Kamar Thomas is a broke college student. He needs $5,000 to complete his Studio Art senior thesis, a collection of 6 by 6 self-portraits, or as he puts it, “big heads.” What does he do? The same thing many of us do when faced with what seems to be an insurmountable problem: he turns to the Internet. With the help of Gus Vita, Thomas put together a video plea for donations. This video (aptly called “Thesis Project by Kamar Thomas”) can be found on YouTube and Vimeo, and you can donate through a PayPal account. Welcome to the Facebook generation. Thomas sat down with The Argus to talk about the life of the starving artist.
Argus: So you’re a Studio Art major. Why?
Kamar Thomas: ‘Cause everything else sucks. I don’t like employment. Not that I don’t like employment, the money is great, but I don’t like nine to five. If you hear me speak or hang around with me on a regular day, you know I suck at being told what to do. I work at SciLi. I just sit there and it’s such a problem when this woman is like, “shelve these books and shelve all these books,” and I don’t do anything.
A: Your thesis is a collection of large, colorful self-portraits. What’s the story behind that?
KT: Well, it’s more like a series of self-portraits. I get people to paint my face. They do what they want, and then I take a picture of it and paint from the picture. They paint, and then I paint what they painted. So it’s basically two paintings in one. There’s a poetry to it. It deals with what the truth is, the many layers of truth and how that can change over time. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself and hope to convince my thesis adviser. And it may change and this may all be bullshit within the next minute.
A: For this minute, why did you choose to do this?
KT: It matches my personality. It matches how I paint. In your work as an artist, you’re almost always interested in the same things–it’s a matter of finding and articulating it in paint and in English, and when those two match you have yourself a gallery deal, and you make loads of money. Also, I just really like painting big heads. I do! I can paint, but I can’t do very much else. I have been known to use rudimentary tools, but besides that I like to paint and I like to paint big heads. It’s a matter of finding why and making it interesting for the rest of my life.
A: Have you found out why you like to paint big heads?
KT: There is something behind that: it’s called ego. It really is! Portraiture has a long, complicated history that I like to engage in, and I like to add my little stamp. It has always been about dealing with the human condition and things that we as human beings have to deal with because we are conscious. We have the burden of consciousness. And the portrait really captures the face. The face is the seat of your brain. So that’s why I’m interested in portraiture. I could paint the whole body, but the body is a lot more about your social context. Social context has a bit more direct impact on how your body looks. Like you’d be way skinnier if you lived in Jamaica. I’d also be much skinnier, and I’m from Jamaica.
A: So what’s the significance of the fact that you’re putting paint over the face, which you say is the seat of the consciousness?
KT: So paint is really this colored paste, this colored dirt, and I can arrange on just four pieces of sticks with cloth stretched over it, and you think it’s 3D! I can put a few colors together, and it transcends itself as a medium. Human beings are nothing but a bunch of cells. Some of the cells are red, some of the cells are brain cells, and if the cells are wired correctly, we’re just conscious. We transcend ourselves. Those two things, their transcendency and the way they relate to each other… I like. I like how, in my mind, it’s the same thing. In my mind, painting and being conscious are the same thing.
A: For this project, why do you have to raise $5,000?
KT: Funny you should ask that… I’m just kidding. Everything is expensive. Have you seen the size of those things? [Each painting is 6 feet by 6 feet]. You know how expensive wine is. Well what if you had to cover a canvas with a bottle of wine, and it had to be a different color everywhere, which means you had to buy different bottles of wine? That’s pretty much what paint costs: each tube of paint is like a bottle of wine, and then there’s wood, and then there’s Gesso [a white paint mixture used to prepare canvases] because I have to build everything myself. Well I don’t have to, but I decided to work this big, and they don’t sell [frames] this big so I have to deal with it myself. So there’s paint and wood and Gesso and canvas. You know canvas costs $800?
A: What made you decide to turn to video and the Internet?
KT: It was [a] really complicated motivator called desperation. When desperation comes to your door, desperation will wake you, and you’ll get up like a vampire, “I need to raise that money.” Given my status [Thomas has a student visa], I can’t work for it. The question is how to raise money without whoring, because I have a girlfriend, and she’d disapprove, and working cause I can’t work too much [visa situation]. So, I can’t work for money essentially. I’m not gonna steal it, and you know whoring is out. Why not beg?
A: What will you do if you don’t raise enough?
KT: It’s kind of unlikely that I won’t at this point. Still, my plan wasn’t successful, in that, thousands of people got together and sent me money. A few people did, but one person gave me a lot of money. And, if I am lucky, I might get an award for materials in art. But, if I don’t raise the money, I’ll probably just paint smaller or drop out of school and become a meth addict.
A: What do you plan to do after you finish your thesis and graduate?
KT: I’ll give you three guesses.
A: Paint?
KT: You’re a genius. So, I’ll either go to grad school, or I’ll get deported because my visa is up and my passport is up. I just found that out when I couldn’t take the GRE the other day. I walked in there ready to ace the GRE, and they were like, “Could you come back here, sir? Did you know your passport is expired?” And then I just had to not take the GRE. But, if I don’t go to grad school, I go back home and get the dreaded day job, continue painting, and then go to grad school afterwards anyway. It’s either go to grad school now or go to grad school later, so I’m definitely going to grad school.
A: So why should people donate to your thesis project?
KT: Aside from I’m broke? I don’t have the money. That’s a good reason. Would you like me to appeal to their higher senses? To help the noble cause of art, to add their ten dollars to dragging mankind one step in its path back or towards to whatever the hell man is going towards, to add their share to material culture? Cause, you know if I become famous, wouldn’t it be great to say that “I knew you?”
1 Comment
Susan L. Halper
Hi Kamar- I saw your paintings at Wesleyan and like them a lot. Could you contact me at susan@susanhalper.com please? I would like to talk to you about them. ik am in the art business… thanks. Susan Halper