Kim Kauffman:
My images have always been fundamentally about form. Forms manifest in the resonance of a curve, the rhythm of a pattern, the dichotomy of light and shadow. They abound everywhere in nature: the twist of a leaf, the overlap of feathers on a bird’s wing, the symmetry of an unfurling flower. We emulate them in our human creations: the arch of a cathedral, the weave of a textile. These innate forms, abstractions from the larger world, connect with us at a basic level and help us to organize and understand our world.

Florilegium is a body of work that has engaged me for the last eight years. A series botanically inspired images, Florilegium has evolved along with my growth as a gardener. Gardens are an easily accessible way for us to reconnect daily with the natural world and be reminded of our place in it. Garden materials (flowers, plants, leaves, branches, seedpods) are the primary subject matter in my photographs. Through these materials I endeavor to share my experience of this essential connection.

Plants have long fascinated me to grow, live with and record in my photography. Although other subject matter is important to me, I always come back to plants–their beauty, complexity and perfection of form speak to me in a basic way. I am not alone in my reverence for plants - they have long inspired humans as we record the world in our artwork. The advent of flowering plants forever changed the face of the earth, providing food for all living beings. Without these plants we could not exist. In turn,
our fascination with them has contributed to their perpetuation as we nuture and share them. We, plants and humans, are involved in an eons old dialog.

There are many inspired artists creating brilliant work focused on the human condition. Yet, as Barry Lopez states, “Increasingly our culture is shaped by culture and not by landscape, so that our culture, spinning at an ever increasing rate, increasingly refers only to itself.” In our urban modern culture, full of
self-reference, perhaps we need more images of nature in our every day lives in order to live more conscientiously in the natural world. I make the images in Florilegium not just to revel in the beauty of my subjects but because I wish to help create a balance–equipoise–with my images of the botanical world.

There are many images in a variety of sizes available. Please contact the Katie Gingrass Gallery for more information.

Dad's Paletter

Equipoise

Fanfare

Masquerade

Tropicalia

i l l u m i t o n e s , volume 1 to brighten with light + quality or character of sound or color This body of work, begun in 2007, is a series of collages that are purely studies in light and form. They are not about a particular subject but are expressions of the elements of composition that all artists work with: line, form, light and shadow, movement, repetition, symmetry, space. This use of composition as subject is something that has long interested me as I have developed my sense of abstract imagery in photography. This work brings me back to the photograms I made in the darkroom as a beginning photographer and the studies of form that I’ve made with a camera creating abstract photographs of buildings, lampshades, ductwork . . . anything. The additions of photo-collage and scanning have enabled me to take my love of abstraction in a new and more complex direction. I feel as if I have come full circle, but with new information, as these newest images have seeds in my earliest work (If you would like to see samples of my earlier work visit the “Abstractions” portfolio). For this new series of images I have chosen titles that borrow terminology from other art forms: poetry, literature, dance and music. The cross-pollination from other genres seems an appropriate pairing with these images that are more about the act of art-making than about a specific subject. I believe that art forms other than my own inspire, challenge and inform me thereby helping me to create the space in which I make my own work.

Polyrhythm

Arabesque

Bebop

Fugue

Quatrain

There are many images in a variety of sizes available. Please contact the Katie Gingrass Gallery for more information.