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Interview with artist Kelly X

Who are your main influences as an artist?

First and foremost Gil Elvgrin http://www.gilelvgren.com/ due to his wonderful colors and the playful nature of his paintings!!

Alberto Vargas for the elegance and glamor and Olivia de Berardinis for the fresh sexy and more modern take on pin-up work… I was always drawn to Salvador Dali with the surreal elements mixed with real — the fact that he painted a story within almost every painting and had amazingly inventive takes on series that had been done before like his tarot series and Alice in Wonderland // Dali does them so differently that sometimes you would not know what the subject matter was unless you really study the work…

Model: Jessamyn Rose

Can you tell us about your career?

I started painting full time in 2008 — I am self taught and have a completely compulsive personality for perfection — My pin-ups have been featured in Penthouse Magazine along with a 6 page article about me, http://kellyx.myshopify.com/pages/press

— I did the Matco Tool Calendar old school including painting my models as the girls for the months/ all of the tools/ Vintage Air Planes/Cars and Motorcycles!! — http://kellyx.myshopify.com/pages/illustration

Every year I am a part of the World Famous Dirty Show in Detroit — HR Giger was a part of it one year!!!!! I have had a one woman show named The X-Girls with 22 original paintings and 14 limited prints (in Palm Springs CA)

I work constantly on my craft and capturing a woman true persona!!!

What aspect of drawing/painting glamorous women do you like best?

I love my models!! Luckily I have been fortunate enough to chose models and or normal people that are full of personality and are easy to paint!! I love bring out the one special thing about each person wether it be her beautiful eyes, great legs, profile etc!!!

I like getting to know my models and capturing the actual essence of her personality the best!! I only had one that I had a problem with and I ended up not painting her at all… life is too short to work with A-Holes!

Model: Jessamyn Rose

If you could meet a star from the classic Hollywood era, who would that be and what would you ask him/her?

Katharine Hepburn! I would ask her how she stayed so very grounded and happy throughout her career!! She was able to sustain such a long and productive career for more than half of her life in Hollywood !! I love her!!!!! I would love to have met her!

Which contemporary artists (any art form) should get more attention?

Pin-up artists ALL, Fantasy artists like Gerald Brom

(http://www.bromart.com/), Illustrators, Digital artists, game artists, pastel artist, water colorists and every medium other than Oil!! The art Industry is still very closed minded other than classic oil painters — it seems to be opening up to other mediums and genres but it has been a very slow road!!