[guitar music]
- Jan: Ever since I was little, I loved animals.
It is just in me through and through.
I was the kid that somebody would find
a bug in our house and says,
"Oh, there's a beetle here." And I'd yell, "Don't kill it!"
And I'd be running over and I grab it and put it outside.
I've always been that way, so I can't explain it. [laughter]
[light music]
I'm Jan Killian.
I'm a full-time artist.
I live in Cumberland, Wisconsin.
I paint wildlife.
[light music]
I love painting birds...
and frogs...
...and turtles.
I take my own pictures
and paint from that.
[light music]
Okay...
I paint with alcohol ink.
Alcohol ink is just a dye-based ink
in an alcohol solution.
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I'm not much of an abstract artist.
I paint more realism.
A lot of alcohol ink is done with just abstract,
because it is so hard to control.
It's like painting with water.
Basically, it moves on its own.
It dries within probably about seven seconds.
I did a lot of research online
and looked for other people that were painting with it
and I couldn't find anybody.
It was basically abstract.
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Just the difficulty in it. It was such a challenge.
And I just love challenges.
Finally, just through my own determination
I figured out a way to control it.
When I want to start a painting, I start with the eye.
If I can get that eye perfect, so it draws people in,
you can basically do anything else
you want with the rest of the painting,
because the eye is telling the story.
And, yeah, the rest of it just comes along.
I do my best to wrangle it, to get control,
it just depends upon the subject and the detail
and how the ink is flowing that day,
'cause it definitely has a mind of its own.
I've known a lot of other artists
that have said, ya know-- They see my work
and they think, "Oh this would be so much fun to try."
And then they buy the inks and they say, "There's no way.
"This is crazy, I can't do it." [laughter]
But a lot of it, is just determination.
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[door opens]
I love doing the process from taking the pictures...
Here chicka dee-dee-dee.
[camera shutter snaps]
...to creating the artwork
and having my soul go into each piece.
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It's just...
Yeah, I couldn't be happier.
[laughter]
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