Kim Powell

Lives and works in Austin, TX, USA

Artist statement

We move through life, thinking, feeling, perceiving, acting, and reacting. All these activities carry vibrational patterns that form reality as we know it. Biologist Rupert Sheldrake theorizes that morphic fields are what organize information throughout life. These fields enable us to "regenerate and heal after damage, coordinate vibratory activities of the nervous system, and are closely connected to mental activity." Much like morphic fields, there is a force at play when I paint, an underlying guidance I trust. The act of painting is a healing ritual where heightened awareness takes place. When I begin a painting, I align my energy to the present moment. I allow intuition to guide me to colors, brushes, and tools. I trust what comes and intend to stay loose and free while making deliberate marks and movements. Contemplations that were once internal become externalized as shapes, textures, and colors. As a painting unfolds and begins to take shape, structures arise. Layer upon layer, I obscure, reveal, and obscure again, and a puzzle to solve emerges. The final result is a completed painting, which acts as an expression of the unconscious. Making abstract art, with its inherent ambiguity, is a dream-like process. It serves as therapeutic, temporary relief from more rigid waking hours. Yet still, it mimics life which flows between chaos and order, surrender and intention. I aim for the work to energize and awaken reflection on the subtler realms. Instead of art serving as...

Artwork