Interview: Kellesimone Waits

In conversation with Los Angeles based artist Kellesimone Waits.

Can you talk about your journey into or interest the arts?

I’ve always painted and been excited about making, I just never stopped.

Can you talk about the influences upon your work?

My influences range from Egon Schiele, to vintage Playboy, over to the original Star Trek and then Grimms’ Fairy Tales.

What themes are you exploring through your work?

I’ve explored ideas of beauty, femininity, and sexuality to varying degrees over the years in my work along with concepts related to identity, power, mortality and the human condition.

I’m really interested in the idea of the alter ego, as a means of developing work. Can you talk about what this affords, in terms of notions of ‘permission’ to do what you feel for instance?

For years now my subjects have been essentially faceless. One blends into the next and even as I’ve begun to shift my content in the past six or so months my figures have remained nearly anonymous. I perhaps also have a desire to be seen and unseen. Tricky waters to navigate.