Featured Artist: Kai Sabally

I’m a 17-year-old boy. I like playing video games and listening to music. I like reading comic books sometimes. I have psychiatric diagnosed autism and I really like eating food. I’m reading a Harley Quinn book right now because I just finished a two-part Batman book. And I like painting—oh wait, you guys already knew that.

A lot of my paintings are fueled by how I feel but also some of them I just start
somewhere. I start with one thing and end with another. I don’t like following rules with painting, I just like doing whatever I feel like.

[My main ambition as an artist is] to be able to show my art to other people. I want to be able to spread my art as far as possible. Even if people don’t like it, I want to be able to show my art to the world.

I like showing my talents to other people. People get to see this side of me they don’t normally see. [The emotions that fuel my artwork are] part of my everyday life. Unfortunately I can’t tell people how I feel really, or sometimes people don’t care to understand how I feel. Painting is a way to show it.

[I originally started making artwork because] I had an imagination and I didn’t know how to express it. [I like painting because] It feels good, relaxing. I get to do whatever I feel like. It feels nice, it feels like me.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.