Off the Record w/ Billy Kearins
From an interview with Jag Gallery…
It’s time for another installment of Off The Record, and this time we hear from Billy Kearins. It's fair to say that Billy might be well-described as a modern day Renaissance Man. In his twenty plus years in Key West, Billy's been a boat captain, carpenter, designer, music promotor, businessman, a right hand man to his mentor, artist John Martini, a devoted father...and an artist—most recently honored with The People's Choice Award at this year's Studios of Key West's Mango Madness show.
Adding to that, he is one of our featured artists in Jag Gallery's current exhibit, IN & OUTSIDE THE LINES, featuring his new collection of inspired, bold, and commanding paintings on wood alongside new work from Pennsylvania based artist Joey Tepedino. It's a conversation in contrasts that shouldn't be missed.
On view in the gallery through November 19th.
And now...in his own words...Billy Kearins!1) What is your greatest extravagance?
From a strictly material standpoint, I'd say vintage trucks. I've had four or five in my life.
2) Which living person do you most admire?
Bob Dylan comes to mind. He's made a career and a life built on not really compromising for anyone. I like Obama, too, but for different reasons.
3) What trait do you most deplore in yourself?
Procrastination—which stems from my having almost no ability to prioritize tasks unless they have a deadline. Give me a deadline, and I'll get it done.
4) When and where are you happiest?
Anywhere when I'm with my kids—could be at home doing nothing at all or out traveling somewhere we've never been.
5) Aside from art which attribute would you like to have?
Stage presence. I wish I was better at communicating in front of an audience.
6) Who is your favorite hero in fiction?
I know I should dive into literature here, but I'm more of a film buff and my favorite movies are Almost Famous and Good Will Hunting. Considering that, Russell Hammond (Almost Famous) and Will (Good Willing Hunting) are both flawed, anti-hero types who have traits (both good and bad) that I can relate to.
7) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Money is not my true currency, but I do kind of wish I was better at managing it.
8) What trait do you deplore in others?
People who compromise—or worse, ignore—their values, morals, and integrity for the sake of financial gain or status.
9) What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A gallery exhibition filled with red dots on all of my paintings and then taking my kids on a big, long trip with the money I made.
10) What is your greatest fear?
Not creating my masterpiece.
11) What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Raising two kind-hearted and open-minded kids on my own for the past five years.
12) What is your favorite journey?
Finding myself. It's taken a hell of a long time, and the journey continues—but I feel like I'm getting closer everyday.
13) What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue?
Obedience. That's not to say that I'm advocating for anarchy, but I do think free thinking goes a long way in the big picture.
14) On what occasion do you lie?
Maybe to protect my kids—or any friend for that matter—from hearing or seeing something that they don't need to know about. I don't know, that's a hard one.
15) What living person do you most despise?
Trump. That's an easy one, but it's still nuanced, because there are a dozen others in his cabinet and circle who, on any given day, can also take that title—and without them, he'd be nothing.
16) What word or phrase do you most overuse?
Right on.
17) What is your greatest regret?
Probably not thinking more critically about where I should go college and what I should have studied.
18) What is your most prized possession?
I taught myself to shape surfboards like 20 years ago, and the first one I ever made worked really well. Whenever I see it, it brings me back to my old workshop and reminds me of that period of time when I first started to understand that I wanted to create "things" for a living. I never became a full on surfboard shaper, but that board still feels symbolic in a larger context.
19) What do you most value in friends?
People who understand me and appreciate my way of life without needing to talk at length about it.
20) What do you consider the lowest depth of misery?
Giving up on yourself and settling because of someone else's input or expectations.
21) Who are your heroes in real life?
As far as people I know personally, I think John Martini is probably up there. He's been a great friend and an artistic inspiration for a while now. And again, Bob Dylan always comes to mind, too—even though we've never met.
22) Who are your favorite writers?
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Hunter S. Thompson are a couple.
23) What is your most marked characteristic?
I'm introverted, and because of that I'm probably hard to read.
24) What is it that you most dislike?
Please allow me to vent. Uninformed (brainwashed, close-minded, ignorant—choose your descriptor) people who think they have all of the answers because they scanned a headline or watched a biased video clip on the internet. It's happening all the time these days because of social media. We have recently devolved into a post-truth society where the people with the biggest voices and all of the power have realized they can just lie without consequence—and then it trickles down to their fanatics.
25) What is your motto?
Don't let your education get in the way of your learning.
26) What is your current state of mind?
Personally, right now I feel pretty content, and I know that's totally boring to read. But for me it's a signal that something is about to change, and that I need to get moving on a new project or heading in a new direction. As far as my current "worldview" state of mind, that's a lot more grim. Even though I'm a huge optimist, the things going on right now across the country are honestly really sad. I won't elaborate, but to put it simply, it's really hard to see a downfall unfolding in real time.
27) What is art?
For me, it's the intersection of the thoughts I have inside of me and how those are represented as ideas—tangibly and stylistically—to the outside world.