CAMDEN — Matt Dean, aka ‘Kiptoe’, which stands for Kinetic Imagination Presented Through Our Experience has traveled the world painting murals and making larger than life figures in dynamic poses. He’s been to painting festivals and worked for companies that are household names. So, it might be a bit suprising to some that his latest work of art is located in Camden, Arkansas.
Deans’ personal site states, “Kiptoe stands out as a multi-talented creator who continues to make his work come to life through stories and animations that he injects into his paintings and videos. After moving across the country from New Hampshire to Los Angeles, he made it his ultimate goal to paint murals around the world. After a couple years in LA, he took it upon himself to travel through South America and create murals on his own. He crafted travel episodes along the way, taking his audience along for the ride through every mural and country.”
While other murals downtown represent Camden’s past, with images of riverboats traveling the Ouachita and pedestrians in frocks and petticoats, the new mural downtown, on the side of Snider Studio Apartments, represents Camden’s present and future.
Travis Daniel, the owner of the apartments, was browsing through Youtube when he came across Dean’s account and contacted the artist to commission the mural. He said he wanted something that evoked power and vision.
Dean said, “I make Youtube videos, so I make all these videos of all my work. He’s a YouTube fan, an afficionado, so he started watching my videos and really liked my work and he contacted me that way.”
Daniel said that he wanted something to show the spirit of Camden and while, the other murals downtown were nice, they were a bit old fashioned and didn’t reflect were Camden was currently in the state of the world. Especially, it’s contribution to the defense industry, since the apartments mainly house people employed in Highland Industrial Park.
Daniel said another purpose was, “To get people downtown so when they look at the mural, they turn around and go eat at a restaurant or buy something at one of our specialty shops. The idea of a mural, along with my Camden sign is a concept called placemaking. And placemaking is physical attributes of a place that make it unique and feel like home. And I wanted something that the citizens of Camden take ownership of and be proud of.”
Dean said, “Travis kind of gave me a little breakdown on the history, just a couple of little pinpoints. He told me about the MLRS systems, missiles, that right over the river they have a lot of missile contractors that employ a lot of people. He wanted me to include that and also the F-35 parts. He gave me some inspiration and we kind of went with this bolder kind of graphic designy look and color palette that had the primary colors, the red, blue and yellow. And it kind of creates a bit of a dynamic harmonizing effect to it. On the right wall it has those figures, and one of them is holding a sledge hammer for hard work, one of them is dancing, there’s a women portrait with a flower crown representing passion or love, and the big portrait up top next to the eagle represents destiny or looking forward. It’s all kind of exploding form the middle to create that double page spread kind of effect. There were those electrical boxes and pipes in the middle which I kind of had to figure out how to hide, so I figured an explosion coming out of that would solve a bit of that problem. That kind of gave a bit of a launching pad for the rest of the mural.”
Dean’s list of corporate clients include, The Weather Channel, Funny or Die and the Billboard Music awards, but Dean’s favorite work is the art that he can add a personal touch to,
He said, “Those others are more just, y’know stuff, little gigs to pay the bills. I don’t really publish those on my website it’s just on the client list. This one is sort of in between commission work and personal work. It’s kind of like meet in the middle, because he kind of gave me some suggestions to put into the mural for Camden and I kind of put my ‘Kiptoe’ spin on it, which he wanted anyways. So it was kind of like the best of both words for both of us and we both kind of got what we wanted. So I think that’s the best way to go about doing business is when everyone gets what they want.”
“I was out there for like 12 hours a day, the first day when I got here, it was on the 3rd and I flew in from L.A. around midnight and I got into Arkansas around 9:00 a.m., so then we went, he gave me a quick little tour and showed me the wall and we got some lunch and some materials and we started painting around 2 o’clock that same day and went to about 8.”
Dean labored for 12 hours a day in the Arkansas heat, putting around 68 hours of work into the mural during an especially hot start to the month of September, though he said he was no stranger to harsh conditions.
“The first day I got kind of sunburned, cause I was wearing a cutoff shirt. It’s tough when you are painting cause you wear sunscreen and then you are paining and spray painting and the stuff gets all on your arms and you get super dirty, so then I went to Wal-Mart and got a long sleeve, and it helped keep the sun off of me. It helps keep you cooler actually cause the white reflected all the heat off. It really wasn’t all that bad, you get used to the sweat and you just kind of suck it up and prepare yourself and your good.
“I painted in Mexico last year which was in direct sunlight all day. With like 95 percent humidity…. I was painting in that heat for about four days straight. And that was the most brutal heat I’ve ever done. So this wasn’t really that bad compared to that.”
Almost all of Dean’s murals feature the human form and also have heavy animal imagery.
He said, “I’m really into classic illustrators, and also comic books and superheroes, and illustrators like JC Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell and Bob Peak, kind of like classic illustrators.
Dean added“I love drawing figures and anatomy and kind of dynamic poses. and incorporating animals and anthropomorphic animals. Animals and people are really fun to paint, they carry a lot of expression and they carry a lot of emotion and people can connect with them and especially animals, because when you draw a person or portrait, usually people ask “Who is that?’ or ‘Is that a specific person?’ No, it’s just a person. When you draw an animal, it’s an animal. So sometimes animal are just a bit easier to get away with because nobody is wondering who it is.”
When asked about the lion motif, which appears in Camden’s mural and several of Dean’s works he said, “Everybody loves lions.
Lions are fierce. King of the jungle, plus I was born a Leo, so that might have something to do with it. They’re really fun to paint, they have this kind of stoic boldness to them, that I strive to be in my life or in my work. I think they inspire me and give me a lot of strength and courage and determination. and they’re fun to paint.”
Dean has traveled the world painting murals, but he said this is his first mural in the South.. He said, “I’ve done a lot of stuff. I grew up in New Hampshire, so I did a few murals in New Hampshire before I moved to Los Angeles and I’ve painted a bunch of stuff in Los Angeles, some of it is still up and some of it has been painted over. Then I went on a couple of excursions in South America, I painted in Columbia, Buenos Aires , Rio De Janeiro, Peru, last year I went on a little European tour by myself, I went to France, Spain, Berlin, Finland, London and Lebanon.”
He said of his recent travels, “I was invited to a festival in France, like a painting festival, and I was invited to another festival in Finland,but they were about a month and a half apart, so I just stayed in Europe and kind of made my own little tour out of it. Which was excited and challenging and difficult, but pretty rewarding and I got to network with all these other artist and meet other inspiring people and got to hear there stories and how they get by and do their thing over there in Europe and see all the beautiful European architecture as well. “
During his time in Camden, especially during September’s First Friday, Dean drew plenty of onlookers curious as to what his creation would ultimately look like,
He said, “They were a bunch of people admiring it or wondering what the theme was about, or wondering what it was going . I like to tell them ‘You’re just going to have to wait and see.’…so I don’t have to keep explaining it every time,” he laughs.
Daniel said that would like to thank Jenny’s Gym and Stinsons Jewelery, the neighbors of the mural, who were accommodating throughout the process and that the Backdoor Baker and Postmaster’s Grill for providing food for Dean while his stayed in Camden.
Daniel provided a cherry picker, while B&M painting provided a scissor lift for the artist to work with, Dean said, “I was really excited to do it and he had all the equipment I needed to do it. He had all the machines. He made it really easy for me. Everyone was really nice.”
Dean said he had a positive experience in the town as many residents showed him plenty of southern hospitality.
He said, “It was a pleasure to be here in Camden. Especially timing it nicely with First Friday. It was cool. I got to taste a little bit of the food. Lots of chicken and pasta dishes. I got to meet some people and here what they had to say about the work and got to here about some of the history. I got some cinnamon rolls and peanut butter cookies. They were delicious, they kept me going.”