Earl Grenville Killeen
Artist's Statement
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Making art has been my grounding to myself and my connection to the community since childhood. In 1995, personal circumstances involving family and loss led to a long hiatus in my ability to be creatively productive. Re-connecting with the Shoreline Arts Alliance has rekindled my commitment to the arts community and to my work. Since mid-2017, I have completed two series of paintings in watercolor, and a third is in progress. The subjects of the first two series are machines and gadgets -- some that now are antiquated, some still of use but worn down, no longer in their prime. Despite that, I see in them aesthetic grace, integrity, and a sort of life-force. Whether the subject of each painting might be appreciated as a mechanical object animated by its utilitarian purpose or as a metaphor for myself (or anyone) faced with aging and obsolescence, the unifying vision in both series is seeing -- beyond functionality -- the intrinsic beauty and value of the individual. |
At the same time, I'm sensing a movement in my recent work toward intimacy and acceptance. The hulking construction machinery in the Totemics series gives way to the more human-scaled gadgets and bicycle parts of Mechanostalgia. In turn, the metal that is the preponderant component of all those images has been replaced by softer materials, including bits of the natural world, that make up the whimsical composites of familiar objects that are my current paintings' subjects. The essence of these objects is not a configuration of parts that are meant to be in motion. They are less about doing (or no longer being able to do) any prescribed task, and more about being, in harmony and tranquility. In this series, The Persistence of Promise, the ubiquitous winged maple seeds in unlikely settings suggest possibilities, flights of fancy, and new growth.
