Arizona Painting

Karlee B. Watkins 1976-2013 " In the ups and downs of life certain things have given me an expression of myself, to be specific I paint. It is always what I return to, again and again. I find peace in my stroke, almost get lost in the color. The act of painting itself to me is almost as mysterious as it is known because as I see my paintings come to life my subconscious thoughts show themselves. Sometimes it is as if I am interpreting one of my dreams, I see that some part of myself is saying something that must be said. I love that aspect in itself. The idea that it is not my conscious self that is in charge, as much as I pretend that is the case. To me, life itself connects us all through our subconscious, so although my interpretation of my paintings are what I see, I know that the viewer sees what they need to see for them at that time in their life. I prefer to look at life from a point of view that is not at all ordinary, I live outside the mold of who we tell ourselves we must be. It is this "outside the box" point of view that is the critical eye behind my work. I want to look at the parts of our society that most people shy from, to bring a new awareness, another perspective for the viewers to be presented with, and not necessarily comfortable at that. Much of what I bring to my art comes from a different field, although related, architecture. I pursued a disciplined path towards becoming an architect for most of my youth but found that the rigidity of the field crushed my creative drive. I make light of this but in truth, this change of my mind was a total deconstruction of my assumed self into my truth. I paint." My work is hanging in private collections throughout the U.S.