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April Issue 2010
Green Rice Gallery
in Charlotte, NC, Offers Works by Katherine Blackwell
Green
Rice Gallery in Charlotte, NC, will present the exhibit, Emote
& Relate, featuring works by Katherine Blackwell, on view
from Apr. 2 through May 2, 2010. The exhibit will feature Blackwell's
signature "Melty People" paintings, as well as a new
colorful abstract series she has been developing.
Blackwell spent the majority of her childhood and teenage years
in Vermont. Here with her family's encouragement, she discovered
her love for art. She made efforts to uncover and investigate
the extensive variety of expressive mediums that the world of
art offered.
After moving to North Carolina at the age of 15, Blackwell began to focus on oils. Without formal education, she developed her skills by doing studies of a variety of landscapes. A concentration in portraiture soon followed. She found portraits to be more exciting and challenging, as well as more rewarding once a true likeness was achieved. A consistent and determined focus on faces and the human form laid the seeds for the most recent evolution of her art.
"Melty People" is a concentration spawned from years and years of youthful sketches contorting and manipulating the human body. Blackwell's experience in portrait art allowed her to understand the techniques necessary to create a likeness of the human form. She then translated these techniques to the aforementioned hard line sketches to create more detailed, sculptural subjects in oils. The goal, she states, is "to make them as realistic as possible, in spite of their impossible circumstances."
The "Melty People" are an interpretation of the world in which we live. It is the visualization of the emotional and non-physical connection we have to each other - sometimes struggling, sometimes bonding, and at other times completely unaware of the connection we share.
Blackwell's newest venture
is a series of abstract paintings. They contain the same
fluidity as the "Melty People", but are nonrepresentational. They
are more focused on colors and shapes, rather than exact images.
While "Melty People" are paintings of individuals
in the throes of an emotion, the abstracts are the raw emotion
itself.
Without the necessity of capturing the detailed shape and form
of an intermediary subject, Blackwell is free to explore and evoke
the essence of love and hate, joy and sadness, and so on. This
leaves the final interpretation of and reaction to the emotion
in the hands of the viewer.
"For me, art is like breathing. It's a necessity. Some people
enjoy art for its inherent statement. I truly enjoy the process
of creating that statement." It is this love for her craft
that drives Blackwell to paint.
For further information
check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at
704/344-0300 or visit (www.green-rice.com).
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