Interview March 11, 2008
by Robert W. Kistner
On April 19th the work of local Rocky Point artist Kathleen Kerr will be highlighted at the Munro Art Gallery at the Sonoran Sun Resort. The show is entitled "Entrances and Exits" and will consist of 30 new paintings, all originals, as well as 15 photos. Mrs. Kerr is a 10-year resident of Rocky Point and her paintings capture the magical essence of our habitat. The works of Mrs. Kerr possess a rare kinetic energy and capture the mysterious elements hidden within our sunsets and evanescent ocean vistas. Her bold primary colors explode across her canvases. But the real theme of her artworks is the endless process of creation itself and the brief entrances and exits we make into the world of insight.
Interviewer: Your show includes a variety of genres, including both paintings and photographs, entitled Seaside Imaginings, Vibrant Abstracts, and The San Miguel Photographs. Do all of these works possess a unifying thread or theme?
Kerr: As the title of the show suggests, all these works explore the mysteries inherent in the Rocky Point and Sonoran landscapes. They all contain the kind of creative tension that always exists in nature. My hope in these works is to attempt to capture the inherent dynamism in nature, both its changes and its permanence.
Interviewer: Your paintings seem to explode into the viewer's eyes. You portray a world of swirling shells and suns and sand and vibrant colors that seem to be seeking some kind of connection and harmony. Whether it's the vibrant exploding colors of the abstract Ocean Flower or the mystical swirling shapes and muted colors of The Seaside Imaginings Group, such as the painting Underwater Gallery, you excite and challenge your viewers to try to make sense of it all.
Kerr: Yes. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I want my paintings to create the kind of freedom and dynamism and openness that invites the viewer to visual exploration. My hope is that these works will allows individual viewers to construct the harmonies and to resolve the tensions in the paintings and to be part of the creative process itself. That's the excitement of art, the excitement in nature, the excitement in life. I'm always trying to capture that essence.
Interviewer: In the Seaside Imaginings group, solid objects like shells and sand dollars seem to swirl through a world gyrating shapes and open spaces.
Kerr: I love watching tide pools. In a seaside tide pool, shells and other marine objects serve as solid sanctuaries, as little life abodes, amidst the roars of clashing waves. Amidst this tumult, hidden life forms and essences emerge for a brief flash then hide back in the background, like an evasive sand crab. As artists and humans, we all get brief flashes of insight, flashing epiphanies of color and light just like the intense green flashes that occasionally appear amidst Rocky Point sunsets. But just a flash, then it's gone. The same effect can happen to the viewer of a painting who actively creates a meaning in the scene. They can have flashes of temporary and evolving insight, just like I do when I'm painting. Before I start, I make tentative plans. But as I start, the painting takes on a life of its own. I never know exactly where it's going to go. It's a magical process, the true joy of art.
Interviewer: Your photographs seem at variance with your paintings. They have an understated, almost haunting sepia color tone. The photos are of an array of ancient Mexican scenes-chapels and churches and aqueducts and calvaros. Unlike the color and swirl of the paintings, the photos convey ancient structures and architectures. How do they connect to the paintings?
Kerr: I photographed the scenes in the interiors of Mexico where life and civilization had once flourished. But over time the structures were mysteriously abandoned and left to the natural elements. While the paintings convey the mysteries of present creation, the photos hopefully convey the quiet majesty of the past, which remain a part of us. But all things in art and nature are created but eventually fade away.
Interviewer: Many of the photos show doors, seen both from the inside and the outside.
Kerr: Entrances and exits. We enter the art work, the old cathedral for a brief while, perhaps attain a brief glimpse of truth, then we must exit. It's the nature of art. It's the nature of life. Entrances and Exits. Nature, art, and life. That's what the exhibit attempts to convey.
Kathleen Kerr's website is http://www.kathleenkerr.com/. pectation is what I try to communicate through art.
