Opportunity LOL's Spotlight Interview: Artist Kevin Gosselin

Published: May 9th, 2011

Artist Kevin Gosselin is one of the best and most respected custom toy artists. You've probably seen his work hit the internet or galleries on a monthly basis and know those creations to be epic. Large, intricately designed, and going for a premium - Kevin Gosselin's work is never something to ignore. In this interview we find out a lot more behind these works and the man who creates them. How is it being both an artist and a father? Learn about topics ranging from the cost and value of Kevin's work, free content, running, the Most Wanted series, and what to expect next. Make sure to read all the way through, there are shots of the artist's work and sneak peaks at what Kevin is bringing to his next gallery show. Enjoy!

Can you describe a life in the day of Kevin Gosselin? You're a family man with a child who creates epic pieces on a fairly frequent basis.

Kevin Gosselin: "My typical day. I'm still getting used to what a typical day consists of. Before my daughter Alex was born I was working 12-18 hours a day and loving it. Now I don't get to work nearly as much but I finally found a routine that works well. I get get up at 5am( I'm a morning person) grab my coffee and head to my desk. I read my email, check my blog reader and huffpost and then once all the input has come in, I start work. I listen to audio books while I work and glance at tweetdeck. I find it necessary to distract my brain from what I'm working on or else I'd just listen to myself talk out what I'm working on. I prefer an auto pilot approach to it all. Somewhere between 7-9am my wife and daughter check in and say hi at which time I take the dogs on a walk. I use it to ponder any conceptual problems I'm having. Then it's back to the desk until 11am. From 11am to 9pm I watch my daughter while my wife works. At 9pm I'm beat, my wife takes over and I go to bed. That's it. Every day seven days a week. It's not much time to dedicate to my art, just 42 hours a week at best. It's been hard to downshift from life before Alex when I had all the time in the world. Now it's like biking up hill with the brakes on. I remember someone asked me if being a dad was going to change things and I brushed it off. Now that I am a dad I realize the truth, it's tough to do both, but I manage."

How many private commissions do you produce per month? Obviously pricing varies, but what is the low and high range collectors should expect to drop when working with you? How full is your schedule?

Kevin Gosselin: "I actually produce very little each month. Each piece takes me anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks depending on size and complexity. So if I'm productive I might get 5-6 pieces done in a month. But those aren't all private commissions. Lately commissions have been put on hold to fit in two group shows. I really want to get back to my list as I hate making paying customers wait. As for how much it's going to run a collector? Sadly it's not enough. Think about yourself going to work each week. It could be you're a doctor, lawyer or burger flipper. Now think about all that work resulting in a small toy that some collector is going to buy. As a buyer I can see why it may seem outrageous for it to have a few hundred to several hundred dollar price tag. You go into toys r us and you see a ten dollar toy with intricate detail and it's just as beautiful. It becomes hard to justify that high price toy. But that's the reality, I worked hard to produce a one of a kind toy and all my efforts of this week need to help my family pay the bills. So you ask how much, and I'll dodge that question and ask my own. How much do you want to make in one to two weeks to support your family? It's different for everyone, I'm not looking to be rich, but Alex needs diapers. The compromise, one I'm trying to shift gears into, is to start reproducing through molds and casting, so that I can lower the prices on my work and make everyone happy."

You give a lot of content out for free on your website - a tutorial on creating custom toys and a free game that you created with a friend. Has that led to increased traffic to your website and more interest in your work?

Kevin Gosselin: "Yes and no. I did get a lot of people responding positively to the tutorial. I need to make more. But honestly it's not to help drive any traffic, if anything it's a way to save me time. For some reason I get a lot of people asking my advice about sculpting. I try to do my best and offer up what knowledge I have even though there are so many better resources. By placing that up there, I've answered a lot of questions I was getting on a fairly regular basis. As for the game, I don't know if anyone has actually downloaded that thing. Have you? The game will hopefully soon be made into a more up-to-date app for a smart phones. I'm super psyched about that cause I firmly believe that it's a fun and highly addictive game. For me the reasons behind putting these up on my site is just to let people in on my world, what I've done and share with my experiences. The fact that others may actually dig it, is cool."

Your Labbit Stomper is AMAZING! How was it customizing a Labbit? Can you talk about your process on that specific piece?

Kevin Gosselin: "Thanks. It was my first commissioned piece and the buyer had a lot of faith in an unknown. As for the process, it really was just a matter of cutting away the vinyl with an xacto blade and adding polymer clay. I had to do it in waves because had I cut away the vinyl all at once there would not have been enough to hold it in place. As I progressed the vinyl got chopped away more and more and served merely as a guide to the end shape. "

Until late 2009 you were blogging about being a running sicko. Do you continue to run and what sort of running schedule do you keep?

Kevin Gosselin: "Sicko? I don't recall using that word. Is that what non runners call us? HA, no doubt. I suppose to some ultra -marathoning would be sick. But sadly no. I miss it terribly. I learned a lot about myself running. I learned that if you want to do anything in life, you must simply have the desire and put the time and effort into it. That's it. That's the secret to life and success. At least that's what I convinced myself of and how I've lived my life since . So when I decided I wanted to be an artist I put aside my passion for running and swapped it out for art using the same theory I applied to running. Do art regularly and I would get better. Just like running, build up my artistic muscles. I made a deal with myself. I'll start running again when I have been successful enough to afford the time. It's going to be a while and as I said, I miss it terribly. There's nothing more grounding than running in the mountains in the pacific northwest. I welcome anyone who has too much time on their hands to read that blog. At the very least, there are some beautiful pictures on it."

I see a custom Sketchbot in your gallery. Wow! It's really great. What's your take on working on items with accessories and the Sketchbot specifically?

Kevin Gosselin: "Thanks again. I love accessories. But mostly I love making them myself. Weapons and such flesh out the character. As for the sketchbot, it's a great toy all by itself which is why it was a challenge. Straight lines are not my thing. I like organic shapes. And I have a hard time when a platform is so well defined a character from the start. A lot of artists just paint their platforms and that's cool. But those types of artists have a style that can be painting on anything and it just looks awesome. Like 64 Colors. They can seem to take any shape, make it their own but stay true to the original character. Or DrilOne. He does his thing, and it is still the original, just DrilOned. Me, I take the shape, try to be true to the original essence but also try to reinvent it in an original way. So when I looked at the original sketchbot I cursed for a couple weeks as it sat waiting to be customized. How do I make it something else? My answer was to not change it but rather add to it."

You've created some amazing pieces with a human feel - Kathleen "The Machine", The Sky Warrior, and Randall McMunny. If there was equal demand, would you rather work on sci fi creations or those sort of pieces?

Kevin Gosselin: "I love doing portraits and character development. In the end I don't really differentiate between a scfi fi/fantasy creature or a human, I go about it the same way. I think about the soul of the character and then it's all just pushing clay and mimicking shapes. Truth be told, I really just love pushing clay around, the simple act of shaping it into something recognizable satisfies me to the core. The content is almost irrelevant when I'm in the zone. That sounds terribly obnoxious but it's true."

You created a really well done Cannibal piece for Most Wanted II - with an albino variant. How was it contributing to that series and do you think the Most Wanted Series will continue to grow and be larger while keeping the demand that causes them to sell out fast? If so, do you think it will require more pieces from artists or more artists needing to be involved? Would you rather it continue to be what it is - a special series with a very limited number of toys and artists?

Kevin Gosselin: "I was really happy to be a part of MW2. I went all out on my piece and was told by many of the other artists that I'd hate myself for the complexity and I knew they were right but I laughed and damned my future self to an enormous amount of work. And we were all right and I got very sick of the project. I actually got most of the sculpting done on 20 pieces, looked back at them, felt unsatisfied, scraped it all off and started over. I swore I would not do another series over and over. In the end I felt good about the results but recognize that the pieces were far from being perfect. There are flaws and as much as I tried making them all the same, each face is unique. There are definitely dunnys I felt came out better than others. But in the end, seeing all 20 together, they looked pretty rad. And people seemed pretty happy with them too. Now I think I'd actually be up for another go at it. As for the series, I think so long as there's a demand for dunnys in general then the MW series will do just fine. I think staying relatively small is what will keep the series strong, always choosing the most desired custom artists out there. For that reason I also think the artist roster should rotate as much as possible. Focusing primarily on the best product and not on just the same artists over and over. I think you already see that error with KR. Let's face it, people want to be continually wowed with new work."

How did When Worlds Collide go for you? How was working with curator and artist fplus?

Kevin Gosselin: "Working with fplus was great. Aside from being an awesome artist, he's a fun guy to talk shop with who doesn't just tell you what you want to hear. It's good to have that around and I count myself lucky to have him up here in the Pacific Northwest. Josh pulled together a hard working group of artists and the Screaming Sky gallery is a beautiful gallery space to work with. Originally I was suppose to have a larger role but schedule conflicts made me only able to submit a couple new pieces. One of which sold. Ideally I'd like to sell more but the other three pieces were one the high price end and that's to be expected. "

What would you recommend for an up-and-coming artist to be doing in 2011? Galleries to work with? People to know? Companies to contact?

Kevin Gosselin: "You're asking the wrong guy. I'm still trying to figure all that out myself. I'm still trying to figure out what it is that I enjoy making and how to make it feasible. I feel like I got a late start in the fine arts. I have a lot of experience doing art for myself but actually trying to do it for a living and choosing what your product will be and how to use your time wisely is a skill I'm learning and failing at every day. There's so much I'm getting wrong but the mistakes are teaching me a lot. My advice to fellow up-and-comers is just stick with it. Learn as much as you can from those who will share have a very thick skin for criticism as it will only make you better. Also, project an attitude that people will like. In the era of the internet, opinions flourish and words fly very easily. A reputation is unfortunately a very important part of being an artist. I'm not saying be someone you're not, but you get more flies with honey."

Do you collect custom toys yourself? If so, do you buy like any other fan or are you trading with similar artists? If you do collect, how big is your collection?

Kevin Gosselin: "I don't collect. Just haven't the wallet for it. But if I did, Chauskoskis would be top of my list. There are many others, but in my book, he's the guy we'll all know about 10-20 years from now."

What should Opportunity LOL readers be on the lookout for in the coming months? Do you have any long term plans?

Kevin Gosselin: "First off is a three man group show called Vinyl Roots opening May 14th at Dragatomi. Joining me are JRYU and Troy Stith. I'll be down for the show so if anyone is in the area come on by and say hi. I'll be showing a few new customs and have a limited resin series of at least a couple of them. I am also in the Custom Vinyl Show which is part of the G40 Art Summit starting May 20th. After that it's back to the commission list. Once the list gets a little shorter I plan on making more limited series resin toys. And I have a toy idea that I'd like to make a large quantity of. And I do have a lot of long term goals including illustrating children's books, creating serious large bronze sculptures, paintings, etc. Essentially I want to do it all. I don't see myself as a specific type of artist, but rather just a guy who likes creating things with his hands. I hope to have a long life of being creative."

Wow! Amazing responses right? Thank you to artist Kevin Gosselin for answering my tough questions. Now that you know more about the man, make sure to check out Vinyl Roots if you're in California May 14th, 2011!

Get more of Kevin Gosselin from his Website | Store | Facebook | @KevinGosselin on Twitter | Flickr

Previous Posts on Kevin Gosselin: "When Worlds Collide" Show - Pieces by DrilOne, Kevin Gosselin, MAp MAp, and Chauskoskis, Kevin Gosselin - "Golden God" Custom PAWS.

Interview with Artist JC Rivera	Sketchbot V. 1 Orange by Steve Talkowski	Interview with Artist Squink!	Interview with Rapper A-1

©2010-2012 Opportunity LOL
Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer: This website may contain views, opinions and statements of various third party individuals and organizations. Opportunity LOL neither endorses nor makes any representation or warranty whatsoever regarding the views, opinions or statements provided by any third party or any user of this website. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, opinion or contents available through the website and to seek appropriate advice of professionals, as appropriate.