Deciphering the Divine

The following is my artist statement for the upcoming show, Deciphering the Devine, at Fort Point Framers (Boston), March 3 - 31. Psst...secret here, and spoiler alert...I never know what the show is going to be about until the work is all together and ready to be framed.

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My work is a visual account of my everyday experiences – a narration of the mundane and sublime in each day and how these seemingly varied experiences exhibit nature's transformative, restorative and live-giving forces.

The work in this show draws from two recent bodies of work, both using the human mind as a centerpiece and references neuroscience, meditation and the remapping of brain circuitry. While the subject of this show draws directly from my cognitive life, the abstract imagery references fragments of indecipherable characters and letters, as well as the natural world of aquatic organisms.

As I work, I try to tap into a state of flow and decipher something not immediately known. A secret alphabet may appear from the swoosh of a gesture line, or the shape of a human heart might be suggested by a crevice in a sea sponge.

All of the mediums exhibited in this show (watery inks pooled on paper or film, thinned oils, and human hair on paper) are difficult to control. This allows the mediums to come to life and exhibit their own natural properties, diminishing my power over the outcome. Working in this manner is like redefining how one interprets the world through cognitive remapping practices, such as meditation. The immediacy of finding a solution, or controlling the situation, seems to fade away and the richness of the details takes hold of the mind.

Kate Gilbert Miller
February 23, 2010

A life of letters

As a teenager I fantasized about living a life of letters. I didn’t know what it meant but it sounded cool. I interpreted it as a life of scholarship and solitude; part organic spiritually, part rigorous intellectualism. Ultimately, I realized I wasn’t the scholarly type (thank you Doc. P. for pointing that out) and as much as I liked alone time, I craved socialization too much to be a Virginia Woolf type. (Plus it turned out I wasn’t mad, just a little bit sensitive.)

But I’ve hung on to the letters part.

I write every morning. I love communicating through letters and cards. I read everything in front of my eyes; license plates, graffiti tag, signs (always rereading the ones I see daily and adding commas or removing letters) and look for the hidden or alternative meanings.

So it’s no surprise that I choose the words around my studio carefully and use them sparingly. Up right now:

• Painting is not about what you see, it is about what you don’t see - Bernd Haussman
  
  
• To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now – Samuel Beckett
  
  
• Originality is the art of concealing your sources – Benjamin Franklin

As I work, I try to tap into a state of flow and decipher or form something new out of the drips and accidents on the page…I try to find form in the mess. Describing this process and condensing it into a catching one-liner for my show title is proving difficult. It’s flow. It’s deciphering. It’s a struggle, but it’s also a joy for me.

I have a few hours to come up with something clever before the postcard ships to the printer. Maybe I’ll drive around and look at signs…

Any suggestions?

image above: messing around with colored ink and this "y" appeared

Moving forward

Just now as I got off the station bench to board my train to the studio, the homeless man next to me -- who had not previously said a word -- grinned a toothless smile and professed, "You're a strong woman. You're moving forward, not backward". With his warm smile of insanity came a thumbs up...and precisely the encouragement I need as I enter a two week stretch to pull together the next show.

Recent Works (drawings and paintings)
@ Fort Point Framers
300 Summer Street
Boston

March 3-31

Opening reception: Thursday March 4, 5-8 pm
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