LOIS KAMPINSKY
Artist statement
“Bound and Determined” Exhibition
Nature trumps all. That’s why echoes of it inhabit my work. Often, I find my hand tracing unbidden, vegetative forms. They coalesce on the canvas in dips, arcs, and waves.
In painting, I often usurp the blues and greens of water and woods. But I amp up and supercharge them with fuchsias and hot pinks. Or, they can coexist with prim neutrals, if mood demands. Slavish devotion to reality has never interested me.
Animal forms also come naturally, since primal memories remain: stumbling upon a baby alligator in my yard, finding bright blue duck eggs in a bush, viewing a dead whale turning stiffly in a winter’s surf. But many stray cats and dogs have also sauntered into my life and made artistic contributions.
Warning bells ring when preciousness threatens. Years spent as a writer, editor and video producer have trained me to submerge, rub away, and wipe out too-predictable forms.
But flora and fauna always leave a trace.
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