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Artist Statement for Spiral Series
The work in this series evolved from a previous body of paintings/drawings that was an investigation of motion. To perhaps better understand these works, it may be helpful to read a section from my artist statement from the catalogue published by Virginia Tech University, summer 2003, for my exhibit titled, Blacksburg Motion Series, at the Perspective Gallery of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia.
"Before discovering Blacksburg as a place that suited my needs for concentrated focus, I traveled to Vermont to paint. Each summer, the churning experience of uprooting my studio (from my home in the San Francisco Bay Area) to paint in a new time zone, space and environment seemed to thrust my thinking in new directions. It was then that my interest in motion began to stir.
The exploration of movement also seemed a natural evolution from a previous investigation of duality. For years, I've been driven to paint as a way of investigating realness. I speculated that the speed of the mark, as an element in itself, might generate a disturbance of sorts that could allow some essence of realness to hatch out.
I wanted my hand to move fast, lines to indicate real speed, momentum and direction. I wanted movement to bypass intellect and I wanted to witness the physicality of my own energetic gesture."
Since this exhibit at the Perspective Gallery, I have become fascinated with using digital mark making to expand my exploration of motion to include scale. In addition, the computer has forced (and delighted) me to study the juxtaposition of a mechanical mark with that of the human hand. Electronic movement is a marvelous side affect that fits neatly into my study. With these interests in mind, I began the Spiral Series.
I have a large-scale digital printer (Epson 9600) that I use to print digital images - spirals, vortexes, nest shapes, scans of my own drawings and paintings, photos of objects, etc. Once these images are manipulated in Photoshop and printed, I work directly on top of the prints with oil pastel.
There are multiple challenges. The ease of changing scale is both wonderful and perplexing. For example, using the computer I am able to make small intimate drawings (drawings that require just finger and wrist movements) and enlarge them to a size that, if made "by hand" in the tradition way, would engage the larger muscles of the arm and shoulder. Or, I can greatly down size a large painting and use it as a small tile, for example, in a large pattern area.
Furthering my challenge is an interest in creating digital print images that can be juxtaposed successfully with traditional oil pastel work.
The challenge of creating a piece that is well integrated with marks that already exist on the paper, in some way, replicates the challenge of traveling to a new location to work. Once again, stirring a sense of movement or motion continues to pique my interest.
Kim Thoman
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