K Pontuti
ARTIST STATEMENT
COVID positive, bored but with low energy, I decided last winter to re-archive more than 500 of my drawings made between 1993 and the present.
Something happened to me as I started going through the boxes and hard drives. The years leading up to that moment had paved the way for a breakthrough / breakdown. The pandemic, politics, civil rights and unrest, deaths in the family – the list of pressures went on and on. At some point, “coping and adapting” had become the name of the game, at least for me.
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The prior five years or so, I had been focused on filmmaking (and work and life and everything else), but after going through my old work – literally and figuratively opening up those boxes – I was inspired to start drawing again.
It took a while, but after a few weeks of daily drawing, the ideas started flowing and the dexterity came back. And then it just exploded, and everything just poured out. I could see into things that had previously been opaque. I could express what I was seeing around me and inside me.
I’ve learned a lot about myself over the past year. I recently came out as Trans (non-binary). That’s been a big one. Even though I hadn’t totally figured it out back then, there were plenty of glimpses and moments of queerness in those boxes, which I cherish now as I look back at my younger self.
I had another big realization after adopting our 4th cat, when a student told me that I was “really turning into a cat person.” It was funny and true. I was definitely in the thick of a “turning.”
Most of the works in this show are from the past year, but I’ve included a small selection of drawings from the 90s that I feel are connected to my current work and provide some context.
Personally, it’s been a hell of an experience crawling back into the mind of my past self, crawling out, and then crawling back into the mind of my present-day self. I hope it’s quite an experience for you, too.
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Bio
K Pontuti is a trans non-binary artist and filmmaker based in northern California. They create drawings and multimedia works under their brand ANYTHING 4 ANOTHER DAY. Their recent feature film The Yellow Wallpaper, is now streaming on digital platforms. Additionally, Pontuti is the Director of University of the Pacific's Media X major, and Chair of the Department of Art, Media, Performance, and Design.