Noah Kocher is a 21 year old artist from Nashville. Although he’s been painting for three years now, he still isn’t sure how to describe his style. Instead, he let’s his work speak for itself. Putting tons of emotion and heart into his paintings, Noah’s works are all very personal and mirror himself in some way. Check out some of his artwork and read our interview below.
.
How would you describe your style?
I’ve been trying to find an answer to that questions for years, I’m still not sure what my “style” consists of. Most people call it abstract, but I think it’s more than that. My art is literally myself manifested. It is my emotions in that moment put on canvas for anyone to view. So for me to put it into a box and call it one style would almost be impossible because it means so much more, it’s me.
Describe your creative process.
My creative process is an ever changing one, it definitely would depend on how I’m feeling in that moment to how I would start creating art. If I’m feeling sad or melancholy I would probably take a long deep breathe and stare at a blank canvas for a few minutes, put some headphones in and ease my way into painting. If I’m angry I wouldn’t even give it a thought I would just start painting immediately to let my frustration out. I have a bad habit of starting numerous pieces at once without actually finishing them, right now I probably have 25+ unfinished pieces just lying around because I get bored and want to start something else. I see this as a blessing and a curse. Blessing because I always have something to work on, curse because it takes a lot of will power to actually call something finished.
What inspires you?
There are many things that inspire me. Interaction with like minded individuals, normal everyday things in life that would typically be viewed as normal I view as inspiration, the sky. My biggest inspiration though, as conceited as this sounds, has to be myself. What I mean by that is whenever I’m in a rut and not sure what to create (which happens from time to time) I intently look at my old works from months even years in the past to gather some inspiration and basically ask myself “how can I make this even better?”
Do you make any other kind of art other than paintings?
I try very hard to not limit myself to one medium, experimentation is key. Other mediums I like to partake in consist of bleach on fabric, alcohol inks, dyeing, basically anything I can get my hands on I’ll be excited to try out. Even if it doesn’t come out the way I want or the way I was expecting you can never be afraid of what the end product will look like, just do it with no fear.
What does art and the ability to express yourself mean to you?
Art is my release, art is my passion, art is the only thing that gets me through the day. It’s the one thing in my life that I can always depend on that can never be taken away from me. Whenever I am painting nothing else matters, I’m in the zone and nothing can separate me from that canvas. Before my art I had nothing, I had no ability to express myself, nothing that fulfilled me. Once I discovered this passion it was like a burning fire that never went out, an eternal void that could never be filled. I’m always trying to one up myself and that’s the most satisfying part about it, when you make something that looks even better than your last. That’s where the real fulfillment is at. As cheesy as it sounds, art literally saved my life. If I hadn’t discovered my love for art 3 years ago I don’t know what the hell I’d be doing right now and I am forever thankful for that.
What is your main goal as an artist?
That is a question that is on my mind constantly. Why am I even doing this? What am I trying to say? I don’t think that I have a complete answer and I don’t know if I ever will, all I know right now is that I just want to inspire other individuals. I want people to look at my art and think “woah, what if I tried that?” I want people to not be afraid of making art and just do it. Self expression is so important and so many people aren’t doing it, if you’re not expressing yourself then how are you growing?
What do you want people to know you for?
I want to be known as an artist, simply put. I want people to remember me as someone that expressed himself freely without fear.
Follow Noah on 
Instagram and 
Twitter to see more of his work.
