KATHLEEN CALHOUN
Artist Statement
Deserted and disintegrating barns, houses and silos have always intrigued me when driving through the country. What joys, sorrows, conflicts, and milestones were experienced in them before being abandoned? Does anyone ever think about those events today or miss these structures? The memories in these buildings, their surrounding agricultural landscape, along with my own adventures in gardening, childrearing, eldercare, and travels have led me to explore the universal life cycle of ideas, tangible things and all living creatures in this series of work.
Images of buildings, seeds, leaves, and rocks are used to depict the different life cycle stages in many of the pieces in this series. I see seeds and buildings as both containers and incubators of potential. The foliage as the fulfillment of that potential, while rocks stand as the fossilized remains (or achievements).
I use several techniques to highlight these stages or transitions. In some of my paintings, structures are depicted with their subtle deterioration in a sharp close angle so that the viewer cannot ignore their presence within the composition. In other pieces I have illustrated the life cycle by sectioning portions of the ground. I have also used collage and glazing techniques so that images from beneath can still be seen, to show a sense of layering that is also part of this cycle, the new on top of the old. Finally in other works, I integrated architectural salvage as symbols of renewal via redirected purpose, tapping into new potential, leading to a rebirth.
Kathy Calhoun
Summer 2011
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