Kent Youngstrom holds up his first two fingers, his middle digit warped from an old basketball injury.

“Two.”

Two? Yep. 

Dos. Deux. That is precisely how many questions you can ask Kent Youngstrom before he starts to lowkey bristle at the interruption of his time (think “super soft geriatric toothbrush” kind of bristling). 

Kent Youngstrom’s artist’s studio, a 2,000 sqf warehouse, sits behind a conveniently located QT convenience store in a suburban-y industrial park outside of Charlotte. I am also conveniently located at that very QT as Kent does an afternoon energy drink run, $17 spent on harsh-yet-satisfying jolts of creatine. 

Topped off with energy drinks, we set off on the rest of Kent’s Point A to Point E errands trip: to FedEx to ship YOUR painting (hopefully?), then to the dry cleaners, then possibly a peanut butter banana smoothie (fingers crossed), ending at Harris Teeter to buy whole wheat pizza dough for the studio Ooni oven.