Tag: Contemporary Art

Since the COVID19 shutdown, Theresa Vandenberg Donche has been painting abstracted rooms.  The empty rooms, she says, are about “exploring the tension between the reality of space and the illusion of the moment, between existence and imagination, convention and freedom, perspective and abstraction.”  In these pieces “perspectives are purposely skewed to create an off-balance” sensation, mysterious doorways lead to the unknown, and pent up energy is conveyed with the use of line.   Volume, color and scale convey “uncertainty of what’s to come.”

“Working in wax is therapeutic. Mixing, applying, texturizing, adding, taking away, and fusing, are all steps that create an elaborate dance, most often with spontaneous results. Because with encaustic I have to let go of some control, I am able to free myself of constraints in my original idea. Wax forces me to lose rigidity while connecting emotionally to the piece.”

In college I took a poetry writing seminar.  We were all into stream-of-consciousness free verse. The professor forced us to learn all the formal aspects of poetry – meter, rhyme, rhythm, all of it.  We had to write sonnets.  Shakespearian sonnets!  Near the end of the semester he finally let us write free verse; and guess what!  Our writing was so much better.   Maite Agahnia’s work makes me think of that class.  There is great technical virtuosity underlying the spontaneity.  In the composition, shape, color, texture, the layering of the wax and the scraping and gouging it away, we sense experience and a hard-won wisdom.  She has learned her sonnets and earned the right to free verse.  The results are delightful.

“It is through art history and art making that I best understand the human condition and, in particular, what it means and has meant to be female.”

Kathleen Kane-Murrell is a long-time art educator and San Diego artist. Her work has been shown in solo and group shows throughout Southern California.  In today’s blog post she writes about the evolution of her practice:

“I believe artists have critical voices necessary for an evolved society. The legacy of art making matters to my process. Through color, texture, and high touch surfaces, my work tends to focus on memory, specific places, and experiences.  Repetition of shapes and patterns consistently emerge often with a connection to nature and environment.

I am drawn to the high and low of art making—from the classically trained to the spontaneous creation of young artists. I work in a variety of media and am influenced by the everyday including the curriculum I create for my children’s art program. My mixed media work often incorporates classroom detritus. I value the freedom to experiment with materials and subject matter.

As I evolved into an abstract artist, there always seemed to be the thread of a narrative.  I usually do not feel compelled to explain to the viewer. Viewers bring their own point of view. So, if a description becomes needed, “abstractly narrative in multiple media” describes the art I make.

The work created for Fresh Paint’s 20/20: Women of Vision is from my Moss series. It speaks to the power of renewal and growth. Moss grows in unlikely places.  It Is often ignored, as I feel women have been.  Yet, like moss, we are complicated, necessary, and strong. We are formed by the challenges we face just as moss grows to the shape of the contours below the surface.  Our strength as we slide in and out of a pandemic speaks to persistence and regeneration. I remain positive.”

“I am trying to develop an infinite mystical order out of either expressionistic or atmospheric chaos.  In the midst of a void, I am creating a space in which to give dignity to my own dream, mankind’s dream, to find a dignity that might include all living things.”

Julia San Roman’s current work is inspired by the California Light and Space Movement of the 1960s and 70s.  She calls this work “bilingual” in that it integrates “geometric abstraction with naturalistic light episodes.”  Being bilingual is second nature to San Roman.  She was born and raised in Madrid, and migrated to San Diego in 1988; and she is both a scientist – holding a PhD in Biology – and an artist. This is her third time showing at Fresh Paint Gallery.  You can view a sampling of  her other work on our website.

San Roman’s two paintings in the 20/20 show are part of a series she calls “Dissociation.”  She writes “conceptually I was focusing on the light of hope, and formally I was separating the color from the subject matter and the subjects from themselves.  This intimate passage reflected my encounter with an old reality where my circumstances disengaged into the individual pieces without possibly interlocking in harmony, at a time of material loss, a time of great spiritual loss.  I wanted and I still want to have hope.”