ARTIST STATEMENT - KIM SHANNON
As a young adult I spent 12 years in England and then 3 in France, following my dream to be an 'artist.' I was not
really sure what that meant but I wanted to find out. I have always loved to paint and its never been far from my
thinking, however I felt torn between the world of Art and what I enjoyed painting, taking encouragement and
inspiration from the works of Van Gogh and other giants.
I have a family and I teach. I work from home, where I live my life with all that that entails and which is the
source and branch of other people's lives. My love of the domestic, the clutter, the scene constantly changing,
composing itself, is the source for my painting. The commonplace, the ordinary, I try to give that significance; an
object that has been handled, has a history that gives it its resonance. Painting for me is trying to make sense of
life.
T.S. Eliot's poems have been a source of inspiration for me. They make the commonplace more commonplace and at
the same time give it significance. Eliot paints pictures, with words about time passing:
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"
The idea of time passing fascinates me; there has always been an element of it within my work: the sun moving
across a table, the seasons, decay, the family, the generations, and my own place in time, which often seems
insignificant but can also feel absolutely significant. Can the personal become the universal, the significant,
so that 'things' with their history are an expression of that?
Oil paint and colour have always been my love. They are surprising, inspiring and challenging. Oil paint is so
tactile it creates a world of its own and colours move and flow within the medium. With this it is possible to
create a tactile sense of what I see, the 'quality' of things the 'quality' of a colour or an edge where one tone
meets another.
So having travelled and come home again and having learned and I am still learning. I still find it hard to call
myself an 'artist' but I still have my love of paint and painting and what it can communicate. So I just hope that
what I make will have some resonance with others.
1.8.2008
© 2008 Michael Gray Fine Art & Kim Shannon RR&I. All rights reserved 1/ 8/ 2008
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