Today we’d like to introduce you to Kay Keeks.
Hi Kay, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
When I was a child I used to love to draw, color, and explore. Curiosity has always been my number one superpower and it has manifested into who I have become today. As I got older and it was time to choose a career, my love for art and creation was commonly described to me as a “waste of time” or that I “wouldn’t make any money.” This is a rhetoric that clouded my mind for years, assuming that my passion for art, acting, and modeling were only daydreams for children and not a respected career path for an adult. I was living in Pennsylvania then, switching colleges and trying every major hoping that one day I would figure out what my soul and purpose was connected to most. After 3 years of confusion and disappointment, I decided to shock the system. I dropped out of college and was on my way to cosmetology school. That was when creation first found its way back into my life and I finally was able to feel proud about a new accomplishment.
At this time I was serving tables on the side and working my way into the Hair Industry. That chapter of my life taught me endless lessons around business, self-awareness, professionalism, and how to make a life with my own two hands. With this skill, I was able to make lastly friendships and connections that finally brought me to LA. October 2019, the beginning of my life in this amazing city that I have always dreamt of living. However, it was only 6 months before COVID began, ending all opportunities in salons and shutting down all productions. Now what? Well, I was blessed to be living in an artist community during this historic year. This place allowed me to freely explore a multitude of mediums. I began learning animation, sewing, pattern making, drawing, painting, singing, graphic design, rug making, acting, script writing, and so many others. I was immersed in creativity and my dream was finally looking like it could be a reality. 2020 was a year that we will never forget. Once we were able to start going outside again, it wasn’t long before I was painting murals in my friend’s apartments and selling my art that I had painted on clothes, skateboards, furniture, canvases, etc. to keep up with bills. I would create custom clothing as well, spending a lot of time skating around the fashion district searching for inspiration. Now, I am in the process of building a website, building my business, and working hard to see myself in a gallery space or on a wall in your home one day soon.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This process has not been a smooth road, but that isn’t a negative for me. It’s actually built a fire in me that keeps me moving forward. Becoming resilient means you overcome obstacles and one of the biggest obstacles was breaking the fear-based mindset that was instilled in me when I was younger and that still lingers in many adults. Fear manifests itself in a variety of emotions. I am blessed with a partner and so many friends that are also creatives that support and boost my confidence daily, constantly reminding me of my gifts. Sometimes we might think that we can do it all by ourselves, but having a tight community of like-minded people around you truly is the glue to growth. We are getting through it all together. Throughout my creative discovery, tears have fallen but those tears have watered my spirit and cleared the path for me. As an artist, we need to understand and experience our emotions so they can flow through us and into the world. It’s our calling to provide a way for others to experience joy, explore their sadness, or inspire deep thought in a way that they could not before.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work has bright bold colors and strong faces. When I was in high school I learned how to paint with bubbles and that became a signature at the point. As a young person, I would be afraid of eyes and now I love to detail them with colors that captivate you. I have a love for the human body and its angles that design our shape. Woman, more specifically, have a body that creates life and from my perspective births knowledge. My most recent work has been of disconnected faces and bodies with blue/green skin, bold yellowish eyes, and a third eye located on their forehead nestled into a vagina. This concept is the connection of birth and knowledge. As we receive downloads from higher realms, we grow into new versions of ourselves and then we explore who that person can be in the world. Some of my paintings can be sexual. This is to celebrate the connection of humans in a more valuable moment, exchanging energy through sex. I am most proud of the hands and feet when I finally get the sketching right and the blending of colors that at times tires my wrist. I spend a lot of time sketching and erasing trying to get the headless bodies to have the slightly bigger hands and feet that I imagined and for the heads to have a balance of normalcy and awkwardness. Something that is consistent throughout all of the faces are the features that mirror half of my ethnicity. I believe that woman of color should be honored in my work as they have helped to raise me and the world. My family is very important to me and as a mixed person, the connection my blood has to different cultures inspires my spirit.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I have been really “lucky” since moving to LA, but I don’t know if I really believe in random luck necessarily. For me, I believe what is meant for me will find me and when something bad happens it was either for a lesson, a redirection for a different opportunity, or it was meant for someone else’s “good thing”. This doesn’t mean that I’m all smiles when bad happens, it means that I should keep my eyes and mind open to receiving messages and heal my way back to spreading good energy. I truly believe that you will be rewarded with your blessing as you keep showing you are ready for them. One secret to life is accepting that good and bad must happen. Once you have fully downloaded that simple lesson, you can experience good and bad without them happening “to you” but “for you.” Now “bad things” happening “for you” sounds weird, right? But imagine you applied to a university 3 times before you got accepted, then you went and experienced one of your most depressing years? That was me leaving the University of Pittsburgh to a Cosmetology School, realizing to myself… “WOW… maybe I should have listened to the rejection letters the first two times…I could have been happy so much sooner.” But hey, everything happens for a reason, right? Then I figure random luck has nothing to do with it… it was a lesson and that whole time including up to that final thought was one of my most significant building blocks into who I am today. So random luck never played apart in my life or business, I possibly earned the “good luck” and healed through the “bad luck” and I’m ready to see what’s next!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @gimmekeeks
Image Credits
Elizabeth McIrvin Tamara Fox Brandon Avery
