Kenneth Lavallee: Let's get this party started.
Oddica: Word. What are you up to now?
KL: School is done for the year and I'm very much dreading the getting of a lame job.

Oddica: Art-related job?
KL: Yes. I actually have a couple of secret projects that i need to start very soon. One involves film, one involves a book. And a T-shirt.

Oddica: As soon as they become 'not secret' let us know ... So how long have you been drawing and when did you realize that, Hey, I have a knack for this?
KL: I've been drawing forever. I was totally the kid in class that all the other kids went to if they needed a drawing of a bunny rabbit or something. I got the drawing bug from my mom, who used to paint birds and such on garages and sheds with shoe polish.

Oddica: Wow, pretty cool mom.
KL: That actually makes her sound like a hippy. She wasn't. She painted a guy killing a buffalo with a ton of arrows on the side of my grandparent's garage.

Oddica: Is that painting still there?
KL: No i'm pretty sure they painted over it.
Oddica: Bastards!

Oddica: Who are some Artists whose work you admire?
KL: Jillian Tamaki, Jordan Crane, Brian Cronin, Marcel Dzama, and this one guy in art school named Robert.
Oddica: Great list!
KL: Yeah Robert is amazing. I need to hook up with him ... art wise, very similar style.

Oddica: So people always are asking, What do you call those Little People?
KL: Haha ... Oh man.

Oddica: Little Potato People?
KL: People associate them with pretty much any sort of rooty plant (potato, radish, ginseng) ... they don't have an official name ... i love hearing what people think they are. I find it pretty funny.

Oddica: Where do you come up with such original ideas?
KL: It's all super intuitive ... I usually sit on my floor with a blank piece of paper, draw a head-shaped object, and roll from there.

Oddica: Any shout-outs to Artists, people who have inspired you, or anyone else you'd like to give props to?
KL: I never really given much thought into wanting to become like a real Artist when i "grew up", I wanted to go into graphic design. But then I was at a bookstore with my girlfriend and I saw a magazine with Marcel Dzama's work in it, and my girlfriend told me how he's from our city. I never thought it was really possible for someone to draw weird things like that and become super famous, never mind being from winnipeg.

Oddica: Have you met Marcel?
KL: I used to work at a music store and he came in a couple of times to buy CDs, but i hid in the back room. Though i went to school with his sister. Never spoke with him though.

Oddica: So where do you see yourself going as an artist in the next five years? I know you'd mentioned someday
wanting to run a gallery.
KL: After finishing school the plan is to get a hot studio space, and a quality silkscreen setup, and i plan to spend my days and nights mass-producing my art on anything and everything. And i'm not a fan of Art gallery curators (the ones i've met anyway), so the plan is to have my own gallery sort of like how indie bands start up their own labels.