Primordial Passages (Current Series 2009-2010 )

About This Series:
Artist Statement
Kathryn Arnold

I am currently working with ideas of passages and implied mystery using a variety of landscape qualities, such as the large-scale horizontal format, in this set of works. The colors, textures and lighting relate to a internal or primeval sense of place and passages of times of day that mark our existence and assist with creating this linkage. Pulling from the concept of the ‘heroic’ landscape in terms of scale yet simultaneously pulling away from that cultural aspect informs these works as they incorporate large expanses of marks and color. The sense of touch (how we first experience the world)  and chaotic energy of color and marks play an important role in building up layers that function to create and encompassing, enveloping field and the bewildering space experienced in those without an implied horizon line.

I draw upon my connections with the abstractions of the postmodern German painters: their lushly painted surfaces and energy-producing seemingly spontaneous vivid relationships of colors and movement, organic material  with physical qualities, and romanticist fields. I use the tangible qualities of mark-making and surfaces to evoke or possibly create romanticist spirit and presence.

From Victor Papanek

“...humans may have an imprinted preference for winding paths that provide “mystery” and “give the impression that one could acquire new information if one were to travel deeper into the scene.”...An argument could be made that it also informs haptic satisfaction we derive from viewing a painting......In the case of mystery, the new information is not present; it is only suggested or implied. ...there is a strong element of continuity…”

The titles for this series are taken from Martial Arts American Kenpo (which I studied for 5 years.