Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery
Open House Saturday, June 6th, 6:00-9:00pm
EXHIBIT:
"Look to Nature"
by Kathleen Zimmerman
What inspires Kathleen Zimmerman?
"Life. Creating artwork is a kind of meditative practice that helps me slow down and think about life. The act of creating seems to help me make some sense of the world that I find myself in."
The world Kathleen Zimmerman first found herself in was a beautiful one. She was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, which is nestled along the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Her father was a carpenter with a love for the outdoors and her mother was an educator with a love for the arts.
At the early age of three, Zimmerman, along with her family, began spending their free time either exploring the mountains of Colorado, or in the horse pasture with their beloved Welsh pony. These were developmental experiences that instilled in Zimmerman, a love for the natural world and a strong bond with animals.
On reflection of her life and art up to this point, Zimmerman says she needed to live a balanced life before she felt she had something worth sharing. This thoughtful way of looking at life and art is evident in both the subject matter she chooses and her refined vision.
Artist Statement
My art is the way I explore ideas concerning both day-to-day life as well as more profound ideas surrounding relationships, the environment and culture. It is a meditative practice of sorts that helps me stop and think about life. Over the years, I have developed a personal visual language that uses symbolism and surrealism to transform my subject matter into archetypal images. I have been told this gives my work a mythical quality making them both timely as well as timeless.
I create my art in series so I can fully investigate my subject matter. The size of each series is determined by what I need to think through and what holds my interest. While all my art plays well together, most are complete works of art on their own. Bear Hugs, Evening & Morning Star, WoMan, and he YinYang Series are exceptions in that they are bonded pairs that were created together and need each other to complete the visual statement.
I am often asked where I find inspiration for my artwork. In answer to this, I would say life is full of inspiration and I find it wherever I happen to be. It may be when I am traveling in other countries, or when I lived in China, or here in the States. I find if I look to nature, ideas for new work are all around me. I have found inspiration looking at trees that were peeking through a window in a thoughtfully crafted room in Japan. I was inspired by a sweet-faced mud-covered cow I saw standing by a road in Thailand. A delightful, spotted creature running through the woods in the States, has sparked new ways of thinking. These are just a few examples, and their resulting artwork can be seen in my Landscape, Cosmic, and Xtrasensory Series'.
When I am thinking about what my mission as an artist is, I have to say that I strive to create work that is aesthetically, and emotionally, meaningful. The fact that I portray all living beings as equals to be considered, and valued, is very important to me both as an artist, and a person.
The historically important artists I most admire are: Kathe Kollwitz, a German/ Expressionistic printmaker/sculptor, Remedios Varo, a Spanish/Mexican Surrealistic painter; Georgia O’Keeffe, an American Modern painter; Brancusi, a Romanian Minimalist sculptor; and Elizabeth Catlett, an American/Mexican Modern printmaker/sculptor. These very different artists all inspired me to create my own visual language, which is accessible to others while remaining intimately personal.
The Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery represents a platform for local and regional visual artists to display their original works for public viewing at no cost to the artist. This unique collaborative model allows for artist participation in show design, installation, and supervision.
The Community Gallery derived its name from its historical roots. The physical space that houses the Gallery was once the ground floor of the Dye & Bleach House for the Gardiner Hall Jr Company from 1916 to 1954.
It was here where millions of yards of cotton thread were processed and colored before being spooled for domestic and international distribution.
Each show in the Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery will be on view for the duration of 4 to 8-weeks. Artists are chosen by EC-CHAP and curated to pair with the work of other artists or groups of artists whose work complements one another. We welcome submissions by students or community groups and encourage everyone to visit the gallery. We hope for this Community Gallery will bring awareness to the talent within our regional communities.
If you are interested in learning more about the Dye & Bleach House Gallery, and opportunities to display your work, please contact us. Email: info@ec-chap.org or call: 518-791-9474. The Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery is located at The Mill Works, 156 River Road, Willington, CT.