Noah Kocher
Noah Kocher believes that art and love exist in the same plane—to immerse himself in one fully, he must immerse himself in the other. The 27-year-old Brooklyn-based artist has learned to let his heart guide his creative process. From dreamy paintings to otherworldly collages, Noah Kocher has created an artistic world filled with melting landscapes, unique characters, and a strange sense of familiarity. Art was never originally the plan for the Tennessee native. He recalls a high school art class in which he hated every piece he made, concluding that art was not his forte and that there was no reason to pursue it.
His original outlook seems silly now, with an Instagram audience of over 10,000 followers, a multitude of awe-inspiring art, and a successful online store. This success did not come overnight for Kocher. The origins of his career stretch back to 2013, when he enrolled in a fateful art history course at university.
“I was learning about art history, I was like, ‘this is actually really cool,’ people were just doing this, people have been making art for so long,” said Kocher. “It's really cool that people can just freely make art and not care; that's kind of why the doodling started because I was like, ‘okay, well, they're doing it, let me try it.’”
Kocher’s doodles were first manifested in a small sketchbook. As he practiced his style more and became comfortable with the creating technique, he decided to take a chance on himself and put two of his doodle designs onto t-shirts. To his surprise, the shirts sold, igniting the fire that perhaps an art career was not too far-fetched after all.
Kocher feels his earliest art and the art he makes now were created by two different people. But this change isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Currently, Kocher’s passions lie in collage work, creating pieces that push the boundaries of the medium. He’s been amassing an impressive collection of vintage magazines for several years now, using a careful eye to collect images that speak to his heart. Each page of a magazine is like a treasure hunt for him, and each treasure hunt produces a profoundly unique result. Kocher amplifies his collages with meticulous digital altering to give his media new life and produce images that transcend the confines of traditional image manipulation.
“I try really hard to make it my own and make it not just like a simple cut, cut, and dry collage; I want to make it unique,” says Kocher. “It's kind of like mixing digital and physical in a way. And I like to think that it gives this new dimension that I don't, personally, normally see in collage very often.”
Collage is not the only artistic avenue Kocher pursues; he also has extensive work with more physical mediums. Kocher has created work with paint, pastels, and black ink pen. Kocher strives not to constrain his own creative capacity so he might continue to evolve as an artist, creating work guided by his intuition.
While his intuition can be a gift for creating, he also feels that, at times, his internal dialogue mutates into a perfectionism that becomes difficult to appease. Knowing when a piece of art is finished is a challenge that many artists face in their work. Often, artists grapple with the voice, never sated, that tells them to keep tweaking and refining their piece. Kocher faces this dilemma most in his paintings.
“There's paintings that I've held on to and painted over multiple times, for months, or even a year; with painting, it's like a conversation, and sometimes it's hard to call it finished because I feel like I can always add more to it,” says Kocher. “If I'm ever dissatisfied with how it looks, I can just keep adding more to it until I eventually like it. So with painting, it's sometimes hard for me to feel that the conversation has finished and I don't have anything else to say.”
Collaging is a little more straightforward for him; if painting is a conversation, then collaging is a puzzle. Often, collaging is about finding the right puzzle piece image to complete the work. Once the piece is finished, however, relief and celebration kick in. Each finished piece in his collection marks another triumphant moment for Kocher, as he feels truly able to follow and harness his creative imagination for a living.
His art speaks for itself—each piece has an abstract narrative that visually pulls viewers in and traps them there. His pieces speak of dreamlike visions and experiment with line and texture to challenge our perceptions of subject and composition. His work teeters the line of uncanny valley, often manipulating pictures of people in his collages to take on a more dramatized form.
Kocher grew serious about making art his main source of income during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many, he suddenly lost his restaurant job and was forced to turn to art to get by. He was shocked to realize that selling his art brought in more income than his previous job had provided. This was a watershed moment for Kocher, in which he knew he could create art full-time
While working, Kocher tries to create a meditative, calming atmosphere. Ambient music fills his studio, centering himself amidst the creation process. Meditation and mindfulness have become an important part of Kocher’s life. His newfound self-awareness has improved Kocher’s mindset and, subsequently, his artistic faculties.
“Discovering therapy and meditation, those two together, honestly gave my life a new meaning. For the longest time, I thought that art was my only purpose, and that I had to live to make art,” says Kocher. “I realized now, after being in therapy for a few years and meditating regularly for the last few years, that my art is always going to be a part of who I am, but Noah is so much more than just art. There's so much more depth, and there's so much more room to explore the inner workings of who I am and what I believe.”
Opening up to his softer side has allowed Kocher to approach his work with a more mindful perspective. He hopes that this outlook on mental wellness translates across his work, that by allowing himself to feel safe in his own mind, he can open himself up to a new world of experience.
His inner world of creating is a direct reflection of the community of artists Kocher has sought out and fostered. This fellowship and solidarity continue to serve as a source of inspiration for Kocher and his creative process. In the early stages of his career, Kocher was a self-admitted solo artist. He did not have the strong foundations of a like-minded artistic community that he now enjoys. Finding this chosen family of artists has been a game-changer for Kocher.
“I think it's really important to, like, have people around you that you can bounce your ideas off of, and share them with. I feel that it's easier to be creative when other people are being creative,” says Kocher. “When you see someone drawing, you’re drawn to make something as well, just being able to simply bounce ideas off of someone that also gets creativity. Being able to get someone's opinion and eyes on your work in person, I just think it holds a lot of weight.”
Kocher’s current project seeks to foster the strengthening forces of love and community that sustain and propel him. In 2021, he launched his first iteration of the project “Love Letters.” Each letter sold would include a hand-drawn image, a letter from Kocher, and a sticker. At first, he was unsure of the level of success this new venture would bring. To his surprise, he sold more than 40 letters, surpassing his expectations.
Kocher launched the second iteration of this project in 2023, titled “Love Letters II.” This truly is a love letter from the artist to the viewer. Kocher expresses his humility for the warm reception he continues to receive in the artistic community. Each letter he creates is a powerful reminder of what his artistic journey is truly about: the chance to be inspired and to inspire others.
“If I can inspire other people to create as well, that's the dream. If I can inspire someone, what else could you want, you know that mean?” says Kocher. “That's what we're supposed to be doing here; we're supposed to be creative, we're creative beings.”
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