Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Wynns.
Paul, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The Kevin Workman Foundation (KWF) is a grass-roots, local San Diego non-profit that finds inspiration at the intersection of art, technology, and community. We chose our organization’s name to memorialize our friend Kevin, who was an important leader in the local San Diego Comic-Con exhibitor community, patron and sponsor to several artists, and patent-holding technologist. We feel that the best way to commemorate our dear friend is to continue his support for aspiring and established creative professionals, his passion for creative technology, and his charismatic nurturing of creative communities. If we can do it with half the style, wit, and charm that Kevin brought, we’ll consider the Foundation a success.
While the Foundation exists to continue the life’s passion of a truly singular individual, what I’ve found most striking about its start-up journey has been an incredible loyalty, generosity, and passion in the extended network of those Kevin knew and touched. An incredible amount of support has flowed from this rich tapestry of Kevin’s former friends and acquaintances. Meeting, collaborating, and generally being in-cahoots-with such a fine cast of characters has been my greatest joy in launching the Foundation. For me, this labor of love is all about the people and the stories that brought them here.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The Foundation was an idea I voiced at Kevin’s favorite restaurant to a few friends in the evening after his passing. I can’t rightly claim it as my idea. I think I channeled it, moved to give voice to an idea that I felt needed to be made real and work that needed to continue. I’m surprised and inspired that so many would be so supportive of the Foundation and its vision.
But it’s been a challenge to learn how and when to ask for help, and how to best channel the outpourings of support. Non-profit fundraising, event coordination, finance, regulatory compliance, social media marketing, and branding are all new to me. But I learned how to recruit these skills in a board of directors, and facilitate the contributions of volunteers. It’s a constant learning process for me to know when to lead, when to follow, and when to get the hell out of the way.
Kevin Workman Foundation – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
KWF operates two programs that serve the local San Diego community and engage aspiring artists around the world. Our Sponsored Artist program identifies one or more promising artists or creative professionals who use technology in novel ways to inspire or advance the fields of popular arts, videography, photography, game design, writing, and social media. Selected individuals are sponsored for attendance at a major industry convention and networking event. In 2014-18, our sponsored artists attended San Diego Comic-Con, the largest convention of its kind in the world. In 2019, KWF plans to expand its sponsorship program, selecting two artists: One for Comic-Con, the other for WonderCon in Anaheim, CA.
KWF’s Educational Program brings mentors into contact with at-risk and disadvantaged children. Our aim is to maximize each child’s opportunity to pursue work in or be inspired by the fields of popular arts, videography, photography, game design, writing, and social media. We sponsor comic book art education at Monarch School, a local K-12 campus in East Village that focuses on teaching homeless children. We’ve recently expanded our program to include outdoor art and science education, with a pilot program for Monarch School students co-sponsored by the National Parks Service and the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation.
These two programs reach nearly 100 local San Diego children a year, engage early-career artists in the U.S. and overseas, inspire thousands of Comic-Con fans, and profoundly change the career trajectory of each sponsored artist. We accomplish this on an operational budget derived mainly from individual grass-roots donors and their employer donation-matching programs.
The Foundation’s motto is to “Inspire and be inspired,” and we’re happy that this attitude has brought together such diverse audiences of fans, supporters, and students in the local community.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Working with the Foundation allows me to meet and help artists in ways that wouldn’t be possible without the support of such a devoted team. And one case, it was clear that we enabled an artist to connect with a fan audience in ways that would’ve been impossible without our direct contributions.
KWF’s 2017 Sponsored Artist for WonderCon, Larime Taylor, was an especially deserving and unique candidate who displayed an inspiring level of grit and resilience in the pursuit of his art. Larime’s body of work includes A Voice in the Dark, a graphic novel funded via a successful Kickstarter Campaign. Larime writes, draws, letters, and tones the work in the comic, and is assisted by his partner, Sylv Taylor, who works as a colorist and cover artist.
The complexity and maturity of A Voice in the Dark, along with its bold, richly illustrated style would be reason enough for sponsorship. But it’s worth noting that Larime has a congenital condition that keeps him wheelchair-bound without the use of his hands. He draws the entire series on a graphical tablet while holding the stylus in his mouth. Meanwhile, his partner and colorist, Sylv, is legally blind.
KWF arranged transportation for Larime, Sylv, and their assistants to converge on WonderCon in 2017 from their homes in various locations around Southern CA and Las Vegas, NV. Accessibility accommodations were arranged in Anaheim for them and a service animal. This was a logistically challenging sponsorship, and it required significant coordination with registration and disabled services at the event in order to meet the administrative and special needs aspects of Larime’s attendance.
There is no feasible way Larime could have attended WonderCon on his own, due to his financial situation, His lack of access to transportation, and the challenges he faces in everyday e-mail, web, and other communication tasks that we at the Foundation learned to appreciate by working with him closely. And to see the wide engagement and excited fans Larime inspired in his attendance at WonderCon is to understand that something is lost unless we find ways to empower artists like him to participate in the WonderCon and Comic-Con communities.
The Foundation team and I were proud to be associated with Larime, and to see the great connections he made with fans and publishers while attending the convention. All it took was a little logistical coordination and funding from our community. The rest of the magic was all Larime’s.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2159 India St, San Diego, CA 92101
- Website: www.kevinworkmanfoundation.org
- Email: contact@kevinworkmanfoudation.org
- Instagram: @kevinworkmanfoundation
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevinworkmanfoundation/
- Twitter: @kworkfoundation
Image Credit:
Alexandrea Photography
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