ARTIST STATEMENT: PLAYING IN THE WATER

"Art is a longing for God." A. Jawlensky

One of my favorite books is Concerning the Spiritual in Art, by W. Kandinsky. He saw art as a calling and defined the responsibilities that the artist, as servant in this process, had to undertake in the promotion of this cause. It was the artist who needed "to send light into the darkness of each person's heart." He wrote about the impact of color. To Kandinsky, "there is nothing so curious for beauty, or so absorbent of it, as the soul."

I am fascinated with images, because their essential quality is movement, and it's in those moments that your attention is most focused. This presents opportunities for grace, and when you witness grace, you come up against the soul. For an artist, indeed for anyone, that's about as close to perfection as you can hope to get.

When I picked up a paintbrush and started to take painting seriously in my 30's, I found my spiritual life unfold. Inspiration came from nature certainly, but also music, children's art, kids themselves, and the tenderness of smiling faces. It is through the painting process that I could connect with myself and others.

Watercolor is perceived as a difficult medium to control. My approach has been to work more outside the box. In fact, my studio resembles a science lab: sand, salt, alcohol, bubbles.....you name it and I'll throw it into the work to see what happens. I've got all kinds of stuff to play with! I am intrigued with textures; the fate of paper meeting water, paints and whatever else gets added to the mix. Watercolor, to me, is a very passionate medium; there is immediacy in its nature to take on a life of its own. The 'mistakes' along the way are what give the painting a soul.

RENEE M. KUMAR, Princeton Junction, NJ
Email: reneemkumar@gmail.com
January 2010

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