By Colin Secore

On May 25th, at The DRAW Gallery, I met with Lance Cushman: a member of the Youth Workforce and prodigious illustrator who’s been a part of MKAD for four years. While Lance has dealt with a lot of uncertainty and anxiety growing up, he’s grown to be very appreciative of The DRAW and much more conscious of the arts community here in Kingston. He was at one point a reoccurring student of our class program at a very young age before thrust into the then-PUGG program.

“I don’t know where I would be without The DRAW,” Lance shared with me, “I started doing classes here first when I was 10? 12? Somewhere in there. Then I think I was 13 or 14 when I was recruited. [Lance laughs] I was enlisted into the Youth Workforce. I didn’t want to at first! My dad was like, ‘No you have to apply for this,’ because I was scared. I was 14 years old, a weird, anxious homeschooled kid, which I still am to a degree. But not as much anymore. But [The DRAW] pushed me.”

One thing I’ve come to understand about Lance is his profound ability to capture someone’s likeness in a drawing. Of course, that’s not where his artistry starts and ends. When I asked him about his creative practice he told me about how deep it ran even if he didn’t see it.

“Sometimes it’s hard to be like: ‘Oh, I’m an artist! This is my deal.’ You know? I just make stuff. [Lance laughs] I mean, it’s like a constant. A constant making of stuff. I’m here, and now at school, and at home, it’s like I don’t know days where I don’t draw something. It’s like a routine, never-ending.”

I asked Lance more about his own personal definition of what it means to be an artist since he seemed uncertain about what counted for him. He told me: “I guess it’s my title at this point? That I’m an artist? I could say something basic like, ‘Oh, expression and communication,’ and to a degree I think that’s true. I think there’s something innate about it, like it’s always been what I’ve done since I was little, and I never really stopped. That’s how I ended up here.”

When I asked Lance to elaborate on his relationship with Kingston, he told me, “You meet so many people. So many other local organizations, so many businesses. There have been so many connections that have happened through [MKAD]. I got to work on a mural with O+. Even just knowing more people around here, even if I don’t live in Midtown, I know the waiters at the diner. [Lance laughs] Knowing a lot of people who come in here [The DRAW], too, I rarely meet people who I’ve never seen before. It’s easy to know everyone, even though it’s a big place.”

I asked Lance what he loved about Kingston the most. He said, “I have to say the people. I met my two best friends here. Pretty much everyone in the Youth Workforce is very supportive. It’s very non-judgmental. I think it’s what I needed, and still need. From that point of being the scared little 14-year-old to now, being a senior in high school and going to art school. All that new stuff. All of the people who have supported me here have gotten me to this point.”

To me, Lance is an exemplary example of the Youth Workforce and the way the organization provides for the youth looking for their place in the creative world. From the beginning, they had artistic intuition and found their place where they might not have otherwise. You can find Lance’s work on his Instagram account: @thecush.