ART Habens Art Review // Special Issue ART Habens Art Review - Special Issue #89 | Page 193

Caren Kinne
ART Habens
source of inspiration in my work. I have
always been drawn to the Dream
Surrealists like Dali and Magritte and their
magical, impossible worlds they created. I
have long enjoyed the bright colors, bold
lines, and simple, iconic compositions of
Pop Artists like Warhol and Lichtenstein.
As for contemporary artists, I am drawn to
those who have a strong use of color, and
also incorporate hints of nostalgia and/or
have use of bulbous organic forms in their
work, as these are driving forces in my
own work.
Both the late Elizabeth Murray's large
scale paintings and the late Mike Kelly's
stuffed-toy installations come to mind. I
love Trey Speegle’s paintings inspired by
the good-old paint by numbers kits.
I have been following the current
Squishes, Drips and Blobs sculpture work
by Dan Lam on Instagram, well Liz Tran
whose bright work in varying media
always makes me smile. Recently I have
been inspired by Camilla D'Errico's use of
colorful, flowing lines in her oil paintings
and have just begun trying out some
bright organic line work in the background
of some of my sketches. and ceramic relief. I realized one of the
things I found captivating about the glyphs
was how, to me; they seemed to have
biomorphic qualities. Perhaps, it was in
part that as a child I was always fond of
stories which involved fantasy lands and
endearing creatures.
Think: Wonderland, Oz, Dr. Seuss and
Roger Hargreaves. Ultimately, I began to
envision little beings taking on these
shapes and lines that I saw in the glyphs.
And so it is from here that my portrait
series began to develop and evolve.
Completely separate from my artwork (at
first anyhow), I began researching my own
family history and lineage. I found it quite
fascinating to learn about my family’s past:
what the individuals did, where and how
they lived, when and why they moved to
the Americas.
At one point it occurred to me to merge the
two: my portrait series and this new found
interest in ancestry. For me, it is a way of
re-imagining my own heritage.
So my ancestry themed portraits are
named after and inspired by various
figures in my own family tree.
The portrait series actually came about
before my Musings series. I would have to
say it started from when I discovered the
remarkable Ancient Mayan Glyphs. Simple
lines and shapes beautifully arranged; I
was smitten.
They started to appear in my works as
exact copies of particular glyphs, in
patterns I created in printmaking, drawing I think the real drives the imagined. The
Musings series is certainly more
meditative, which by nature lends itself to
be more expressive of the inner self. That
said- our inner selves do not exist in a
vacuum. I don't think one can totally
separate one's daily experiences from the
thoughts and perspective of the inner self;
they inform each other.
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