Episode 46 with Ferris Plock & Kelly Tunstall

The Adulting Well Podcast

Two people able to paint like one, especially for an extensive period of time is a rare thing indeed. For over a decade Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock have been presenting elaborate stories of earthly conditions through mischievous characters representative of both their individual and collective imagination. While often playful in appearance, the sprawling, interwoven tapestries provide a more surreal glance into the intersection of dreams belonging to a soundly bonded couple, both creatively and emotionally. An ever-evolving dialogue between beauties and beasts and masculine and feminine, KEFE World is a chromatically vibrant place where fantasy is reality and vice versa. Even Inanimate objects, buildings, food, and feats of other human inventions are bequeathed by their own personalities, often sharing in or driving the emotions, behavior, and energy of the subjects of each vignette. These meticulously drafted environments, both two and three dimensional, are born out of a variety of media including acrylic, watercolor, spray paint, ink, and gold leaf. An appreciation for traditional craft practice, textiles, and elaborate Japanese ukiyo-e woodblocks is present in the stylization and framework of their imagery. At their roots, Tunstall’s airy and casual figures maintain a state of quiet confidence as if they are immune to society’s pressures and expectations and the weight they carry in the real world. It is as if these long and elegant stylized characters leaped out of a vogue existence at the beginning of their prime, preserving all of their strengths and feminine attributes with which to explore an alternate world of boundless imagination and possibilities. Somewhere along their journeys, they stepped into Plock’s semi-psychedelic cartoonish sphere occupied by living, breathing architecture and anthropomorphic creatures capable of shape-shifting seamlessly throughout their elaborate displays impish behavior. The couple’s meticulously crafted modern mythology serves as a prime example of what fantastic chemistry can do when built on the foundation of trust between two partners unencumbered by artistic fears and creative anxieties. Tunstall and Plock are veterans of multiple esteemed artist residencies, including at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Their work both individually and collectively has been exhibited in revered galleries across North America, Europe, and Asia. The duo maintains representation in San Francisco, Portland, and New York. KEFE has been commissioned for work in a bevy of private collections as well as a number of internationally recognized bars, restaurants, hotels, and other chic hospitality outposts. They have participated in a number of notable product design collaborations with Bulleit Bourbon, Uniqlo, Krooked, and Element. The duo resides and works in an occasionally foggy neighborhood in San Francisco with their two boys and two cats.

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