Katrina Balling Artist Statement

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Current Exhibit

Updated: 8.7.2007

KATRINA BALLING

Escape I need space Room to fly

I have been taking photos of the sky in Brooklyn for years now, since I have lived here, really. At first from the small windows in my apartment just looking at the small square of stark solid blue against the sunlit buildings. Blue photos. And then the clouds. Watching the shapes change over my head. Angry clouds, dirty colors, and constant contrails. Rooftops are an oasis in this city, a place to get away, to be outside. Safely away, but in the middle of it all. The blue sky has been a constant refuge for me in the city, and was I think part of my choice to paint, and to paint with saturated color. In my older work you see one color of oil enamel serve as a signified background space but also as a solid object. The solid enamel confines the rendered shiny object. A portrait of a creature trapped in paint.

Now, there is space in the sky I paint, giving the new creatures a place more their own. It is an ambiguous ungrounded space; space for imagination, for play. I have posed and painted their gumby rubber arms and gummy bright colors. Vicious and/or tender these monsters act out a whim what does not want to be processed, the commotion of our world and in my mind.

They have room to be, room to look, room to bite, room to wrestle and to huddle, room to dream, room to fly- if they want to.

I always wanted to fly.