December 2023 at the Gallery
Volume 14, Issue 12
Art and Philosophy with Featured Artist Kathleen Jaeger
In contrast to her exuberantly joyful art, Kathleen Jaeger the Artist is more contemplative than gregarious. Recently she's been exploring other artists and their life stories, and pondering how specific life events or life changes influenced particular works of art. Applying the same scrutiny to her own art, she realizes that she too is evolving. Life is a journey. Art is a journey. For an artist, these are often intertwined. Here's more from Kathleen:
Things happen in every life that cause change. Sometimes this is a change we have been working toward and meet with excitement and joy. At other times, change is forced upon us, and we meet it resigned to the fact that we just have to get through it. Contrary to the common adage, "change is bad," Sir Winston Churchill proclaims, “Change is the master key.” He writes that it is only through change that we grow, improve, and protect ourselves from becoming complacent, and is something we should forever welcome and seek.
Charity Tree Ornaments For Sale
It's the time of year for giving and we artists at KVA have collectively handmade and donated 100 tree ornaments to fundraise for the
Rotary Club of Kona Sunrise. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of money from the sale of these ornaments will be donated to the Rotarians.
To acknowledge their goals and community service, there will be a separate "members-only" raffle drawing just for Rotarians.
We are also accepting direct donations for the Rotary Club of Kona Sunrise. Money collected will support food distribution, scholarships, and other projects benefiting local children. The money stays in zip code 96740.
Purchase $25 or more on anything at KVA Gallery before December 24 and get a raffle ticket.
Our artists have been very generous this year and there is a lot of really good art in the raffle pot for SIXTEEN lucky winners. A peek in the pot will prove it.
Responsible for content:
Shannon Nakaya.
In her own art-life journey, Kathleen Jaeger totes a little bit of Churchill and a little bit of Monet.
Churchill describes in his essay,
Painting as a Pastime, how his discovery of painting and doing something totally different from his military career helped him deal both with stresses of his day-to-day life, gave his brain a rest, and also protected his military mind. “A man”, he writes, “can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it just in the same way he can wear out the elbows of his coat.” He found the change did him good. He was struck at how, after studying nature and landscapes and structures all those years from a military perspective, to now be looking with an eye for color, light, texture, he felt he was seeing things for the first time; he was encountering the world in a totally different way.
How life changes might affect one's art is also evidenced in Monet’s work. Monet completed 37 paintings of a bridge in his garden in Giverny, mostly painted from the same vantage point, but through different years, seasons, weather, times of day, and how Monet was experiencing the scene. In one exhibition, a number of these paintings were organized chronologically, moving through his life with the bridge as we moved from room to room. Each painting was masterful, yet subtly different from the others. This is what Monet was studying. The changes were intentional and faithful to the moment. It was amazing. Then we walked into another room, and unlike the previous rooms, the change was dramatic. Colors were suddenly brighter and more vivid. I went back to the previous room and re-entered just to check what I was seeing. Something had happened. Apparently, in the time between the previous room to this one, Monet had cataract surgery. Cataracts, I am told, cause a yellowish film over the eye, blurring and altering color sense. He was SEEing the world differently and it affected his work.
I have since read more on this. As it turns out, after a bit, Monet felt he was not seeing enough yellow; that the colors he was seeing were not “right.” His solution was to have glasses made for him with yellow lenses, so that he could adjust his vision to what wasin his head.
In my own art-life journey there have been adjustments I made just because I wanted to explore the possibilities of a medium, or to try a different approach. These were fun and exciting to do. In the way of Churchill, I embraced change and grew.
There have been adjustments necessary to meet changes in my life circumstances, like a move, or a schedule change, or a new responsibility. These could be somewhat annoying, but given time, they became the new normal with nominal distress.
Other adjustments have been more forced due to physical changes. Years take their toll on the body, which has been particularly difficult for me to accept. Still, after the initial frustrations over being forced to adapt, I have found the process to be invigorating, even cathartic. I see my evolution in both my overall well-being and in the work that is the product of this struggle. In my latest works, I am letting go of the self-imposed stress to create something “significant” and am more willing to “just paint,” challenging my mind and body to stretch as far as it might within the limits life has presently set for me, and just see what happens. Through this exploration, I discover new potential within.
To quote Churchill one more time, “Painting is a friend who makes no undue demands, excites no exhausting pursuits, keeps faithful pace even with feeble steps, and holds her canvas as a screen between us and the envious eyes of Time or the surly advance of Decrepitude. Happy are the painters for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day.” Kathleen Jaeger will be working at the gallery on Fridays, Dec. 1st and 22nd, and Tuesday Dec.5th, 2023.