Artist Statement: Revised and Updated

Converging Conditions oil on linen 48 x 60"
©2010 Katherine Kean

It has been awhile since any updates to my artist statement have been made. To get started I followed the journaling process outlined in Alyson Stanfield's ebook. This process provided results and numerous insights available to be called on at any time. However, my resulting statement, although bearable, was a tongue twister. With the meaning unchanged and using largely the same language, the expert skills of a professional wordsmith smoothed out the bumps:

I am enchanted by the curl of a cloud as it unfolds across the sky, how the wind’s energy traces the edge of a storm. In turbulence or tranquility, my work explores the natural forces that surround us and shape our lives as they call to mind the fluctuations of our experience within life’s larger patterns.

By combining memory and observation, I reach for an essential mood as nature’s ever-changing forms are edited and rearranged. Paint, applied in layers of decreasing opacity followed by glazes made translucent with wax, allow for unexpected variations in color and tone. The viewer is thus invited to share experiences that engage the eye and evoke a state of mind.

This video of penguins in a zoo chasing a butterfly illustrates what the process of writing feels like to me: Penguins chasing a butterfly

Artist Statement

I paint landscapes that explore margins of atmosphere and form and the interplay between imaginary and real places.

Like the point between dream and waking, subtle edges of earth and water, tree and sky, dissolve and reappear, caught at that moment when boundaries are undetermined and reality is malleable.

Beginning with underpainting, I modulate the intensity of light that spreads from the center of the canvas. Lines and shapes are defined and then partially obscured. Layer is painted over layer, resulting in unexpected gradations and tones. Elusive shapes are muted by fog or shadow.
Imagination’s alchemy transforms the recognizable into delicately nuanced layers of color and tone, to gently invoke mystery, sensation, and mood.