Meet Cody Kuehl: Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cody Kuehl and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cody, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I quit my job to do art for the first time back in early 2009 with really NO good reason to do so. I didn’t have any real established sales of art, no galleries, and no real network to help with the process. If you remember how the economy was in 2009, you might think that that was an incredibly bad time to try to sell art. And you would be right. I think I did it initially to just try something new out of college before kicking off into my “real adult” life. Those early days were really formative for me and my biz, because I really just always made the art that I enjoyed making and hoped that it would find an audience. It was a really long road, but I never really thought of it as starting a business. I have always approached my art as something that I do for myself and if it’s also marketable then great. Since the initial leap into doing art full time I had to go back and get different jobs to help survive the lean times. For a lot of years I worked full time and also worked my art biz full time to get it off the ground. There’s been so many wild and fun experiences that art has taken me on and I have been incredibly fortunate to find an audience of people that likes the weird stuff that I do. 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about? I think right now I am most excited to just be in a place where I want to expand my creative footprint. I think that I’ve pushed some boundaries about what contemporary western art can actually be. I would like to think that I’ve broken some of the traditional rules about how to succeed in an art career, and I want to explore it more from the paths that I’ve trod. There is definitely some new itchy-ness that is hitting my right with new ideas and approaches that I feel incredibly grateful to have the freedom to explore because of the support that I’ve had from my collectors. I’m starting this new series of wandering animal instrumentalists that has been a total quarantine chill out. They’re super peaceful animal people that are personified with instruments and whatnot and have just been a fun diversion from the moment of impact art I have been doing for a while now.

How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy?
Haha I am definitely a hard case when it comes to my art career. I quit my job to try art on a lark right before the great recession and learned a lot of lessons the hard way. I always promised myself that I really wanted to make the art that I wanted to make, and if I could make money at it then great. That path as it turns out is much harder at first, but much more rewarding for me personally now that I can look back on it in hindsight. After I tried in 2009, I had to pretty quickly go back to the full time grind at different jobs. Success came from working art like it was a job 30-40 hours a week on top of my other full time work for probably 8 years. The secret ingredient was a TON of luck and some amazing people that helped pave and show the way forward.

What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
There isn’t really any substitiution for the work. There isn’t anything you can do besides challenge yourself to make better art all the time. When you’re working on art and your business, If it takes 10 hours to get it 90% done, then it’ll probably take 10 hours to get it to 98% done, and then it’ll take the same ten hours to take it across the finish line. Putting in the work is key, but also you need to put yourself out there to see how people are responding to it to know when you have made the finish line. I sometimes feel like artists only do half the work to be honest. The artist’s job is to create a finished piece of art and push it out into the world and the second half of the process is for the audience to view it, internalize it, and respond. So I’d encourage artists to show their work as much as possible in as many different venues as they can, because I feel like it helps to boost your confidence and identity, and allows you to see your work through someone else’s eyes.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh my god, my friend Toby was visiting from Texas a while back and I ran a bunch of ideas past him to small fanfare…until I landed on CASA BONITA. It was definitely top of the list for him. When we went, I remembered how great that place actually is as a dive in so many ways. It’s just such a weird denver time capsule that can’t be denied as a landmark for a weird art experience. From the 80’s arcade, to Black Bart’s Cave, to all of the detail there it’s just kind of unbelievable. Really, I am a total sucker for the dives with the most character. I’ve had more fun at Larimer Lounge than I ever did at Red Rocks. Tacos De Mexico will always have the best “soup nazi” ordering system that I’ll line up for any day. Streets of Denver has some excellent pizza and some pretty great shows (when we could do those things). I saw Murder By Death at the Marquis back in the day and that was 100% better than anything I saw at pepsi center. Definitely not on the dive-ey side is Watercourse foods (full honesty: I painted a mural there so I’m not impartial) who has the best Buffalo Cauliflower Wings and Cuban Sandwich ever. It’s really going to be interesting to look at the landscape of denver when the pandemic ends and see the where we stand when it is over. I fear that we’ve lost so much already that really just can’t be replaced. The local and family run spots are the ones hardest hit. El Chapultapec is gone. Streets Of Denver Owner, John Elliott passed from covid. He turned that place around from hate speech to a venue for locals to express positivity so I hope they can find a path forward. Galleries were getting absolutely hammered even before covid. It’s all compounding now. I really hope that we can find a way to build it all back. In the meantime, I’ve been trying to support my local spots any way I can because they’re the places that are the culture of Denver.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout definitely has to be my early adopters and the significant communities of art through my career. From my Fort Collins days at the Gallery Underground, to my early Denver Days at Megafauna, Gallery 1505, and Boxcar I have been lucky to find groups of like minded people to share ideas, push each other to be better, and just have fun making art in community. I think that our art scene doesn’t get enough credit for being so close knit in so may organic ways. So a huge shout out to the Denver art scene for lifting each other up and sharing opportunities.

Website: www.artofcodykuehl.com
Instagram: @artofcodykuehl
Facebook: www.facebook.com/artofcodykuehl

Image Credits