Hi Karen! Thanks for the friends invite, I really love your fun and free title of painting (esp are my glasses on straight!)  I also enjoyed the little girl bee video:} Can't wait to see more of your paintings!

Take care

Kathie Z.

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the comments.  There's a lot going on with that series, which without seeing my artist statement, I think you managed to touch upon anyway.  I focus on stereotypes, especially with this series, using fairy tales and how women are typically presented in them as weak and needing someone to rescue them.  So I turned it around, took the "lost damsel" and made her come out triumphant despite being out of her element (i.e. cushy lifetitle).  In that particular piece, "Adaptation" is ostensibly referring to the fish, when it really refers to her and how she has adapted to her new environment.  Anyway, I thought you might like to know that... 

Karen, I hope you understand that I am not calling the work sad only the emotions that it conjures up.  And I think that I feel that way is because of the position/orientation of your subject. You are right about the colors;they are cheerful and bright.  But, the subject with balloon heading off to the horizon on a path that cannot be seen, and she is not walking straight-on its almost as if she is about to go off the path.  And in the horizon a sunset and a sunrise symbolizing a beginning and an end.  This is what I see in this work and it thinks its very well done.

In retrospect I think it would have been more appropraiate to say that "Banished" has a mystique to it.

Hi Karen- Thanks for your comments! Since I started posting here this week- I have received a lot of encouragement from some really nice/talented people.

I enjoy your paintings- you paint freely. No fear. I can tell the entire experience is very cathartic for you (which translates into high energy). Very refreshing. Keep up the good work! - Tom

Hello Karenzima,

This
is an oil painting on canvas, 16" x 20". I used Winsor & Newton,
Griffin Fast Drying Oil Colour. It is an alkyd paint that is strong,
dries quick and I have been using it for over 10 years. It's great
stuff.  When I started
painting “Beholder”, it started with random brush strokes, then
blending and
blotting of the paints. Initially it was like a primordial stew. As I
worked,
it began to exhibit a serpent image and a tribal-like symbol. The upper
central
area of the canvas seemed to take on the form of a fish, then a bird
head and
then to the ubiquitous eye. I had no intention to paint the eye but the
image
emerged no matter how many times I reworked the surface. My paintings
often
direct which way to go, so I followed along; resolving to its
conclusion. It
evolved to the point that the painting seemed to be watching me create
it.
Perhaps it was…  

Thanks for your interest

Clint 

Hi Karen !

 Thanks for your comments. The guitarist is Yannick Robert. You can hear him on Myspace.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=73406172

 Meskor