THE YOUTH ISSUE
£5.00
k ieran owen photos and words emma rober ts
ar t for ar t ’s sake I don’t have a chance to knock on the door of his home before it flies open and Kieran Owen is standing there with a grin on his face, pushing his dimples up closer to the wrinkles around his eyes. Kieran is not a professional artist or illustrator. He isn’t a student and he isn’t tipped to be the next ‘big thing’. So why am I sat in his back garden, pen at hand? I have known Kieran for little over a year, yet to me his flair for creating art is as inspiring as the great artists of times before us. From small town England, in September Kieran moved to Maisons-Lafitte – the suburbs of Paris to volunteer in an international boarding school. The constraints of moving through education became arduous so he went to Paris to enjoy being 18 and to find inspiration where so many have gone before him. “Aesthetically Paris is obviously inspiring. It’s beautiful but it gets tiring drawing buildings; there’s little human expression. Home is more personal. Each building reminds me of a memory, so
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when I draw at home, I don’t focus on architecture. I draw people I love and the places I fell in love with them.” His drawings are delicate and imperfect. In pencil, ballpoint and watercolour, they are built of fine black lines with soft colours bleeding over the edges.
Chemistry, but I wonder if such a rigorous degree will distract from his art: “I’ve been studying science for the past two years and I’ve continued to draw. People often see science as a cold, clinical set of subjects with no sense of philosophy or art but that’s not true. I doubt I’ll grow out of drawing because it makes me so happy.”
Currently, he’s visiting his hometown of Stourbridge in the Midlands for the first time since his move and the trip has reminded him of how his creative habits have changed so quickly. “I used to draw and write at home at lot.” I recall his bedroom at home. Photos and magazine articles were on every wall except for one, which was covered in floor to ceiling mirrors and in the evening lines of orange light poured through the thatched window. “There were trees outside and large buildings didn’t interrupt the sky. But my sister painted over the walls, so now I just create wherever I can. There’s a set of steps in le Louvre gardens where a notebook doesn’t feel out of place.” Together he lets out a sigh and laugh. “Recently though tourists have begun taking photos of me while I’m there and I feel like I’m becoming one of those clichéd sad Parisian artists.”
Kieran is the first male cover star in Oh Comely’s history - perhaps because it’s often easy to categorise art as a strictly feminine interest, however we can’t fathom why men can’t produce equally beautiful art. “When I was younger my dad tried to get me interested in football and people often assume I’m gay but now I really couldn’t give a fuck. It may not be,” he draws quotation marks in the air: “‘masculine’, but I feel suited to art and I’m happy enough with who I am to not care about people’s expectations. I don’t draw or write for acceptance.” Clearly, art does not need intent or an explanation. I hope Kieran continues to find beauty in the cobbled streets of wherever he finds himself, because there is much to be said about art that comes from the souls of those who find inspiration where others find monotony.
Unfortunately a gap year is exactly that – one year, so Kieran will come home in July. Equally academic as he is creative, he plans to go to university and study International
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