By Colin Secore

In my pursuit of interviewing members of MKAD staff and collaborators, it was only a matter of time before I interviewed one of many different art educators who have worked with us and taught one of countless art classes. The first of them that I spoke to was Alyssa Gougoutris on June 8th. She’s an upbeat, spirited, momentum-driven personality with a love of art for the fun of it. Fittingly, she’s taught the Saturday Arts Lab for 3rd-5th graders for 5 years now.

“We just experiment with different things,” Alyssa explained, “If the kids have an idea then we’ll try to create a lesson with it or try to put that into the class outline. I make a class outline but sometimes they pick which one they wanna do. They like having a choice.”

I imagined that with kids that it may get chaotic, so I asked her if it ever did. “Sometimes,” Alyssa said, “But we vote. [Alyssa laughs] We take a vote, and usually they’re all on the page, thank god. They definitely like to all talk together. Thankfully, they don’t get too wild. They’re pretty cool kids, it’s pretty chill. I like that they all talk to each other, though. It’s so funny hearing all the overlapping conversations. It gets really chaotic! Really crazy really quick. But I’d rather that than silence, y’know?”

When I asked Alyssa about her creative practice, “I wasn’t prepared for this question!” She said with laughter before continuing, “I’ve been in a little bit of a rut. But, you know, honestly? I think sometimes I need to write, and then in order for me to get my ideas out, I need to write how I’m feeling or what I want to portray and then go from there. Reducing it to single words that are what I want. Kind of like the process of elimination, but with my writing.

“I’m really into collage, so honestly whatever sticks out to me or whatever looks funny, I’ll clip out and be like, ‘Yeah, that’s cool, I’ll take that!’ I have a little bag that I keep little cutouts in that I’ve thought ‘I can use that for later.’ [Alyssa laughs] ‘This is gonna come in handy!’ I like that. I’m not much of a painter, but painting is fun in the sense that I like mixing the colors. Then I get too particular. With that, I like to sketch it out, get a bunch of different angles of it, then go for it.

“If I don’t like it, then I don’t… like it! And if I do like it, then that’s awesome. [Alyssa laughs]”

I told Alyssa that it sounded like she liked to relinquish a bit of control in her practice, and asked her if she thought that was accurate. “Yeah. I think just letting it go, letting it happen,” She said, “I think when I think too much about it, that’s when I get overworked or I just get tired of it. When I let it go, I feel like it flows. I like to listen to music while I work, and I’ll just sing along as I work, and that’s fine! [Alyssa laughs] My brain is pretty much off during that whole process.”

When I asked Alyssa what her art meant to her, she insisted upon how it changes meaning with time. “It started out as women and feminism and everything within that category,” She told me, “And having a sarcastic humor about it. I think, over the years, I’ve thought ‘Do I always need to focus on that?’ I mean, it’s a very important topic obviously. But, sometimes it’s important to just create and do what you want to do. If you see something that’s cool and you think, ‘Wait, I wanna try that!’ That’s what I like to do with the kids, I just say ‘Try it out! Don’t think about what’s going on after, just try it. We can always start over.’ Yeah, so I think it’s all about experimenting. You don’t get to do that in a lot of other places. So I think the meaning of your work changes over time, continuously, because it’s like you’re growing all the time. Everyone is changing all the time, so their work is changing too.”

I affirmed Alyssa’s sentiment, saying that I felt that a lot of artists get stuck in their own heads before the creative process even begins. “You get stuck in your own ways,” Alyssa replied, “That’s where I was for a long time, and honestly still am.”

When asked what defines her as an artist, Alyssa said, “I think what makes you an artist is if you’re creative, if you can think outside the box, if you’re innovative, and if you can think of a solution [Alyssa snaps her fingers] really quickly. That’s also what makes artists, like, awesome. [Alyssa laughs] They can always, at the drop of a hat, make things up where they left off or fix things and think of solutions. I think that’s what makes artists, artists. Being able to make something out of nothing.

“I think, with me, what makes me an artist is my ability to find solutions in things and being able to see things and say, ‘Oh, yeah, I like that texture or I like this or I like that,’ and wanting to create something with it. Being able to perceive things a little differently, and for me it’s a lot about color. I don’t know, I just see these colors all the time and go, ‘Oh that’s nice.’ [Alyssa laughs] I think that’s what makes me an artist. I think I see things and think ‘How do I do that?’

“Lately it’s been shadows from the Sun through the trees. Getting that pattern is so nice. You can see, it’s usually on trails, and it’s so pretty. It’s glittering, but it’s just sunlight.”

Next, I asked about Alyssa’s relationship to Kingston. “I think it’s good,” Alyssa said, “I love being a part of The DRAW. I love that our classes are non-profit and that they’re pay-what-you-can because it makes me feel so much better about it being accessible to everybody, and I think that’s what makes it so special. Having [kids] from different backgrounds or different homes, you have them all here together and they’re communicating! It’s so cute, they all become friends from different parts of Kingston or the Hudson Valley.

“I love being part of the community, I love being part of the Steamroller [Print Fest]. The Steamroller [Print Fest] is awesome. I like seeing all the shows, and the kids love going and seeing the shows. They say, ‘Oh my god, how did they do that?!’ They love checking it out whenever there’s a new show in there. If it’s fit for them. [Alyssa laughs] I love the shows here. I love the community here. You always have someone that’ll go ‘Let’s figure this out.’

“I think, giving me the ability to use my artistic experience to teach the kids, is all I ever wanted. Coming out of education or even high school, I always wanted to do something with art. Giving me the opportunity to teach these kids and be a part of MKAD is, itself, a gift. Also, working for R&F Paints, that’s a part of the arts community here in Kingston. I love being a part of that. It’s awesome to me because both of them are jobs, but they don’t feel like jobs, so they’re awesome. I think that’s just the coolest. I got two of the coolest jobs in Kingston’s art world.”

Alyssa Gougoutris was quite an inspiring conversationalist, showing her love for every little part of art at every moment. The process has never grown old for her, and it is with a full heart that she shares her perspective on how wonderful art-making is to the kids who come here. It’s the kind of perspective that could pull any artist out of a mental block. If you want to find Alyssa’s work, you can stay tuned for the Teaching Artists Show and the Steamroller Print Fest.