Kid Kardiac brings music, memories, and hip-hop history to life through bold, detailed textile art. What began with making a rug for his music room has grown into a creative journey of preserving people, places, and moments through tufting and mixed media. His work invites us to look closer, remember, and discover the stories behind the images.
What did you love to make or create when you were a child? Do you remember being drawn to art, music, making things, or working with your hands?
My first love is definitely music. My parents bought me a set of turntables when I was 12 and I taught myself how to DJ. I really just enjoyed playing those records and figuring out something new. I’ve always been good with my hands. I didn’t take many art classes, but I played basketball from the age of 5 through college. That was really my main interest at the time.
Before you became a textile artist, you studied audio engineering and spent time making music. How did music shape the way you see and create art today?
It still shapes the way I create art. Not only from a subject matter perspective, but also in my process when I’m creating. Music is always the core element of my inspiration.
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Where did the name Kid Kardiac come from, and what does it mean to you now?
I honestly came up with it in college. An old rap name when I used to dabble in the sport. I would wear my heart on my sleeve with everything so it just sort of fit at the time.
Now, it just feels like an embodiment of the journey. I still wear my heart on my sleeve, but I have a bit more understanding of myself as I get older. I’m able to use those emotions into the art.
Your journey into tufting began during the pandemic, when you wanted a rug for your music room. What do you remember about that very first rug?
It was a baby milo version of Pharrell in a spacesuit. I still have it in my music space. It’s not that great, but it’s a reminder of why I started to make things. All for the love of wanting something I could appreciate.
What was it about tufting that made you think, I want to keep doing this?
It felt freeing. It gave me a piece of calmness that I needed.
At that time, my brain was all over the place about the next stage of my life. I wanted to switch careers, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Tufting gave me a creative outlet that I had been searching for.
In the beginning, you made pieces that included characters and images people already loved. When did you start wanting your work to tell deeper stories of your own?
Around 2023, I really started to be more intentional about the ideas I had and wanted to present. It took me a few years to round out what that voice would be and it’s something that I’m still building on.
Was there a particular piece that made you feel like you had found your artistic voice?
I feel like there wasn’t a particular piece but a series of ideas I wanted to explore. I think it started mid to late 2023 when I was still exploring legendary hip-hop figures. I wanted to showcase elements of them within the art.
I created an Outkast piece and a DMX piece, just trying to expand ideas and explore. Everything started to feel a bit too literal, but I still wanted my work to have the same subject matter.
You have said that the world moves quickly and that you want to give certain moments a place to live. What makes a moment worth preserving?
I’ve gotten to the point now where any moment is worth preserving. Especially when we’re in the climate of things being erased and history being glossed over.
The act of being is merely enough. It may be the archivist piece of my core that believes that, but I feel like it’s part of my duty to preserve what is and what was.
I save everything. Even if it’s not something in the moment that forms a complete idea, I save it as a reference for something later that may be used to piece a complete thought together.
The biggest challenge for me right now is going beyond the photo. I want parts of the photo to remain central to the meaning of the piece, but I want to give the viewer different perspectives of interest. I want a question to be posed and a curiosity for more to be formed.
When you choose a person, photograph, album cover, magazine cover, or historical moment to recreate, what makes you stop and say, “This is one I need to make”?
It’s just a feeling to be honest.
At this current moment, I’m building on research that I have been doing for months. So the subject matter is within a time period, rather than tied to a specific person. I’m chasing a feeling, which is normally reserved for my music creation part of my creativity. When the feeling is right, even if it’s just a part of a photo or moment, I save it and build.
Is there a piece you have made that carries a deeper personal meaning for you than viewers might realize?
This was a hard one. I feel like all my pieces have a deeper personal meaning to me. Truthfully, they represent a distinct part of my identity and things/people/places that have had a deep effect on me. My work is truly reflectional on my interests.
Walk us into your studio. What would we see first?
Yarn everywhere. Either on the floor from a current project or organized in different sections of my studio.
Your work has grown from tufted rugs into large wall pieces and mixed-media work. What made you want to push the boundaries of what a tufted piece could be?
I think my creativity in general started to blossom once I got settled in this being my medium of expression.
My first goal was to get better with every piece I made. Now I worry less about being perfect and more about building a story within the idea I’m creating. I really just want to teach and encourage others to research.
When an idea comes to you, what happens first? Do you sketch, collect images, play with color, or jump right into the making?
I’ll write it down!
I have notes of half ideas, general footprints or maybe even color schemes. If I’m working on a particular subject, I try to stay in short parameters to make it interesting.
For example, if I’m researching a particular movement in a particular time period, I will only source photos from that. I want to be as accurate as possible.
Your pieces can be very large and detailed. How do you keep a huge project from feeling overwhelming?
I work in flows.
I always know when I am in a place to create because I can feel it. Sometimes I only focus on a section and move that way. More often than not I focus on a color at time. It helps to compartmentalize everything.
I definitely still get overwhelmed and I often feel like I’m not sure how this is going to turn out. I have learned over the years to trust the process. I rarely look at the other side of the canvas unless I’m checking the way a color is flowing. I like to be pleasantly surprised.
What part of making is your favorite: designing, tufting, carving and shaping, finishing, or seeing the completed piece for the first time?
Tufting for sure. I love the pockets of flow that I feel when I’m jamming out to my music and tufting. I’m not really thinking too deeply about anything and it’s therapeutic for me.
I also love seeing other people’s reactions to something I’m proud of making. It’s validating in a way that feels like a hug.
What part of the process takes the most patience?
The tufting as well. The amount of detail I’m normally working with and the want to get it right will always be a challenge to me. I question colors and I freestyle to make colors work for the intention of the piece. That can take some time to see it coming together so I have to be patient in keeping at it until I reach the final hump.
You have built a creative life while also balancing other work and responsibilities. What have you learned about protecting time for your art without putting too much pressure on yourself?
Overall, I feel like the balance is crucial for my mental health and for my ability to be able to create in a free environment. I have a full time job, but I work from home. So, I have the flexibility to not feel the full pressure of going into a 9-5 per se, but there is a method into taking the time to feed my creativity in a healthy way.
I now have a studio that is away from my home, so I have to be even more intentional in putting work down and exercising my creative spark. It’s all a balance, but I thoroughly enjoy the position I’m in.
Where can people see your work?
Kidkardiac.com for some available works.
I am most active on Instagram @kidkardiac. If you’re in the Memphis area, I have a piece on display at the University of Memphis Art Museum currently for the Best of Tennessee Craft: October 24 – December 12. If you’re in the Miami area, I’ll have art in a couple different places for Art Basel. I have one other show in December in Atlanta and another show in Memphis in February. I will post the details on both of those on my social media in the coming weeks.
Rapid-Fire Fun
- My studio is never complete without… A vacuum cleaner.
- The color I can never have enough of is… Black
- A song that always gets me creating is… Sounds of Blackness – Optimistic
- The best advice I’ve received is… “The only person you have to please is you”
- Right now, I’m curious about… The state of art while AI is actively destroying creativity.
Interview posted October 2026
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