KAY IVES

ARTIST STATEMENT

“We do not transform Nature by our efforts; Nature transforms us by our efforts.”

Peter London from Drawing Closer to Nature

EDUCATION

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Fifth Year Certificate, 1999

 

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Diploma, 1997

 

Boston University,

School of Communications

M.A., 1982

 

University of Pennsylvania

B.A., 1965

For several years now my work has focused on water, veering between abstraction and realism using luminosity and transparent layers of space.

 

Recently, I have used both abstraction and realism in the same painting. I want to convey that the mind’s eye is not singular, but richly layered. We view things simultaneously in fragmented nuanced ways. My work reflects the intuitive, logical and the spirit minds. The natural chaos and randomness of the lotus roots are framed by the geometric logic of straight precise lines. The intuitive mind is found in the atmospheric transparent washes. I sometimes divide canvases into two or three distinct areas to mirror that richness.

 

I am attracted to water by its constantly changing nature. You can’t pin it down: one moment it is clear, calm and blue and then suddenly it changes to white spray and a raging force. Water is both reflective and transparent. As a long time sailor of the New England coast and a summer resident of the New Hampshire lakes area I have spent many wonderful hours studying water.

 

I like using a variety of media: smoke, photography, collage, oil paint, graphite, pastels because each one requires a different approach which I combine to reflect the different points of view inherent in my work.

 

As the Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki said, ”When you understand one thing through and through; you understand everything.” Thus water and nature are my teachers and where I seek wisdom.

For several years now my work has focused on water, veering between abstraction and realism using luminosity and transparent layers of space.

 

Recently, I have used both abstraction and realism in the same painting. I want to convey that the mind’s eye is not singular, but richly layered. We view things simultaneously in fragmented nuanced ways. My work reflects the intuitive, logical and the spirit minds. The natural chaos and randomness of the lotus roots are framed by the geometric logic of straight precise lines. The intuitive mind is found in the atmospheric transparent washes. I sometimes divide canvases into two or three distinct areas to mirror that richness.

 

I am attracted to water by its constantly changing nature. You can’t pin it down: one moment it is clear, calm and blue and then suddenly it changes to white spray and a raging force. Water is both reflective and transparent. As a long time sailor of the New England coast and a summer resident of the New Hampshire lakes area I have spent many wonderful hours studying water.

 

I like using a variety of media: smoke, photography, collage, oil paint, graphite, pastels because each one requires a different approach which I combine to reflect the different points of view inherent in my work.

 

As the Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki said, ”When you understand one thing through and through; you understand everything.” Thus water and nature are my teachers and where I seek wisdom.

For several years now my work has focused on water, veering between abstraction and realism using luminosity and transparent layers of space.

 

Recently, I have used both abstraction and realism in the same painting. I want to convey that the mind’s eye is not singular, but richly layered. We view things simultaneously in fragmented nuanced ways. My work reflects the intuitive, logical and the spirit minds. The natural chaos and randomness of the lotus roots are framed by the geometric logic of straight precise lines. The intuitive mind is found in the atmospheric transparent washes. I sometimes divide canvases into two or three distinct areas to mirror that richness.

 

I am attracted to water by its constantly changing nature. You can’t pin it down: one moment it is clear, calm and blue and then suddenly it changes to white spray and a raging force. Water is both reflective and transparent. As a long time sailor of the New England coast and a summer resident of the New Hampshire lakes area I have spent many wonderful hours studying water.

 

I like using a variety of media: smoke, photography, collage, oil paint, graphite, pastels because each one requires a different approach which I combine to reflect the different points of view inherent in my work.

 

As the Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki said, ”When you understand one thing through and through; you understand everything.” Thus water and nature are my teachers and where I seek wisdom.