RK.. Your artwork is evocative of folk lore and fairytale. Where do you get your ideas from?

KP. I am inspired by fairy tales, however when I am working on my art I usually just start painting and then the ideas come sometimes all at once but usually in pieces. It's as if they tell me who they are as I work. Some don't tell me much until I am driven crazy trying to figure it out. I am intrigued by dark magic, animals that talk and wear human-like clothing.


RK. Do you start with a basic idea and just run with it? How do you know when it's finished? I mean, are there times when you can just keep on adding details till there's nothing left to add, or is there a point when you're able to look at your work and say yes, it is done?

KP. I do a drawing directly onto the surface I am painting on when I work with oils. Sometimes the idea is an incomplete one. I add things and take things away until it feels finished.


RK. Do you have a favourite medium and do you use mixed media in your work?

KP. My first love is digital. I use Photoshop on a Mac platform. I do a lot of texture building when I make my digital works, so it looks like mixed mediums.

When I work with oils paint I just go from the drawing to painting. No other mediums are involved.


RK. Who inspires and enthuses you to make art?

KP. There are countless artists who inspire me to make art. I was just looking at The Helga pictures by Andrew Wyeth. His colors and attention to detail are mind boggling.

I love the works of my friend Dilka Nassyrova (Dilka Bear). For a long while Mark Ryden's work fascinated me, but now I see too many artists trying to work like him. Ray Ceasar is a digital artist whose art turns my insides green with envy in a good way. These folks make art that makes me want to make stuff. They push me to do better in my own use of color and form. They make me dig deeper into my chosen subjects searching for the ability to see. All of the masters had the ability to see light, form, color and to juxtapose them against line and darkness. I suppose I search out artists' works that help me in the journey to a better understanding of these elements.


RK. Why do you do it? What makes you make art?

KP. I do it because I love it, I do it because art is like air to me, I do it because sometimes I can't relax if I don't. It can be like a pressure building up in the brain. I do it because I need to express myself.