roman frescoed art, and I love the colours in Ancient Egyptian art. Currently, Cooper Cox has caught my eye.
SAH: What are your plans or goals as a visual artist? Are there any upcoming projects that you’re excited about?
Yes, I have upcoming exhibitions in New York and Barcelona with Artio Gallery curated by Bisa Bennett.
Here they are:
Interconnecting Lines
International Group Exhibition Artio Gallery One Art Space, 23 Warren Street New York, New York April 17 - 22, 2024.
Beyond Borders
International Exhibition Hosted by Artio Gallery at the European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona, Spain. From June 28th to 30th, 2024.
Also, I am planning to enter the online auction space this summer and so I’m preparing for that, revamping my social media sites, planning and doing research. And of course, I’m creating new art all the time.
SAH: Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring artists who admire your work and want to pursue a career in visual arts?
I think it’s important to consider the difference between being an artist and pursuing a career in the visual arts; it’s not necessarily the same thing. Some jobs in the visual arts might even hinder someone’s opportunity to become a creator of art.
So, I would advise aspiring artists to examine the specific role in the art industry they want to participate in and plan a way to let that happen. Jumping into any job in the industry isn’t always an avenue to becoming an artist. Also, a common belief is the idea that to be a legitimate artist you must make your money from art.
That is, in my view, a flawed concept, and it really hurts many artists who buy into it. There are good ways to make money, and there are good ways to make art. One thing’s for sure, making art when you’re struggling financially isn’t a good way to do either.