When passion drives you
Ken Young’s boyhood passion was to draw. Growing up in Hudson, NY he’d marshal his spare change to buy Marvel and DC Comics, then meticulously copy the fanciful characters that populated their pages. “I was fascinated by cartoon art,” recalls Young. “The energy and the boldness of the images really captured my attention” His next furtive step into the world of art was to acquire some “paint by numbers” kits, “which weren’t great art, but I was ten years old, and they taught me detail and precision.”
From comic books and paint-by-number kits to a real art course was a leap of faith for Young and his family. When a salesman for Art Instruction Schools called to follow up on Young’s “Draw Me” submission, which Young had dutifully sent in as response to one of their ubiquitous match book or magazine ads, the decision was made “It was expensive, for us, at least.” Young remembers the stress on his mother’s family budget that the tuition placed. “But I promised to stay with it…and I did” Every few weeks, Young would receive another instruction book and an assignment. Every week, in the evenings after his homework was finished and on weekends when his friends and classmates were out “being kids,” Young was working at home, being an artist.
“I still have those books,” he recalls. “And every once in a while, I pull one out to give me some insight into how I can tackle a new technique or refine my perspective.”
One day my wife and I took a trip to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown MA. “I had never seen Monets and Sargents in person, before, and that day changed my life.”
The day that changed his life
Young was so smitten by the work of the masters hanging in the Clark’s galleries that he laughingly recalls being asked to step back from the paintings on several occasions “The brush work, the technique, the use of color, the use of light! I was blown away!” Making the commitment takes dedication as well as motivation. When the Columbia County Council on the Arts announced a juried exhibition of portraits with the theme “face to face”, Young was, as he affirms, “back on fire”. The result, was a painting entitled: “Looking back” that told his story starting with that yearbook sketch from high school graduation, to 2009. “It’s in my blood,” he admits. “I can’t not paint.”
What started with that self-portrait became a torrent of activity. Hudson, the town where he had grown up, had changed. Now there were galleries and trendy restaurants and antique dealers. He started painting views of Warren Street-the store fronts, the people on the street, the ebb and flow of that vibrant destination.
“I look at my paintings as a way of delivering information. They tell a story, evoke a mood and allow the person to bring their own interpretation to what they see.”
StateNY
