BK: There seems to be a return to the academic approach to the figure, and I think that's good. My own approach is not academic, it's more fantastical, and by that I mean it's coming from my imagination rather than models. I'm really more influenced by the figurative work of artists that are dead: Chagall, Degas, Modigliani, Klee, Giotto and the artists who painted in the Lascaux Caves.

DMN: Have you ever had a desire to make political statements in your art, especially during these troubled times?

BK: The kind of political statements I have and do make in my art are about the politics of being human. If they're current, they are the kinds of things that would have also been current 300 years ago. I'm not a journalist. I feel like great stories are still important in a 100, 200, or 300 years. I don't want my work to be so fixed in time that it is not useful tomorrow.

You know, we're not all called to go and stop wars in other nations. Some are, but there's also a great deal of work to be done in mercy and forgiveness in our own apartment. (Laughter.) If those attributes are neglected, the conflict will continue. Virtue cannot be neglected — "little" virtue. I think it's in this area where my metaphors emerge.

Yet when I say this, I don't disapprove of people who have grander, more global goals in the way they paint, but I don't believe that "little" virtue is not without its global significance.

DMN: Over the years, what has Kanosh come to think of its resident artist, and what have you come to think of Kanosh?

BK: I'm pretty solitary. I teach (an LDS Church) Primary class, the 8-year-olds. I'm a nice chap; I think people like me well enough. It seems a little strange what I do, but I have pictures that show up in the Ensign (magazine) from time to time, which helps people feel that I'm not too strange. It's sort of validating for them. The town itself gives me a lot of elbow room. It gives me space.

Access to Kanosh is limited. It's 150 miles from Salt Lake, so just the number of people that can visit is reduced by that distance. The downside is, I spend a lot of time driving.

My difficulty is not that I don't enjoy visits, it's that when they occur, I don't paint. It often takes two or three hours after the visit is over to find the groove again. So it's nice to be in Kanosh where I'm further away so I can do the thing I do ... do the thing they like me to do.

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