KAWS Exhibition at YSP

I recently went on a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the KAWS open air exhibition. It's a series I've wanted to see for a while and making the trip was 110% worth it. Though KAWS started as a graffiti artist, he quickly rose to the top of the contemporary pop art world with his work shown in numerous galleries worldwide and sold for prices my small illustration soul can only dream about right now. On the trip, two things struck me about KAWS work;

1. The was he blurred the boundaries of labels; illustrator, fine artist, sculpture, graphic artist. He work encompassed elements of all of these labels and that was okay, in fact it was a lot better than okay. His work was a showcase that you don't have to fit into a singular bracket to be deemed successful; it's okay to cross populate.

2. The scale and finish of the pieces themselves. They had the varnish and exceptional finish of a high end vinyl toy blown up to the size of trees. I don't often think of making my own work big, usually the concerns and contexts of illustration fit within the perimeters of A1 work; but that doesn't mean that's how I should always think my work should be. These huge pieces EXCITED me, and why should I feel as though my practice is limited to something that could never fit this scale or grandeur just because I'm studying an 'illustration' degree. Of course there are practicalities in the way, and I could not afford anything near this level at this point, but that doesn't mean I should completely rule it out all together. Why can't my work be big? Why can't my work be build on things other than paper and inks? Where do I want my work to sit? If money was no object what would I do with my practice, how would I push it and stretch it into something even better, how can I capitalize on my strengths and employ them to varying disciplines? Lots of questions for the future of my practice.