Kevin contacted me about maybe a year and a half ago, proposing that he might do an installation in Evansville.

He had relatively recently started doing these large room sized installations, that really reflected the character of the city or the place where he was creating them.

And he thought it might be interesting to come and do it in his hometown.

challenging too, you know, because, of course, it’s where he grew up.

We had a mutual friend, Tom Haney, who's another sculptural artist, and that's how we first kind of stumbled across each other and immediately sort of felt a kinship in the materials that we us the way that we use materials.

And we both kind of utilize characters in our work.

How do I know Kevin?

Well, I know Kevin primarily as a student of mine, probably one of the first professors he came in contact with at USI.

It's funny because he was independent in the sense that I got to understand pretty early on that I could trust him.

The work that he pushed to explore what it was he was he wanted to do, and he did it in a way that convinced me that A) he could do it and B), that it was worth my time to just sit back and watch what happened.

Mostly, I was interested in his process because I could never do that.

I'm like, a very meticulous kind of person too.

I have sketches first and I know what I want it to look like when it's done.

And so I found it very interesting in the installation work that he set himself up to do this project in two weeks.

And even though I know it's Evansville, it's changed a lot since he's lived here.

And he put the pressure on himself to have to find the objects he was going to use.

He couldn't have a preconceived notion or drawings ahead of time or an even a narrative ahead of time.

Describing Kevin's work to somebody that's never seen it before?

To me, I would have to say Shantytown Disneyland.

Like it's -- and I don't mean that negative at all in that it's cobbled together because of the materials that he uses and the time frame that he uses.

But that creates an environment that can't be better at if it's refined more or there's more time spent on it I don’t believe.

And you may see things that he didn't even see.

Which I think is neat.

You can explore that in ways that he probably never envisioned that you would explore.

I knew that Kevin was starting as an artist and he was younger than I was, but I was very impressed with him both in the technical ability that he had and the craftsmanship.

The thing I really enjoy about Kevin's work is that it does have an expressive quality and it’s often a very complex type emotion and a mixture of several.

He always seemed to just down home to me and we would just we could easily hit off conversation.

Neither one of us were very self-confident about our work.

We just kind of just see ourselves as workers, not necessarily as people with huge messages.

We're just trying to just make make things and make things that are good.

Kevin's work has grown or progressed, if you want to say leaps and bounds in the fact that when we first met, like I said, he was doing these sculptural figures, but now his installation work has become a world of its own.

The majority of his work, you know, that has dealt with the figurative kind of imagery and the paintings became more sophisticated with time.

They certainly became better crafted.

And craftsmanship in and of itself is is something that an artist has to develop before he or she can reject it.

My name is Kevin Pitzer, and the name of this project is “Sack Race with Knives.” This is kind of how I think the world feels right now.

Like this very awkward race that's not very important, but still has this very sharp, dangerous edge to it.

I began building art installation houses out of necessity.

I decided to, for the first time, show up at a space with no really finished art and collect materials on site, which was fairly terrifying.

I think it makes a huge difference, just a huge difference to the students to see artists and designers that are working in the field and to hear from them where they started and where they've gone to.

And you can make that even more powerful if that artist is a former student.

Kevin was a student that you immediately knew was going to do exceptional things.

He was very passionate, but yet a man of very few words he was taciturn, kind of irascible, knew his own mind, but he was really devoted to his artwork and just really an intense guy.

I think he was just serious about making things.

He always had a lot of persistence.

That in itself helps him do the kind of detailed work that he does on his figurative pieces.

I think the evolution of Kevin's work has gone leaps and bounds in that what he's done with the installation work.

Because I think he's really, truly stumbled across something that has taken his work to the next level.

As far as materials, as far as environment and interaction with the audience, which I think as an artist, you need that feedback, you need that interaction in a way.

I only allow two weeks for the process because it's not enough time.

With two weeks with that type of a deadline, there is no time to do anything but work.

Usually I get started with these installation projects by collecting the materials.

One thing leads to another, to another, or one shape or object inspires me to combine it with another one.

If I don't find interesting things that I'm not going to make an interesting installation.

I like to try to make work that looks timeless in the sense that...

Someone isn't really sure when it was made and also used materials that they have a narrative already baked into them.

But I spent the last two days collecting materials.

Which is the same process and again with the culturally significant thing.

or very maybe significant to me, which is kind of a different spin on it, t When I saw it I was like, Oh, I have to have this one.

This one was hanging in my parents house when I was growing up.

This seemed pretty apt for this project because the kid is watching the blacksmith.

It's kind of like where I started and where I am now.

Ten pounds, fresh fruit daily.

Did this guy piss these other people off?

And that's... because that doesn't look like, Oh, we need to save his photo because we don't have enough.

Maybe it's her ex-husband.

The more you interact with the piece, the more you'll find.

Like, I really like putting little Easter eggs everywhere.

It's up to that student or that viewer to make the attempt to find and discover parts of the piece that do generate some kind of a reaction.

That's one of the nice things about working the way Kevin does is that you can take something that you'll recognize as being very familiar, I don’t know, a matchbook or whatever, and suddenly he's putting it and applying it to a sculpture in a way that never occurred to you to do that.

And you go, Oh, okay.

I think because his intention was probably that people be engaged and find something that they could relate to in the piece.

Figures in my installation work, the root of that comes from the figures that I make in the studio.

My studio work is made.

You know, I pride myself with craftsmanship and their archival.

And maybe I touch on subjects and narratives that I wouldn't in a studio?

Because I don't have enough time?

And I don't I'm not always aware of what those narratives are.

I always felt that there was a tension, a real tension, even in the even in the characters, whether it was the way that one character was relating to the material that was wrapped around it or the material that it was covered with or the material that it was made out of.

There was always this sort of struggling tension, and I don't know if that was an intentional or not.

I mean, I know he struggled as well.

I mean, we both have struggled with our work.

And I don't know now that with his new installation work, if you want to call it the new work, those characters are there, but they're in this environment as well.

So you kind of stumble across them or you find them when you open a door or you peek through a lens and they seem more at home.

The fact that he kept pursuing it so that the drive was it had nothing to do with Lenny it had nothing to do with Anne it had to do with Kevin and that he would be this way, whatever kind of field he chose.

He is one of those people that works on art consistently and just approaches that with a very determined and dedicated approach.

I don't know that I know any other artists that have quite that work ethic.

There's no other way to get from A to B without a lot of hours and a lot of coffee and a lot of stress.

But that's part of the process.

This house is different from the first three.

It was built in my hometown, had that effect.

It's like, Wow, I need to really make this really need to make it as good as the hometown crowd.

It's my family, it's my friends.

And it got a little out of hand.

This one people can walk through it.

And there's also like passages and they can also walk around it, but there's also these intimate rooms.

I'm still figuring out why I did that.

You know, I'll know, like next month.

His newer work is so powerful and has so much depth and nuance to it.

I just feel like it's really his mature work.

He still uses the small figures that that I remember him doing starting even back here at USI.

But they're in elements in a larger vision.

One thing I remember particularly was a string of shotgun shells next to a string of Palm Sunday fronds.

The juxtaposition of those two things was incredible.

All I know when I walk in the room is I'm going to do a house structure, which I've only done house structure so far but there's nothing to say that I can't make something else.

I haven't felt this challenged since I was in the university because when you're you know, when you're in school, you have an assignment and they're like, you will you have to work within this parameter to do this.

So I haven't done that to myself until this project.

You're forced to be more creative with limitations.

I think what he captured in that piece in going around and finding what people had thrown away was nostalgic stuff.

And then he also found things that symbolized a lot of the attitudes of people in Evansville.

I often make work that looks like it does something or has a function, but really doesn't, it’s purely aesthetic.

So if I can actually pull off something that actually works, that’s very satisfying to me.

I thought this was funny.

I don't know that anyone got the joke, though.

The repetition of shapes with the shotgun blast and the constellations.

If the garage sale sign, if I could save anything, it would be all the garage sale signs.

...the work of 1997 art alum, Kevin Titzer who has been just about living in the gallery.

And so without further ado, I would like to introduce Kevin Titzer to you.

She said all the important things.

Does anyone have a question?

Yes!

So I usually start with something that's on my mind and then work backwards.

Really depends on what interesting things I find.

And because one thing bounces off the other to the other to the other and I really don't know what I'm going to do to stay there.

To have kids running around and having fun, I would rather try to create that kind of atmosphere.

With installation work a lot of times the piece is destroyed at the end.

And that was true of this piece as well.

So as an artist, when you're doing that kind of work, you kind of you go in with that understanding.

I feel fine with leaving the artwork behind because the entire project to me is designed to be ephemeral.

It's not made to last.

This took a long time.

It was a lot of fun.

Thank you so much for coming and I hope you enjoy it.

I literally finished work three hours ago.

Really?

I believe it.

That’s awesome I believe it.

I literally have a microphone on.

Look.

You're filming paint drying.

That’s gotta be fascinating.

No, I need to get out of this small space.

Is it a wee bit claustrophobic in there?

That's why I cut this.

Oh, seriously?

And all the bees were all carved separately and I added wings to... Yeah, it’s really dumb.

My art hat!

It's always like you finally got it together.