Art Access Show

 

Bexley, Ohio

 

Art Access Gallery

 

 

 

“Materials Matter”
New Works through September 10, 2022

This was a group show that I participated in at the Art Access Gallery in Bexley, Ohio.

A shout-out to Ann, Judy, Paula and Ricki ~ I was honored to hang on the same walls!

  http://www.artaccessgallery.com/

Gallery Hours Wednesday – Saturday

 

September 5, 2022

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
~ Mary Oliver

My paintings showing in “Materials Matter” are new encaustic paintings utilizing collage and burnt surfaces as details throughout.

The process of melting the encaustic surface typically involves torching the surface in a controlled manner to create and image that moves gently and untamed. But I wanted to drive the energy of the torch into something more committed, so I reversed the additive process and literally burned the surface. These shapes are dark, reductive masses that possess strong, solemn moments.
The silent and singular shapes are the focal points of these pieces – a suggestion of the memories of those separated and left standing alone after natural disasters, war, grief and disease.

Using old phone books and maps, I assembled patterns and messages within the paintings. The white pages provided a lineal pattern of the surname “Wood” to build the textures of a forest, messages of real estate properties for sale create a horizon line of a scorned landscape, and torn maps and homemade papers suggest land masses and broken communities that have been overcome by divisiveness and natures furies.

From destruction emerged something new.

A big “thank you” to all those who attended the show!

 

Art Access Gallery

Art Access Gallery

 

Art Access Gallery

Art Access Gallery

 

Art Access Gallery

Art Access Gallery

 

Art Access Gallery

Art Access Gallery

 

Art Access Gallery

Art Access Gallery

 

“Passage Between Cliffs” – Process Photo

 

“Passage Between Cliffs”
36″ x 48″
Encaustic

 

“Last Standing-Silvanus Saved the Woods”
48″ x 60″
Encaustic

 

“Remembering”
36″ x 48″
Encaustic

 

“Remembering” – Detail

 

“Red Phone Book Woods”
24″ x 24″
Encaustic

 

 

 

 

 

New Work at Art Access

New Work
Art Access Gallery, Bexley, Ohio

Artist: Karen Rumora

 

“….But listen now to what happened
to the actual trees;
toward the end of that summer they
pushed new leaves from their stubbed limbs.
It was the wrong season, yes,
but they couldn’t stop. They
looked like telephone poles and didn’t
care. And after the leaves came
blossoms. For some things
there are no wrong seasons.
which is what I dream of for me.”

~ The Hurricane, Mary Oliver

 

 

 

This New Work series of paintings nudged me from all sides, teaching me about myself and my encaustic process. With the beginning and end of each painting came a new thought; whether its source was the pull and influence of a season, the weather, or time of day. The application of colors, shapes, and textures changed with each perspective. I tried not to let my conscious mind interfere with my actions as I laid down my marks.
I was being teased by the internal hands of mood.

At the start, silent and pensive attitudes yielded rounded, cylindrical strokes, as in “Silence” and “Spring Love“.  They were slower meditations on days trapped inside my own thoughts. Sentiments that were not ready to leave that warm space.
Other days anxiously awaited a transition and anticipation of seasonal changes and celebrations. The marks were more insistent and were guided by an intentional framework and loud purpose. The colors were more storied and were being layered in creative excitement and linear whimsy.

Finally I turned another corner and found a spot pondering the images of forest spaces, those familiar spots; negative and positive spaces of the actual imagery. Visiting, again, a recognizable environment that grounds me.

Creating these abstract paintings became a journey from a dream to a waking state. I was not only a part of the art, but a player in the alternate reality of producing the images. The universe ushered me to the chosen technique and practice. And I’ll happily do this dance again and again.

 

 

“Silence”
Encaustic Diptych, 40 x 20 (x2)

 

“Spring Love”
Encaustic Diptych, 36 x 24 (x2)

 

“Untitled 15-18”
Encaustics, 36 x 24 (x4)

 

 

“Woven Forest”
Encaustic, 40 x 20

 

“Winter Trees”
Encaustic, 24 x 12

 

“XXOO Aqua”
Encaustic Diptych, 24 x 36 (x2)

 

“Young Blossoms”
Encaustics, 12 x 12

 

 

Encaustic is a Greek word meaning “to heat or burn in” (enkaustikos).

Heat is used throughout the encaustic process, from melting the beeswax and varnish to fusing the layers of wax. Encaustic consists of natural bees wax and damar resin (crystallized tree sap). The medium can be used alone for its transparency or adhesive qualities or used pigmented. Pigments may be added to the medium, or purchased colored with traditional artist pigments. The medium is melted and applied with a brush or any tool the artist wishes to create from. Finally, each layer is then reheated to fuse it to the previous layer.

Greater Columbus Convention Center

 

I am so pleased to be part of this amazing group of local artists chosen as part of a permanent collection in the Greater Columbus Convention Center.  My oil paintings are part of a series that I’ve termed “Biophilia”.  I reflect on images burned into my memory of the dancing light and colors inspired by nature.

A big thank you to Michael Reese and the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority for choosing my work and supporting other local artists like myself.

 

Biophilia Blue, 36″x36″, Oil on Canvas  &  Biophilia Red, 36″x36″, Oil on Canvas

 

These pieces are placed in a large conference room near the entrance at High Street and Goodale Street. If you are driving down Goodale at night, they are lit and you can see them from the road as well!  If there’s a serious-looking meeting going on, honk!

 

http://www.meetusincolumbus.com/our-art/gallery/

Biophilia; Standing Witness – Love of Nature

“A human being is part of the whole called by us ‘the universe,’ a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection of a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

~ Albert Einstein, via Solitude

 

abstract oil painting trees karen rumora

Sanguine Shadows, Oil on Panel, 18×24, Artist: Karen Rumora copyright 2017

abstract oil painting trees karen rumora

Morning, Oil on Canvas, 24×32, Artist: Karen Rumora copyright 2017

 

Biophilia; Standing Witness

 

Studio San Guiseppe Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
Mount St Joseph University
5701 Delhi Road
September 17 – October 20, 2017
Gallery Hours Monday – Friday 10 – 5, Saturday & Sunday 1 – 5

My new tree paintings are currently on exhibit at the Studio San Guiseppe Art Gallery in Cincinnati. It is an absolute privilege to be in the company of these twelve talented women artists, where we share our unique artistic responses to the natural world.  The particular oil paintings I created are extensions of my experiences as a plein-aire painter. I collected and called on my memories of outdoor environments for this more introspective process. Because of this, the final results have manifested into these abstract, fictional vistas.

Cell-shaped entities grew from a more personal and meditative approach. As these morphing forms bordered on the surreal, I imagined the recent treescapes as a prelude to a dream; a space teetering between reality and wonder. The surface became a tapestry of color resembling biological organisms, with more aspects of the interior structure ofplant life, rather than it’s external features. So this essentially turned my concept of a landscape painting “inside-out”.

abstract oil painting trees karen rumora

The Enchanted Indifference, Oil on Canvas, 32×60, Artist: Karen

The very action of generating this work transposes my own meditations into visions on the canvas, and further merges the concept of individual and shared energy. As a result, the images represent the generation and integration of life forms as well as an aura of coexistence and harmony of living elements.

abstract oil painting tree karen rumora

Entwined Tango, Oil on Canvas, 36×36, Artist: Karen Rumora copyright 2017

My thanks to all of those who shared the day!

Studio San Giuseppe Art Gallery Mt St Josephs

Biophilia, Standing Witness, 2017 Artist: Karen Rumora

 

Studio San Giuseppe Art Gallery Mt St Josephs

Biophilia, Standing Witness, 2017 Artist: Karen Rumora with Susan Mahan

 

 

 

And if you love trees, here are some links to some amazing TED talks: