Wisconsin Life

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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.

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Jan

I'm Jan Killian. I'm a full-time artist. I live in Cumberland, Wisconsin. I paint wildlife.

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Jan

I love painting birds... and frogs......and turtles. I take my own pictures and paint from that.

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Jan

Okay... I paint with alcohol ink. Alcohol ink is just a dye-based ink in an alcohol solution.

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Jan

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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Jan

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."

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Jan

But a lot of it, is just determination.

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Jan

I love doing the process from taking the pictures... Here chicka dee-dee-dee.

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Jan

...to creating the artwork and having my soul go into each piece.

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Jan

It's just... Yeah, I couldn't be happier.

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