By Aarav Lemar
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day was born in Los Angeles. He focuses on sculptures. What he does most though is be a photographer. He likes taking photos of sculptures. When he turned 13 he moved to Idaho. He also went to a high school in Belgium. He studied art and history the most. He got a master’s degree in art. He also got a master’s degree in history. He studies history because history is never complete.
By Summer Phelps
East Rock Record Staff
One thing about Ken Gonzales-Day is that he is Mexican-American. And one fun fact is that he will do anything for some crab cakes. One question that was asked was, “When did you become an artist?” His answer was that, “I have been an artist for as long as I can remember.” He said there is really no real age that makes you an artist. You can be an artist at the age of two. And so with that, another fact is that he started his career in 2008.
By Ouji Dubee
East Rock Record Staff
1.TOTE BAG
2. I GOT TO MEET KEN GONZALES-DAY
3.BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSS RRRRRRIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Alya Mikkelson
East Rock Record Staff
Hello. My name is Alya Mikkelson, 5th grade reporter for the East Rock Record. I got the opportunity to meet Ken Gonzales-Day, a photographer from Los Angeles. He had recently made a billboard with sculptures from various museums. It was titled “Composition in Black and Brown.” What I thought was really cool was how he was doing art even when he was four, maybe five years old. He used bread dough for making sculptures before moving to marble and bronze. He found a book with lots of artwork and sculptures, and he memorized it by the time he was in high school. It was really a wonderful opportunity to be able to ask him questions and listen to his answers. Thank you, Mr. Gonzales-Day for taking time to speak with us!
MORE ABOUT THE ARTWORK
His artwork is usually photographical. For the “Composition in Black and Brown,” Ken Gonzales-Day went to multiple museums to take photos of each sculpture. He spent a lot of time thinking about how it would look, until he combined them like a collage and put it on a billboard. It still took a long time to have everyone’s permission.
By GG King
East Rock Record Staff
On September 12, the East Rock Record group went to the Yale Center for British Art. Since the building was closed for renovations, we stayed in the lower courtyard. We had come to interview Ken Gonzales-Day. He is an artist and photographer who focuses on statues and sculptures of colored people versus the more common statues of white people. At first there was no microphone, so Ken had to shout. While we were waiting, he sipped from an iced coffee he got from Harvest, the restaurant we were located in front of. At first, he talked a little about his art. Then we launched into questions. We had so many questions!
It would take too long to list them, so here is it in a nutshell. Ken Gonzales-Day was born in Los Angeles, California. In middle school, he moved to Idaho. He then went to Napa High School for the beginning of high school. He then continued high school as an exchange student in Belgium. He went to Hunter College in New York before moving back to California, where he got a master’s degree at UC Irvine. Once out of college, he studied racism facing Latinos in California. He wrote a book and did several projects on that before starting to photograph statues and make projects. The project that has recently been released is called “Composition in Black and Brown.” When asked why he likes art, he said that, “Art allows me to see things I wouldn’t normally see” and “I do it [art] because it [the world] isn’t fair” When asked about his favorite part of New Haven, he said that he enjoyed the crab cakes because there were no crab cakes in California.
By Weiyue Zhong
East Rock Record Staff
What interested me was that the artist was actually there so he could tell us about his life. The two sculptures he focused on were from different places. One sculpture was from the Peabody Museum, and one was from the Yale Center for British Art. The one from YCBA was made after the one from the Peabody Museum. The one from YCBA was built in Mexico. It was sunny at the press conference.
Divera Simon
East Rock Record Staff
A question for Ken Gonzales-Day: Why do you do what you do? He it was because it is fun. Because it is interesting. He said that people usually walk past art and sculptures. “I walk around museums and take cool photos of the art. Being an artist lets me see art in a different way, I can see all the little cracks and details, most people don’t see that.”
By Van Smith
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzalez was born in LA. He has taken over 2000 pictures at museums.
He’s been to 40 museums himself. The press conference with him happened outside at the Yale Center for British Art. He has not made that many sculptures himself.
By Quinn Pellegrino
East Rock Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day said that when he’s sad, he likes to do art so he does not feel sad anymore. He said that he does art because the world is not fair.
By Bea Cheishvili
East Rock Record Staff
On September 12, 2024, East Rock Record reporters went to the Yale Center for British Art. Outside a restaurant called Harvest there was Ken Gonzales-Day, a famous artist and a writer. He gave us information about his art that had photographs of two sculptures. It was called “Composition in Black and Brown.” One of the sculptures is in the Yale’s Peabody museum, and the other is believed to have been created in British artist Francis Harwood’s studio.
By Serelle Barsalou
It was a hot, sunny day when we interviewed Ken Gonzales-Day. It was September 12, 2024.
By Nayala Conroe
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day is a Mexican-American who was born in California and later moved to Idaho. He is an artist, writer, and teacher. He has a master’s degree in Art and Art History. His art is mainly made of photographs. In his artwork titled “Composition in Black and Brown,” he shows a sculpture of a man of African descent from the 1700s, as well as a sculpture of an indigenous person which was probably used to hold a flag or banner, made between 1350 and 1521.
The background is a blue sky with some clouds. There are white sculptures of many important people from Europe that are meant to represent and look like clouds. This is meant to show diversity in sculptures and art shown within the Yale Center for British Art. It shows how different cultures are represented through art and have been for hundreds and hundreds of years. It allows people to see the world in a new way. Ken Gonzales-Day wants to put this on display and show this to people because “the world is not fair, and history is incomplete.”
He also wants to bring art out of museums and display it in places you will go every day. The “Composition in Black and Brown” is displayed on a temporary billboard as well as a window and door on a building that is being repaired. Ken Gonzales-Day has photographed sculptures in 40 museums across the world. He has also made a couple of sculptures himself in art school and, even before then, out of bread dough.
Ken Gonzales-Day also enjoys writing, particularly about art. He said that he would write about art that his friends (who are also artists) made, in hopes they would grow in popularity and get seen more. He says that “you can write anything, but that doesn’t mean that anyone will read it.” Another of Ken’s hobbies is cooking and baking. He likes to make Mexican food. He also likes to bake cookies and pies. He says that he “makes a very good crust.” Ken Gonzales-Day has done many interesting things and the press conference with him was very inspiring.
By Cady Ali
East Rock Record Staff
During the interview, Ken Gonzales-Day mentioned that he had been doing art for as long as he remembered, and that he enjoyed doing any form of art and that anything can be art. Another thing that he mentioned was that he would include a lot of people of different races in his artwork. He also said that he has made sculptures with things such as bronze and marbles but mainly does photography. He said that he enjoyed his job because he was able to see a lot of things that are not shown to the public. Something else he mentioned was that his artwork is shown on billboards.
By Haven Pickett
East Rock Record Staff
When I first saw “Composition in Black and Brown,” the two sculptures in the center stood out to me as independent and free. Ken Gonzales-Day, the creator of “Composition in Black and Brown,” grew up in California. When he was 14, his parents sent him to Idaho for high school. Halfway through high school he went to Belgium as an exchange art student. After high school he went to college in NYC. Ken is now a professor and artist living in California.
By Julissa Duran
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day is an artist of art history. He says that when you are sad, you can go back into history and learn how to get out of the sadness.
By Ryann Phelps
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day said that every time he made a new piece of art it was his new favorite. At first, he wasn’t very good at drawing, but then he kept on trying and got a lot better and now he’s an artist. He makes art so people can enjoy his art. He went to forty museums because he likes museums.
By Dima Ali
East Rock Record Staff
My name is Dima and I liked that Ken Gonzales-Day is an artist because I like drawing. I asked him what he enjoyed about being an artist. He likes doing art but does not like to carry his tools because he said it can be hard sometimes and they can be heavy. He does like and enjoy drawing.
I really want to be an artist when I grow up and be good at drawing. Some sculptures are really realistic which I like because I like realistic things. The sculpture scared me a little bit because sometimes realistic things scare me because I think they will start moving and stuff. I do try to draw realistic things like one of my friend who is very good at drawing. I draw at home and try to draw very good, but I think I can do better. Then, I call my friend because she teaches me how to draw because she is really good. Sometimes I wish I could draw like that, but practice make prefect, so I try and my friend teaches me. But she says you can make art however you want. It does not have to be perfect. It does not have to be realistic. It can be anything.
By Briza Méndez Herrera
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day’s experience was similar to mine because someone asked him what subject he liked in school. At first, I thought he was going to say “art,” but instead he said “recess.” I like recess, too, but I only use recess to draw. I never play with other people. I only draw with my BFF Adelle. I’m kind of similar to him. I like to draw and sometimes use lunch as an opportunity to draw. Honestly, I get all A+ and B+ in art. Whenever we all went on the computers I would draw without the teacher noticing — rarely though.
By Eliseo Plascencia
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day has really loved art his whole life. He said that he “started liking art around 5.” He also started to study how to do art, and how to improve in art. After elementary school, he joined an art club. During lunch, he would draw with his friend. He would also just draw when he was sad. He also developed an interest in history. I also think he can relate to me because just like how he loved doing art, I love doing history.
After middle school in high school he went to Belgium to do art. During high school he started calling himself an artist. He got better and better after every year. After high school he went to another art school in New York. Then, after that, he started photographing art in museums all over the world. Like Japan, Mexico, and China. Now he is currently making billboards like his “Composition in Black and Brown.” He started at stick figures. Now, he’s making art for the world.
Charlie Pellegrino
East Rock Record Staff
Ken Gonzales-Day is a very interesting person who loves art. He started making art when he was a very young person. “I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember,” he said. Gonzales-Day chose to make the particular piece of art we saw because he wanted to focus on the African and Aztec people. “I chose these sculptures because Yale doesn’t have a lot of black/brown sculptures,” he said. One of the sculptures was a Xipe symbolic figure. He went to the Pratt Institute in New York and other art schools. He has studied art and art history, which is what he teaches in Los Angeles.
Aarambhika Sinha
East Rock Record Staff
Muscles, black statue, tan statue, white statues. Pluto turns into Earth.
Rafi Conroe
East Rock Record Staff
I liked that Ken Gonzales-Day made art with a collection of sculptures. The statues in the background were some statues of poets and kings and other famous European people from the 19th century, but if you look from far away they look like clouds in the sky. Gonzales-Day went to many museums, 40 in total, including in Mexico, Germany, United States, Netherlands, and France. He used to make sculptures out of bread dough, and then later, bronze. He said to make a billboard, you need to get a photo then get the photo printed out on a big printer. The sculptures in the background drew my attention to the center with the guy and the Aztec sculpture. The Aztec sculpture has arms from a different sculpture and people have supposed that the sculpture used to hold a banner.