Quiet Color

by amy davis

Brad Kunkle is a man that has been gifted with a dichotomy of careers in both the music and art worlds.  The intersections of both the sonic and visual nature has always played a big role in his life and fortunately, his two passions aren’t mutually exclusive.

Artist: Aderbat Song: Busted Cars

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Some may know Brad as the bass player in the Philadelphia indie rock group known as Aderbat.  With luscious songwriting and unforgettable cord progressions and complex drum beats, they’ve garnished rave reviews as a band that puts on a knock-your-socks off live show. But others, and soon to be many more, will recognize Kunkle’s name as one the East coast’s up-and-coming and extraordinarily unique fine art painters.

Influenced by the works of master Art Nouveau painter, Gustav Klimt, Kunkle incorporates silver and gold leaf in his oil paintings. Viewing his work is an interactive experience that quickly became a crowd pleaser when Kunkle’s paintings first hit display in March at Soho’s Arcadia Gallery. (He sold several works within the first few weeks.) His use of this leaf creates ominous mood shifts in the paintings that, with a simple flick of a light switch, can completely change the work’s intensity and dimension.

Busy doesn’t begin to describe Kunkle’s year thus far, as he devoted countless hours to Aderbat recording projects and creating new works in preparation for his first show as an artist, “International Introductions,” exhibiting at Arcadia Fine Arts Gallery from June 18th – July 2nd.

Through the miracle of technology that is Skype, we had a virtual sit-down chat with Kunkle to discuss music and art.

Quiet Color: How is it being represented by Arcadia?

Brad Kunkle: I’m so happy to be with them. They were the first gallery I went to. They were my first choice.  I love the people they represent, including Jeff. And Steve, the owner, is great.

QC: How did you decide on a profession in fine art?

BK: I went to Kutztown University, studying to be a teacher, actually, first a history teacher, then an art teacher. Then actually an illustrator came to our school. He was a science fiction fantasy illustrator. He came to give a speech, I went to go check it out and after I saw him, I switched to fine art.  It was kind of like ‘Alright I’ve got to do this.’

QC: Like one of those epiphany moments?

BK: Yeah like how can I possibly teach art to kids if I never become an artist? Because I felt like I missed that in school. I felt like I was learning art from someone who was an art teacher, but didn’t really know what it was like to be an artist.

QC: What did you do after school?

BK: I traveled a little bit you know by chance and I was in Milan and that was my first introduction to Europe. From there I moved to the Delaware Water Gap. I never kind of got out of Pennsylvania with an address. But it’s worked. Then I ended up in Buck’s County, for like 5 years, which is where I am now.  Buck’s County is great because a lot of New Yorkers live here and it’s where I met all the guys in the band and that’s where Aderbat formed. We ended up spending a lot of time in New York and Boston and everywhere.

QC: So how did you come about joining Aderbat?

BK: In 2004, I kind of moved to this area and didn’t know anyone. I had been playing and writing music myself, but I kind of wanted to be in a band and I felt like I was going to do that here, like I had a feeling. I was here for two weeks and I all of a sudden met Matt, the lead singer. That was funny because we were at this little place called John & Peters for an open mic night with my old college roommate. And we were watching this curly-haired guy perform and he was amazing. He was playing with this trumpet player and we were like, ‘Oh my god, who is this guy? He’s great.’ And afterwards, the host says let’s give it up for Matt Taylor. And my roommate, Don turns to me and goes, ‘Holy shit he was my best friend in third grade.’ So he goes running after him and they were best friends and they hadn’t seen each other in years and that’s how I met Matt.

QC: What’s the latest news with Aderbat?

BK: We’re done recording our new record and we’re waiting to get it mixed. It can be a long process once a record’s even done. We have a record finished, which should be out this summer if all goes well.  We kind of have this record done and really not playing out a lot now either. Craig, our keyboard player is playing with a couple of bands. I’m getting ready for this opening. It’s just been a little difficult to schedule openings right now.

QC: So Brad, are you from a family of artists, or are you the first and only?

BK: My parents aren’t really artistic, my dad is an amateur photographer, but my older brother is actually considered a family artist, me and him.  He was always drawing and all I wanted to do was draw as well as he could. So I definitely credit him for getting me into it.

QC: You have this mesh of music and art in your life, so the question is, what do you listen to while you paint?

BK: (laughs) I listen to Aderbat.

QC: Oh really?

BK: Yeah, Aderbat songs with a lot of bass in it. Just kidding. Actually music is a big, big part of it.  Though I do find that if the music stops and I’m not paying attention, I’ll be working for an hour in silence and only then do I realize that the music has stopped. I listen to a lot of Sigur Ros, lately. It’s always changing, but Sigur Ros is great. Bat for Lashes, Radiohead and opera music is definitely big.

QC: Your subject matter within the painting s at Arcadia, all have a female theme to them.

BK: At the moment, that is what I’m inspired by. I definitely have ideas for men in paintings and men and females. Right now I’m really finding the female form inspiring. The female is just so beautiful as a creature. Visually, as an artist, I see the curves of the female and the relationship of the eyes and the proportions, and I find it inspiring and conducive for the things I’m trying to do in art.

QC: Are the subjects all based on people you know?

BK: I’ve been working mainly with two models so far. My friend Esther is definitely the person I like working with most. She’s a professional model and she’s done a lot of amazing stuff for professional fashion campaigns and she has this amazing elegance that’s hard to find and I‘m very fortunate to be able to work with her, which has been great.

QC: Why did you decide to use gold and silver leafs in all of your painting?

BK: It was this missing element. I knew I wouldn’t be interested in just painting realism. It just never interested me– I just never felt really inspired by it completely. I was really looking for this surreal element to the work that would make it a little off, or bizarre. I was doing decorative painting and copper leafing this whole wall for these offices and ended up finishing this whole wall with full of copper and could see Grisaille figures on it. It came from this moment of actually doing it. And of course Klimt and icon painters of the 15^th and 16^th century were in my head. I started to experiment with it and realized it was this missing element.

I also love the graphic nature of it too, like it can be very flat from one angle and it can provide a lot of depth to the painting. It also changes and one big thing for me is that if it is lit properly with room light, the leaf will change and the rest of the painting will stay quiet and you kind of interact with the painting.

QC: Describe your new work for your show?

BK: I’m working on three new pieces, and I’m probably going to have 4 or 5 new paintings and there’s still two left in the gallery and three have sold that were initially supposed to be in the show so I’m kind of freaking out. I’m so fortunate to have things selling at the moment, but I want to make a great impression at my first show and I had some pretty intense paintings that I expected to be there already.

QC: Is it hard to let go of a painting once it’s been sold?

BK: Once I’m notified that some thing sold, I really feel like I’ve lost a child. I’ve felt a little bit of that before because I’ve been selling art for ten years. These paintings were major major parts of my life and I’ve been really connected with them.

QC: Do you have a theme for the show?

BK: It’s a continuing theme from the work that I started in November, which is some of the work that sold and some of the work that’s still there. The theme that I’m into right now are these kind of mysterious interiors and exteriors with these women kind of doing things, they’re usually intent on something.

I’m really into these romantic mysterious spaces right now. Each painting definitely has an idea. They can be pretty loaded for me and I often wax and wane on how much I want to reveal and how much I don’t because I don’t think it’s the job of a visual artist to tell people what their work is about.

QC: You mentioned Gustav Klimt as an influence for your work.  Is there any other artist that if you could go back in time and study with them for a day, you would do so?

BK: That’s a really good question. Well, hmm, that’s such a loaded question, too. There are artists you’d want to spend a day with just for their personality and then there are artists that you’d want to spend a day with just to see what they did.

I would probably say Klimt because although there’s plenty of artists like Bouguereau and Waterhouse you know that it would be great to see how they did what they did and to hang with them, but I’m a self-taught guilder so there’s a lot that I’m still learning and experimenting with and I think it would be great to spend a day with Klimt and see what he did with his leaf because he was a trained guilder, his father was a guilder, so a day with Klimt would be an invaluable day, it’d be like me spending a year studying in school, or something.

QC: This the ultimate question: Aderbat gets signed and you get a phone call from Thome Yorke asking the band to come out on tour, or your other option is painting full time and selling a painting a week. What do you do? Painting or music?

BK: I would paint landscapes on the road. If I had to make the choice, I would paint, only because I knew that I wanted to paint since I was a kid. Music is a big part of me and it’s a big part of my life, but I would say that if there’s one that goes deeper in my being, it’s painting. That being said if Thome Yorke did call and wanted us to go on tour, I’m not stupid.

Brad’s work will be on display at “International Introductions” starting June 18^th-July 2^nd at Arcadia Gallery @ 51 Greene Street, NY, NY.