K I M L A U R E L
Fine Art • Graphic Design • Illustration
Personal work includes: painting, printmaking, collage and mixed media works
Artist's statement: My work investigates symbolic forms and shapes. I utilize Icons and totems with engaging sociological significance. Primal experiences, nature and personal identity for example, so basic to our understanding of existence, are symbolized in this private world. Contemporary cultural icons are used to enhance or countermand the associations of the figurative images and symbols, emphasizing the dichotomy between physical self survival and spiritual isolation.
Utilizing printmaking and collage as an extension of drawing and painting, I have found that in the realm of two dimensional expression that mixed media collage is the most authentic and subjective tool to express my voice.
For me Art is about persistence, a life study and discipline. It is part of my life. If you pursue it a lot or a little at any one time makes no difference...just return to it again and again. Let the presence of touch back into your life and embrace the new with reference to all that you have learned.
Prism Chamber Mixed Media, 10" x 10" © Kim Laurel
"Kim Laurel's work is familiar to Chicago print collectors and her mixed media works on paper are well represented in this showing. Prism Chamber, from her "Prism System Series," is representative of her recent work. A first impression is one of contemporary, illuminated manuscripts. The gilding and subtlety of color must be seen live: reproduction cannot do it justice. These are small, affordable paper jewels. Laurel's prints in this exhibit harmonize and counterpoint natural and abstracted geometries. In Prism Chamber, the Fibonacci spiral inherent in a Nautilus shell forms a focus, while a vegetive tendril at left echoes that animal symmetry. The diamond, regular octahedrons, and faceted geometric stylizations play in contrast against the soft curves. Throughout the image area, spontaneous, free lines form a discrete and unifying netting. Laurel's current printwork brings to mind a Charles Demuth illuminating miniature jewelry onto paper."
G. Jurek Polanski
ArtScope
Curatorial Projects Include:
Her Way With Print: Woman Made Gallery.
Black/White/Gray, Element Flux, Ethereal Fauna: The Artist’s Muse, Tool Box Flower Box, Integrant Element Lab, Redux Loop, Wild Things and Beyond: Kim Laurel and Fletcher Hayes Collaborations.
Laurel teaches mixed media printmaking and collage in both private and
public classes. Her work is included in the recent 2015 exhibitions and publications: "Convergence: The Poetic Dialogue Project" at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and "City Creatures" at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and the publication "City Creatures" by the Center for Humans and Nature, University of Chicago Press.
"Kim Laurel similarly employs printmaking as another way to extend and alter her own hand. She is attracted to printmaking techniques for the unique tones it can produce as opposed to the to the capacity for replication. Laurel views her small-scale works on paper as ‘tiny worlds,’ which are shrouded in conceptually dense stratospheres. This sort of spherical layering seems to perfectly describe the structure of Laurel’s work, “I like to build and layer,” she says, “Vintage found images are integrated into my work along with my own. Mythology, history, science and literature fuel my imagery,” says Laurel. In terms of printmaking techniques, Laurel prefers multiple-pass monoprinting, which is in itself a gray area between painting and printmaking. “With multiple-pass monoprinting I work with the ghost image on the plate and build off of it with various prints in work at the same time. One print may go through the press 10 times or more. Each finished piece is unique, but carries a common core matrix. I get all these components together after they are dry and address them again on the board in my studio. Some I let stand, others I tear apart and incorporate into other works and some are a base to be enhanced intact,” says Laurel."
Molly Welsh
Printmakers Pt. 2: Paint and Print Mashup
Chicago Art Magazine in Chicago Art News
Press News and Reviews
