In Conversation with Jon Kvassay

The interview with Jon Kvassay

Introduce yourself!

Hey, I'm John Kvassay. I'm from Old Brooklyn, Ohio. I do contemporary western kind of abstract work, and I am the 5th resident at feverdream.

How was your experience at feverdream?

My experience was pretty awesome. Like, super incredibly nice people, beautiful space. Yeah, it was great. 

What did you learn about your artistic practice during your stay?

That it can be universal if explained correctly, and that you can do it anywhere. The space you're in isn't sacred. Whatever happens, you can evolve with it and keep moving. 

What do you mean by the universal bit?

I met a bunch of different people here and explained it to everyone and talked about it, and no one seemed totally confused and lost. Maybe they're just being polite. It's possible.

How was this opportunity a boost for yourself as an emerging artist? Did it set you ahead?

Yeah. It totally did. First of all, just having something to announce that, “hey–I'm doing this new thing” instead of the same, “here's a new painting, here's a new painting, here's a new painting…” That was actually a bigger deal than I thought it would be. And, just meeting more people, getting out of the community, it's always a huge, huge boost. 

How did this experience lend to any experimentation in your practice? What did you experiment with? 

Color. Color was the main thing. Just having the freedom to jump out of the usual equation that I use, experimenting with color, experimenting with different figures, ideas. There was a lot of experimentation, and a lot more than I kinda realized.

How did you surprise yourself during your stay? 

Yeah. I think I was just more open than I thought I was. 

Teaching an old dog new tricks. Right? 

Yeah. (Laughs)

In the studio with Jon Kvassay

What did you think about the space you work in? Did it foster creativity?

Yeah. The view looking out the big windows is pretty amazing. The way this place is set up. Just it's so well designed. It's much better than the usual dank kind of studio space. Yeah. It definitely helps. Having you guys around is great.

How's it compared to your home studio? 

Way different. Home studio is in my basement. It's pretty utilitarian. This is up high and nice and pretty different. 

Just as many macro bars though. Right? 

Yeah. (Laughs)

Did you feel like a member of the community at the studio space?

Yeah. I never felt like I wasn't wasn't welcome or in the way or anything. For sure.

Was the neighborhood area surrounding the studio a positive? What is the best restaurant in the area?

Yeah. Tremont's great. It's always great. And once in a while, I'll take a walk around town. Rising Star and get coffee. Rising Star is pretty much the only restaurant I hit up. 

What was your favorite piece you made while here and why?

My favorite piece was probably the mural piece. It just worked out the way I wanted it to, and, yeah, it just it felt the best. 

Given the [aspect ratio] limitation really, honestly, it wasn't as big a deal as I thought. You know, you just I went I went over to the mural that's up, to Nick's, took a picture of it, traced the shape, and then just figured it out from there, and it worked out pretty well. 

What was your biggest takeaway?

 I got a lot done, a lot more done than I would have if I were working at my normal studio.

In the studio with Jon Kvassay

Your biggest takeaway was the amount of artwork you took away? 

Kind of. There's a lot of other takeaways, but off the top of my head, that was really helpful.

What were you most nervous about? 

I was probably most nervous about making sure I was able to focus and do do the work that I do with other people around. Usually, I'm just alone. That's kind of the main yeah. That was no problem. 

What was daily life like here for you?

Daily life was kind of like not working in an office, but almost like you come in at the same time pretty much every day and get to work, and then, take a break, and then work again. It was good. But it was very much like it was a job–an awesome job. 

What did you think about the critiques? 

 Yeah. Critiques were really helpful. The critiques were really inspiring. And then just meeting all these people was really helpful. It was good. I never talk about my work–hardly at all. So it's a really good experience, kinda challenging, but great.

What was something from a critique that stuck with you?

What stuck with me from the critiques especially was, you know, if something needs, if something's gonna end up being a print, it should have texture, more texture embedded into it. Kinda just basic ideas like that, like what's this end product gonna look like? That was a big takeaway. 

Last question, if you had to permanently remove one person in the Mez who would it be? 

Both of you. That's a tough one.