Guest Artist Kevin Paulsen

Here's what guest artist Kevin Paulsen has to say about his work, taken from his website:

"History records for us an imagined past in which all civilizations perish... Art history and science describe cultural remnants as fact... This shared sentiment of collective memory we call human history. History makes us feel better but only serves up the proof that all human imaginings are perishable. Mankind repeats one simple narrative in myriad form: Man comes to town, a set of circumstances change the man; man leaves town. Artists and scientists will continue to reinvent this basic narrative structure...and mankind will continue to know himself as unique to the universe. No matter the form...tell again our story, therein lies our purpose. I attempt to make beautiful and timeless paintings that tell this story.
Kevin Paulsen, May 30 2010"

An interview Kevin Paulsen did with Mark Murphy gives still more information. I particularly like what Kevin said about his The Re-Seeding painting (shown below): "I tried to keep politics out of my art until a couple years ago, but in today's climate, I find it almost impossible not to comment on, at least, the social politics. In some way, it shows up on it's own. For example, the painting Re-Seeding (Flood and Thaw series) begun as a painting about the advent of spring, the seeds floating through the air, and the thaw from the snow in the mountains. But as I was working on it, the tsunami hit Japan, which spawned a slightly different idea. I thought about the receding water, and that contributed to the double entendre in the name. They can either be frolicking or drowning depending on the viewer's take, but it's that sort of push/pull—humans being oblivious to the destruction that's right at our door at any moment. It's a comment on the celebration of spring and our inability to see our fragile place in the world. And then it dawned on me that what I thought were mountains in the background was another wave cresting in the distance, ready to hit the shore."

The Re-Seeding (Flood and Thaw series) 5' x 7'. Pigment on plaster).

Moonlit Wildlife,  Kevin Paulsen and Geddes Paulsen)

Kevin very eloquently talks about ideas that I have trouble putting into words but that well express what I am trying to do in some of my own work, in particular my "person in nature" series.

folk art mary

Comments

[don cadoret]

Moonlit Wildlife is incredible - Thanks Mary for sharing Kevin's visions.

[Mary Shelley]

The Moonlit piece is the first piece of Kevin's that I saw. I think of it as a night time wild fire piece, with all the animals running for their lives.