10?’s with artist, illustrator and designer, Kris Andrew Small

I do, it’s quite random tbh though. I have a playlist that is like a constant 50 songs of what I think is interesting at the moment and I kind of just listen to that. But then also I like my studio to feel really familiar and calm, which means I listen to A LOT of cheesy pop cos it’s familiar and kind of just washes over me in the background.

If people judged me on my studio music… I’m not sure I would get hired too much haha.

I mean, I just have an opinion on a lot of these topics and I am in a privileged position that I can use my voice to amplify things, I really don’t want to take that for granted and use it for the better.

Also, I hope it has a bit of an impact out there, that people see what I do and think differently or realise a certain prejudice they might have. When you come from a marginalised community, I think you see the world differently and have huge compassion for others that are marginalised. I think there are a million things left to tackle, for me, I am very aware of the fact that while a lot of progress has been made in the queer community, there is still a lot of repression, and there are still millions of queer people who live in situations that are not safe for them.

That's what I want to talk about anyway.

For sure… um… my friends inspire me, I know that sounds corny… but it’s true.

I am lucky to be surrounded by artists, we are always sharing our work with each other and talking about projects. I am just one person and while I have agents, it can be a bit overwhelming working on these projects sometimes, so I am very grateful I have people to bounce things off of.

I try not to look too much at what other artists outside of that are doing, it’s easy to fall down a ‘why didn’t I do that’, or ‘my work should be more like that person’ rabbit hole, that isn’t good for me, or anyone really.

Like my music choice… I’m like turbo pop but turbo alternative at the same time haha… my favourite movie ever is Big Business, a very cheesy 80s movie set in NYC.

Best movie I’ve seen recently was Parallel Mothers by Pedro Alodóvar. I thought that was so great. And so pretty to watch as always. I think I wanted to study film more to make music videos than to make movies though… I wanted to make like really glitchy kind of M.I.A. style music videos.

I feel like my work isn’t too far away from that now… kinda.

Haha yeah, that’s a nuts sentence, isn’t it? I love the Pompidou so much, I love the building, I love the collection, I love the big square out front in summer. It’s just super, super cool!

I did just visit LACMA in LA, that was great, I really liked the Barbara Kruger show!

The beach, or at least access to water.

I don’t like being inland, it stresses me out… like people always ask me if I want to drive across Australia... Being that far from the ocean terrifies me!

If you make work that already exists, they will hire the person that already exists. I made so much work in the beginning that wasn’t for brands, so by the time they were hiring me, they kind of knew what they were going to get!

You have to show people what you can do, then they can see what you can make for them. I’m always trying out new things and trying to learn new ways of working or putting my work on lots of different mediums, I think that massively helps as well cos it doesn’t limit you to one thing.

Surf.

I always think it looks so cool, I love the ocean, I wanted to learn when I was a teenager, but I found it super intimidating and I was generally pretty bad at anything physical, I guess I could learn now, but I don’t have the time.

I don’t have a preference really, I am happy working either way.

I am always quite excited by everything so when I get a brief I am kind of open to anything and want to make the best thing possible. So some things I can do sitting in my studio, and sometimes with a big team of people. I think it’s really good to admit you can’t do everything.

I can animate, but I’m for sure not the best, so it’s better for me to take my work and work with the best animator I can find, then we get such an amazing result and both learn something in the process.

I kinda have this rule that you should always make it 20% weirder, so what I mean by that is every time I get a brief, I look at it and go, how can I change it a little bit, but not completely change everything?

How can it just be a little different from the last. Then if you look at a year of my work, it’s evolved naturally and I don’t get bored of it; hopefully, viewers don’t as well.

Everyone has their own style based on their background and experience, we as artists/designers need to tap into that more and look inwards when making work as opposed to looking at what others are doing.