Today we’d like to introduce you to Karl Zurflüh.
Karl, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the second of two boys, my brother being two and a half years older than me. We were stationed at Barbers Point Naval Air Base, where my father was an A4 pilot flying for VC-1. From there, we moved to Tacoma, WA when I was about 2 years old. I grew up on cartoons, comics, and video games, they were my world, my escape and I knew they would be part of my life. I started skateboarding around 10 years old, drawing is the only thing I have been doing longer. At thirteen, I started going to shows at the legendary Community World Theater, which would have a huge impact on my art and attitude on life.
After high school, I moved to Seattle to go to Cornish School of the Arts to study Fine Art. I spent two years there, developing a strong foundation in traditional art. This was also the time I was introduced to hip-hop culture which still influences my work to this day. I wanted to be an independent artist, making a living on my paintings. Having no support for this dream filled me with doubt. Commercial art seemed like the most likely way for me to make a living as a creative. I could always make my own art on the side while working a full-time job. At that time, animation was the only art job I knew of, so that became my focus and I looked for schools that specialized in this.
Trying to escape the gray skies and looking for more technical training, I transferred to Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota FL. (one of the top animation schools in the US) Upon acceptance I was faced with a pivotal decision, traditional or computer. I chose to study traditional Illustration, which taught me tons about design, painting, color theory, and technique. Outside of school, I continued developing other skills, painting murals almost every week. I received my BFA in Illustration and got a full-time job as a graphic designer where I began to learn computers. After five years in FL, my love of video games helped me make the decision to invest further in myself, by going to grad school. I moved to New York City to study Computer Animation, at The School of Visual Arts.
In NY, I continued to work while in school, going through a number of different commercial art jobs. I worked in fashion, web design, magazine/layout, advertising, character design, graphic design, screen printing, museums, and painted murals. Overall, the years, I have had almost every kind of art job one can have. Then with some help from friends, I landed a part-time job at Nickelodeon. I worked for an animated TV show as an Animation Assistant. Which was a fancy way of saying I made photocopies of storyboards and scanned in hand-drawn (by someone else) keyframes.
When I was given the chance to go full-time, I put school on hold and I moved up rapidly from Designer to Senior Designer in a week. One thing this time taught me was, that my passion for animation was not strong enough. 9/11 happened, the TV show I was working on got canceled and I struggled for nine months to find a job. As I regrouped and pushed myself towards game design, I finished my graduate degree. I worked odd jobs, bartending, and freelancing until I found a full-time job in entertainment advertising. The appeal of making movie posters was strong as all of my design and illustration skills got to blend. The real lesson would be about life-work balance, this was my introduction to the grind of the industry, the 12–14-hour workday.
After a couple of years in the NY office, I took a job transfer and moved to the LA office, thinking that would get me closer to the gaming industry. Years of sending my reel and portfolio to the West coast had garnered no responses. I only lasted three months in the new caustic office, before a friend recommended a start-up agency that was specializing in video game advertising. After meeting with them it seemed like a good fit, so we took a chance on each other and I still work for them to this day. For me, it is a dream job where a lot of my passions get to thrive while working with talented like-minded people. I get to work on the largest AAA game titles in the world, developing their marketing styles and helping create their global campaigns.
Ten years passed like a blip where I had a myriad of amazing adventures all over the world and met countless awesome people. For five of these years, I taught Key Art & Branding at FIDM, and my last year there was awarded Outstanding Teacher of the year. Throughout all of this, I continued my personal paintings, feeding the dream of losing the titles (graphic artist, commercial artist, graffiti artist, fine artist) and just being an artist.
My wife and I decided to move to Charleston to start a family. I was lucky enough that my job supported this and let me work remotely before it was a thing. This was my chance to blend all of the styles and disciplines I had been keeping separate for so long. So began my development as an artist. I have been in CHS for eight years now and my personal work has gone through massive transformations. My style continues to develop and evolve.
I have participated in numerous group shows throughout the Southeast and I have murals sprinkled throughout the country. Last year, I was picked up by the Revealed Gallery in downtown Charleston, where I continue to show and grow. As I continue to look ahead, I try to remain positive and I am so thankful for the journey so far.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are so many in the world of art and life; rejection, depression, self-doubt, style trends that aren’t yours, lack of exposure, politics, all of which I have experienced in massive quantities. At the beginning of my journey, there are a few challenges that were the most impactful. The first was that post-high school, I was financially on my own. This coupled with no mentor for the Art world. I knew what I wanted to do; I just didn’t know how to get there. I could go to a State University and become a teacher, or join the military like my family, or I could make my own path.
Student loans and Art School is what I chose. I view this as investing in myself. When you have a mountain of debt there is a real motivation to make the gamble pay off. This decision was key but it came with a lot of extra challenges that I would have to eventually overcome. After this comes the challenge of moving for opportunities. I have moved from coast to coast three times and up and down the coasts as well. Finally, in this day and age, we are starting to see that people can make roots where they like and still work in communities from afar. Finding a work-life balance is an ongoing challenge that I continue to battle. It is so important to develop boundaries to help preserve mental and physical health, but sometimes saying no is the hardest thing to do when you are hungry.
My most recent challenge has been becoming a father. It is something not talked about, that many people face. Struggling to create children is such an emotional journey that our medical industry preys on. Amid this challenge, I have grown so much. I have chosen to face my past and address what impact my father had on my life to help prepare me to someday be a dad. This journey is a major thematic part of my most recent paintings. Throughout all of these challenges, failure and growth are the keys, staying as positive as I can is something I have had to learn along the way, but has been pivotal to my success.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My current body of work revolves around images of pilots, paper airplanes, and light. I was supposed to be a third-generation USN pilot. My dad was KIA when I was 11 months old. This tragedy caused my family to shut down, and he nor the accident were ever spoken of.
The hole that was created in my life is the motivation for this work. The pilot characters I paint could be me if my father had lived, or they could represent anyone that is floating in the void of uncertainty. I try to illuminate his legacy while speaking to families that struggle with loss. I paint positive strong light sources which represent dreams and hope, so the pilots are never lost, they are on the verge of being discovered. The paper airplanes represent the innocence, and imagination that everyone has. Through this positive narrative, I hope to encourage kids, especially the ones with single parents, to chase their dreams.
The work is a culmination of all of my skills converging to create beautiful subtleties. Whether it is canvases or large-scale murals every piece exudes my passion for life and my joy of the creative process. I include graphics to layer the narrative and to push the overall design flow. The base and the lighting of the paintings are built up with spray paint, while the details are illustrated with delicate brushwork. I am very proud of this work as it continues to evolve past where my imagination thought it could go.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
When I was four at daycare, nap time came and I did not want to stop playing. In years past when my older brother was there, I was allowed to skip nap time and play quietly with the older kids. Since my brother had graduated to Kindergarten, I was alone, and the powers that be tried to move me back into the confines of subjugated sleep. This would not do! One day, the call came and they began herding us from the front room into the back, for the required resting.
I quickly made the decision of insubordination. Slipping into ninja mode, I quietly lagged back watching my fellow comrades shuffle off until it was only me in the front room. I waited for a moment and to my surprise, no authoritative figure came to fetch me. I knew I couldn’t hide there for the whole time, so I decided to just go home. Twisting the front door gently I made my escape. It was a beautiful warm summer day in Tacoma, the sun was out with a gorgeous blue sky.
I knew to stay off the main roads, so I wouldn’t raise suspicion as I began the five-mile walk home. I cut through fields, took side streets, all the while enjoying the departure from my regimented life. I was free, doing what I wanted when I wanted. It was joyous. I was never scared, worried, or hesitant in my quest. When it came to crossing Pacific Ave (a four-lane highway) I purposely chose not to cross at the light with the crosswalk, instead, I went up a street and waited for a clearing to bolt across.
It wasn’t until I walked up to our house and saw my mother was home washing the car, that I thought I would get caught. I decided to play it casually as I walked through the back gate. I acknowledged mom with a hello and then walked into the house. Her reaction was strong, but nothing mattered at that point, to me I had achieved my goal. Looking back now, this triumph set the stage for me reinforcing the notion that anything is possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: karlzurfluh.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karlzurfluh/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kzurfluh
- Other: https://www.revealedgallery.com/artists
Image Credits
Steve Aycock
