Kafka Lenton
Only in Pictures, 2008, painting, 60 x 40”
Describe your artistic style in three words.
Slow as f**k
What's inspiring you right now?
The 1970's. Early Tom Waits, "Closing time" and "Nighthawks at the Diner" LP's. Early Neil Diamond, "Velvet Gloves and Spit" and Brothers Traveling Salvation LP.'s
The new English punk music scene is incredibly hopeful to me, Idles, Shame, Fontaines DC, Sleaford Mods. The Kate Tempest LP, "Let them Eat Chaos," is the closest thing we have to modern-day Shakespeare--it is genius 'wordsmithing.' All these bands make me equally weep uncontrollably and want to kick the f**k out of stuff. The best intersection is always where rage meets tenderness.
I love the past and the present equally. But I especially love anything pre-internet. The internet took away the underground club of 'word of mouth' discovery. I try not to exist on the internet, I am usually pretty good at it. Kafka Lenton isn't even my real name. That's a good way to start. Double lives are underrated these days, ask a spy if you know one.
Polyurethane has become translucent alchemy to my work too. When you hide words under polyurethane they look like they are buried under murky water. This is an appropriate simile for my life as a writer before I started painting.
What do you do when you're feeling uninspired?
Walk in random neighborhoods that I don't live in. Serve others (mainly children) and forget about myself. Pick a new era to obsess about. After the 70's, it will be the 90's next. Read every book by a certain author, DH Lawrence, Raymond Carver, Chandler, Ellroy, Paul Auster etc...I try and read a 100 books a year. It's the most political thing you can do.
I tell everyone I meet, "there is only one thing worse in America than Fox News. CNN. They are both poisoning the minds of everyone who watches them. If you watch either of them, I guarantee I f**king hate your art. (P.S. When writing this the emoji tone detector said that I sounded lonely, depressed and angry--f**king seriously. Have we reached the point where we need emoji tone detectors. God help us.)
Where was I? Oh yeah...
Instead, I watch Stranger than Paradise, Down by Law, Withnail and I, Rumblefish, Pale Flower, Band of Outsiders or A Bout de Souffle again for the 100th time. For some reason, almost all my favorite films are in black and white. Probably not that surprising actually.
Tell us something unique about your process.
I never copied it off anyone. It just literally fell from the sky. I secretly want someone to copy cat what I do, so I can laugh at the labor needed to do so. I can't wait for someone to forge my work. In fact I dare anyone to do it.
What advice do you have for other artists?
Persist.
Failing and being ignored is far better for your work than success. As Tom Waits said, "Worry less about how big your audience is and more about who they are." My biggest advice is the only thing that is going to matter when you die is your body of work. So make as much as possible. And never make art for other people. It's always a fraud. The only person you make art for is yourself and maybe a few other artists.
Anything else you’d like to share?
If you are young, please start to resist and reject all this clean, sterile, white, modern-day farmhouse shite being fed to you. It is gonna be so dated and tacky in five to ten years. Fall in love with lived-in, bohemian, 'nothing matches,' real, authentic, old houses and things. Otherwise, we are all gonna be living in 1980's dentist offices.
Also, Phillip Nicholls, my occasional studio mate has more talent in the dirt under his little finger than almost everyone I know. If you don't know his work yet, you should. And Jade Fabello is the most sincere, talented young artist I have met in the last year. If you see his name anywhere, run to it.
I also want to acknowledge a huge debt of gratitude I owe to the artists I first met when I started painting in Austin. Mark Johnson, Debra Broz, Jon Windham, Sean Friesen, John Mulvaney, Shea Little, Jana Swec. I 'was' and 'still am' just a complete "chancer" compared to all these artists. Thank you all.
Only in Pictures (detail), 2008, painting, 60 x 40”
The Loss (I), 2018, painting, broken light bulbs, 4 x 4”
The Loss (II), 2018, painting, broken light bulbs, 4 x 4”
Predicting that there would be NO FUTURE, 2006, collage panels, 60 x 40”
I don't think it ever ends (Part I), 2012, painting, 60 x 40”
I don't think it ever ends (Part II), 2014, painting, 60 x 40”
The water at the door, 2016, 3D collage, 4 x 6”
The Forlorn Rags, 2006, collage panels, 60 x 40”
Life is elsewhere, 2006, collage panels, 60 x 40”
My name is Kafka Lenton. I make obsessive, time consuming, fragile, "never gonna stand the test of time" art. I am currently obsessed in equal measures by everything 1970's, including early Tom Waits and early Neil Diamond. I make art for people that have given up, but still believe.