Crowler Art Q&A with Khalil Guzman-Jerry
/By Dan Carlson
There’s a lot of talk about what the “Worcester Renaissance” should and will look like, but one thing’s for certain - Worcester’s renaissance man is already here.
Khalil Guzman-Jerry, who created our current crowler label, is a multi-talented artist with a lot up his sleeve. His website, The Worcester Workshop, showcases his impressive arsenal of work across graphic design, prints, murals, and clothing and accessories. And he’s in the process of adding animation, music, and more to his toolkit.
And The Worcester Workshop is way more than a side gig; Khalil quit his office job mid-pandemic to open the site and pursue art full-time as a career. You can listen to Khalil talk about this origin story and more in his episode of the SeltzerTime podcast.
We spoke with Khalil to learn about how he developed his unique style, his vision for The Worcester Workshop, and the messages behind his work.
How did you get started as an artist?
The earliest things I can remember are Disney movies. I was extremely into Disney movies. I had all these Disney VHS cassettes and I would redraw the covers when I was like 7, and I remember my mom would tell me they were really good. That positive reinforcement kept me going.
I did eventually take a few classes, like at the Worcester Art Museum. But overall, I wouldn't even eat or drink anything, I just did art all day. I knew it was something I wanted to pursue. It’s like I had tunnel vision - it was all I could think about. Even in other classes, I’d spend all my time on the creative parts of projects and less on research and other stuff.
But I think the cartoonish side of my art comes from those Disney cassettes. I didn’t really want to be into realism because we already have a lot of that. But with cartoons and art like that, it’s up to your brain to say how it’s supposed to look.
There are obviously a lot of other influences in your art today beyond Disney. How did you evolve that style over the years?
Honestly, I don’t think I’m truly, as an artist, going to figure out what my style is for like 10 years. But I’m a big fan of using colors, really popping colors, and bold, vibrant lines. This is the way I outline my characters, which is a big part of my look.
A lot of this comes from the positive reinforcement I got when I was younger. When I was at Worcester State in my first-year art class, my teacher would come around the room to review everyone’s work, and she stopped and said “your lines are so bold - never lose that.”
It’s just the way she said that, and the way these lines make things pop out, it’s a big part of what I’m doing today.
But I don’t know my thing yet. I don’t think I’m at that point, and I don’t know if I’ve taken any influences and made it my own yet. Maybe subconsciously, because there’s just amazing art everywhere. It’s the same with music - if people put their passion into something, people are going to find it.
How did you decide to put all your work under an umbrella brand like The Worcester Workshop?
In my head, I was thinking about how I was doing all these things - graphic design, fashion, murals, and eventually music and animations - and I want to be able to get them all to a point where I’ve established everything and use this umbrella to keep them all. So if someone finds an animation they like, they can click back and see the paintings and other stuff I’ve done.
Right now it’s not a big deal, but when I establish myself, I want to be a highway for Worcester artists to flow through and be a part of. There are so many talented people in the community doing fashion, music, you name it. So many cool people, and I think the world needs to see it. If I can make the avenue, then I’ll use it to my fullest extent and get people out there.
You have a handful of characters, like the Worcester Kid, that show up across a lot of your work. What’s their story?
I get kind of manic sometimes. I’ll be sitting by myself and get obsessed with ideas that pop into my head. With my animations, I want to build up a world. I appreciate the Gorillaz for what they do with building up a world and getting people to help expand it. That’s how I got the two racer characters. I was getting into racing and I could just see a video in my head with these two characters and I had to draw them.
The Worcester Kid is the mascot. You’ll see him a lot. I’ve always been kind of hard-headed - pushing buttons and playing devil’s advocate - just to see the other side of things. There’s a yin and yang to everything, and the country needs balance. That’s what I’m doing with the X&O - representing the black and white, the red and blue. There are always two sides to everything. You can’t forget that perspective. That’s why Worcester Kid is split in half, because of his two personalities. It’s just knowing that there are two sides to everything.
Tell us about the crowler label. How did you create it?
I took those two racer characters, and the Worcester kid was already done, and honestly it was just a freestyle in my mind. I knew exactly where the government warning and the beer details were going to be, and I wanted that all to be away from the rest of the piece. And on the left corner edge, I just put some textures up there.
I built the whole label on my phone, using Procreate. Initially, I would just straight up draw with a pencil, but eventually got to the point where I use Procreate. Before Procreate, I used the Adobe mobile app - I built Worcester Kid that way.
I was asked to do this after the Black Lives Matter mural, and the whole thing just shows how there are a lot of cool people in this city. Like when I went to the brewery, everyone was super cool, such a cool vibe. There are a lot of new people coming to the city, and we have lots of different kinds of people that are special in a lot of different ways, and I want everyone to see that. Like, I think about Joyner - hey dude, you made it real for us that there’s a world out there. It’s not fake. He opened the door for a lot of us. I want to keep pushing that.
