Exhale Painting

Kelsey lives and works in San Diego. She received her MFA in 2018. “As an abstract painter she devotes herself to process (over and above product) and to the indeterminacy of the artistic endeavor- recognizing it as an analog to everyday embodiment, with its precariousness but also its beauty and grace, its movement and energy.” - Pennylane Shen- Dazed & Confucius Consulting ARTIST STATEMENT: My multi-media abstract paintings are blueprints: a visual reference for the structure of the human experience. This structure is divided into three rooms: the body, sensory experience, and thoughts and feelings. I create the blueprint for these rooms using the principles of embodiment, awareness, and the tension of yin and yang. My work is intrinsically autobiographical and focuses on the benefits of embodiment within the process of creating. It is a timeline of the personal history and evidence of being present; a photo emulsion of felt experience. If one can sit still long enough, the body will speak. My work is about showing up and listening long enough to respond, pause, wonder, change, and rest in discovery. This sensory experience is a human struggle rooted in the complex, variable relationships we all share with our bodies. Paint layers communicate depth and complexity. They draw you in, arousing a moment of pause and activating the mind to engage in deeper awareness of what lies beneath. Vulnerability and resilience are recurrent themes. The mind tends to adapt and thrive within binary mental frameworks, and my creative process engages in non-dualist mindfulness and an appreciation for beauty in all its forms. My work blends contradictions of seemingly contrary forces that may in fact be complementary or interdependent in the natural world. I often paint in pairs and consider them cohorts in traction. I use paint to reflect relationship, conflict, connection, resolve, and beauty birthed from chaos. My process uses the pacing of impulsive movements and with slow, meditative marks to portray the power and fragility of the body. The senses are an exploration of the specific meanings and stories our bodies tell. I paint in silence to heighten the other senses and increase sensitivity to the mystery and breadth of the human experience. In a way, my art is an act of sensory sharing between the artist, observer, and blueprint of what it means to be human in the world today.