Kae Barron’s ‘Thin Line’ exhibit mixes media
Kae Barron, artist and lace/ embroidery designer, has a new art exhibit that shows off her love of different media.
“I like variety,” she says. “I don’t like to do the same thing all the time. I do a lot of experimenting.”
Her new show, “Thin Line,” hangs through Aug. 31 at Cantrell Gallery in Little Rock. Barron, who will soon celebrate her 40th wedding anniversary with Danny Barron, answered questions via email about her art and life: Q: Were your parents an influence on your becoming an artist?
A: Parents are always an influence, considering genetics, environment and sharing life events over a whole lifetime. Although I never had an apprentice or student/teacher type of situation with my father [acclaimed artist Warren Criswell], his career and our conversations about philosophy and art over the years would obviously have influenced me. I think the main influence has been intellectual curiosity and aesthetic temperament. I certainly acknowledge the advantage of having a great artist for a father. It also has drawbacks — fear, paralysis, feeling inferior, in a shadow, etc. It’s complicated!
I am always very impressed by my mother’s [Janet Criswell] technical abilities [as a photographer], as well as her ability to capture amazing moments in a beautiful way.
Q: How do you decide which medium to use?
A: There are advantages and drawbacks to each medium. Oil is easier to blend and to change or fix during the course of a painting. But it dries very slowly and tries my patience. If a subject calls for a bigger painting, or a bright, smoothly blended sunset, for example, I’ll choose oil. I love egg tempera. I find the whole process of making paint with the yolk of an egg delightful. But it dries almost instantly, so when doing washes or blendy things like clouds, I have to be lightning fast. So I tend to do smaller works in egg tempera. It’s great for fine details and faster drying can be a great advantage. It usually requires many layers, though. I also like drawings. The monochrome imparts a different sort of mood.
Q: In your artist’s statement for “Thin Line,” you write that you were imagining being on the moon, looking at Earth and shifting to “my little life,” and thinking about holding two perspectives at the same time.
A: I think it can symbolize a lot of stuff. When I first thought of it, it was about the emotional shift between the overview and up-close perspectives. For me, the image of the Earth hanging in the vastness of space with that thin wisp of protection is both awesome and extremely poignant. That day, it was a big emotional shift to then concentrate on the close-up details of everyday life. Another thing I thought about was how here on Earth, the atmosphere seems huge, permanent and very powerful (storms, climate, etc.). But from space, the atmosphere can be seen to be so thin, so fragile, like it could just blow away. (“Thin Line” also refers to the thin blue line of the atmosphere around the earth.) That’s why I concentrated on cloudy/stormy sorts of skies in the paintings. But as I painted, I had a wide variety of thoughts and emotions, most of which were nebulous and evanescent. That is to say, the paintings mean many things to me, most of which I can’t put into words. Which is why I painted them. Other people have said some very interesting things to me about them, which is quite gratifying.
Q: What got you interested in lace and embroidery?
A: My mother and I started Criswell Embroidery (k-lace.com) in 1996, when home embroidery machines were becoming popular. We sell digitized files that people can use in their home embroidery machines. Ever since I was a child I’ve loved embroidery, but it’s so time-consuming to do by hand. My mother discovered the new machines and digitizing programs. I was fascinated by the idea of being able to digitize files that would tell a machine what to stitch. My mom was the one who had the idea of making a business of it. I do the designing and digitizing and she takes care of the business part.
Q: What do you hope people will take away from your show?
A: I hope that people will see something that interests them in my work. I try to render the world the way that I see it, with its beauty and its horror. I hope some people will find some resonance there. I’m not trying to make a point or give a lecture. I would love it if my paintings could evoke emotions and moods. I also dream that people might be able to feel some sort of connection — a human connection, a connection with nature, the cosmos, whatever. That’s the sort of experience I look for in art. It’s very moving. And for me, at least, those experiences make life infinitely better.
Kae Barron, “Thin Line,” through Aug. 31, Cantrell Gallery 8206 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. (501) 2241335.
WACKY ART
On his website, the artist Sean Sapp, better known by his nom-de-art Sulac, describes what he does: “Wacky Art For Wacky People.”
His vivid palette and childlike sense of wonder and innocence infuse his mixed media artworks with whimsy, playfulness, no small amount of wonder and unexpected mystery that takes on sci-fi/ fantasy, comics and anime-like elements. A tinge of melancholy (perhaps resignation?) seems to inhabit the expressions of many of the figures in his work.
For “Moon Flavor,” his show at Thea Foundation, Sulac also shows a keen eye for merchandising by adding T-shirts, stickers, buttons, postcards and prints. He also is offering his first coloring book for children.
Many artists have created multiple works around a theme … diptychs, triptychs, etc. But Sulac goes bigger. Much bigger. An eye-catching grouping of 24 interconnected works depicts a colorful landscape of urban activity. One that quickly caught the eye is Pencil, a yellowish cat, surrounded by mushroom-like figures with eyes. The 24 works are priced individually.
Other standouts include a magnetic four-by-three foot Blue Tiger, lying on the ground, seemingly quite satisfied with life and surroundings. There’s Too Many of Us is a large mama rabbit surrounded by many little ones; in spirit it brings to mind the Mother Goose rhyme “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” A little horror creeps in here and there, brilliantly so in the Goth/horror edge of I Wake Up Screaming. The sharp, pointed teeth in this figure also show up now and then in other works, whether on people or buildings (watch out for that garage!).
This show also has a group of pen and ink drawings, including the charming Moon Struck. Wacky? Yes, but so much more.
Sulac, “Moon Flavor,” through Aug. 30, Thea Foundation 401 Main St., North Little Rock. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. (501) 379-9512.