ABOUT KIP

Who is this Kip guy anyway?

Kip Mussatt is a self-taught artist and engineer now living in Arizona, with roots in Hutchinson, Kansas. He studied electrical engineering at Kansas State University while in the Air Force ROTC scholarship program, although it didn't take long to discover that he didn't quite fit the military status quo.

While engineering became his main profession, art had been part of Kip's life long before engineering ever entered the picture.

Kip drew constantly as a kid—everything from Viking ships to airplanes and rockets. He never picked up a paintbrush until college, when his mother, Sandra, developed an allergy to her oil paints and gave them to him. His first painting was of a girl from Sports Illustrated, and from there painting became another way for him to bring the things that captured his imagination to life.

Most of Kip's work has always centered around people. For whatever reason, he's always found people easier to draw than inanimate objects. Give him a person to sketch and he's happy; give him a bowl of fruit and things get complicated.

Not surprisingly, Kip's artistic influences have also tended toward artists known for figurative and fantasy work. Early influences included Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta, with later inspiration coming from artists such as Luis Royo, Lorenzo Sperlonga, and Keith Clevenger.

Kip began painting in oils—the medium that quite literally fell into his hands when his mother gave him her paints. As his style developed and his work became increasingly detailed, he began experimenting with acrylics and found they better suited the fine detail he was trying to achieve. Acrylics eventually became his primary painting medium, although the old oil paints were where it all began.

Over the years, Kip's artwork has taken him in some interesting directions. He has helped publish two independent comics, self-published a comic of his own, and had his artwork selected for publication in Infected by Art, Volume 1. Along the way, conventions, art shows, and other projects have also introduced him to some fascinating people and created a few good stories.

Today, Kipsworld is where all of those different interests come together. The artwork ranges from fantasy and pop culture to pin-up, alternative, and sometimes decidedly more adult subject matter. There isn't really a grand formula behind it—Kip tends to paint whatever captures his imagination, makes him laugh, or simply seems like it would be fun to put on canvas.

That also explains why Kipsworld can be a little difficult to put into a neat category. And that's probably the way it should be.