Photos by Caitlin Abrams
Kar-Keat Chong by his city scape watercolor of downtown Minneapolis
Many of Kar-Keat Chong’s drawings of the Guthrie Theater and Minneapolis skyline are available as prints and notecards sold at Twin Cities shops, The Grand Hand Gallery and Umei.
Getting to know a place is a big benefit of Kar-Keat Chong’s pastime and passion. “When you draw versus take a picture, there’s so much more to it,” the artist and architect says. “Drawing buildings, something like the Cathedral in St. Paul, you appreciate all that went into it.”
Chong traces his love of drawing back to his youth in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. The city’s British Colonial buildings—many still preserved, which led to a UNESCO World Heritage site designation in 2008—inspired countless childhood doodles. Although he started art classes when he was 14, his parents and grandparents weren’t convinced he could turn it into a profession. “I asked myself, ‘What’s the next closest thing?’” he remembers. His answer was architecture.
Photo by Kar-Keat Chong
watercolor of downtown Minneapolis
His path took him to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, followed by jobs at Minneapolis firms Perkins & Will, HGA, and Julie Snow Architects (now Snow Kreilich Architects) and a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota. Two years ago, he launched his own practice, where he’s completed projects for Nerdery and BI Worldwide. But it was his father-in-law, Cheng-Khee Chee—a renowned artist who illustrated the children’s book Old Turtle—who inspired him to reconsider art. “‘What are you doing?’ he asked me,” Chong says. “‘You have the foundation, and your skills are much better than when I was your age. You need to get back into it.’”
And get back into he did. “When I really have the urge, I’ll paint or sketch in the studio, but most of the time I like painting and sketching on location and engaging all of my senses,” Chong says. “The sound and smell of a place really affect your emotions and what you’re trying to capture.”
As one of the administrators for the local chapter of Urban Sketchers—which counts more than 200 chapters around the world—Chong meets other artists in places around the Twin Cities, from landmarks like the Guthrie Theater to lesser-known gems like Irvine Park in St. Paul to inside during the wintertime at places like Midtown Global Market and the Bell Museum. Not surprisingly, buildings remain his favorite subject. “Being an artist makes me a better architect and vice versa,” he says. kar-keat.com
