Kathleen Florance
Gossamer Threads
These pieces began with the idea of webs, of spaces. Working with colored pencils proved frustrating for me as I tend to prefer strong, direct color, so I put them aside for a time. Revisiting them at a later date allowed me to see them differently and to introduce elements that pulled the entire concept together.
Homage
Drawing is one of the elemental processes in the creation of art. It is also the most instructive way to learn a great deal about the subject matter. Each of these fragments - spent, discarded, and often overlooked - offer a window into a remarkable journey of understanding of how each life contributed to the world we are privileged to share and how important recognition of their value is.
Between
“Between chance and fate speaks the human tongue ...” These words, from the book Arabia Felix by Danish author Thorkild Hansen, resonated with me in a way that had nothing to do with the book in which I read them, ultimately inspiring this exploration of the interplay in our lives of random chance and uncontrollable fate. In the space between the two, we have the opportunity to act—and therein lies our hope, offering an alternative to the seemingly inevitable destruction of ourselves and the world around us. The evolution of form and color as I work leads me to recognize images, symbols, and deeper concepts of environmental loss: rising water, loss of habitat, hunger. A piece that begins as a random mark slowly emerges through a process of gradual awakening to and recognition of the bigger picture, a process that echoes the original dialectic of chance and fate that sparked this series.
My Little Etudes
When the large format pieces were completed at the end of 2021, I turned to the opposite end of the spectrum and set up the challenge to work in a highly reduced format. Just as with musical etudes where the intent is to enhance specific skills, I headed into these to sharpen color and design concepts and to openly embrace where the work itself might lead me.
