When I visited rural Japan in late fall, many windows in ordinary houses were filled with drying persimmon (fuyu). They’d become wrinkled, brownish-rust ovals the size of oranges. The large stem had been pared off and the fruits were hung with the former stem on the side, so their shapes became a flattened egg-shape. Outside …
The knee can sprout wings and fly. Ask any runner. Being curious about what a string, wet with paint would do on a knee joint, I begin a process of investigation. I first apply a circle of wet paint, as can be seen on the right leg. The model, a dancer, moves her knee and …
Little did I know that my decision to examine the middle joint of one finger would lead to a twenty-year creative exploration that would reveal deep parts of my life for all to see. A personal adventure would ensue, a unique journey. At first, I noticed that the pointing index finger is a symbol of …
When we move, six separate muscle groups interact in the human back. My model, a tolerant dancer with a string dipped in wet white paint across her shoulder blades, shrugs, humps forward, raises each shoulder up and down, then bends side to side, creating an image that depicts what these movements look like: wing-like designs. …
Fling your arm wide, up and around. The shoulder is the only human joint that rotates 180 degrees. I asked Joan, a dancer, to do this after I’d tied a string, wetted with paint, under her shoulder. After she’d completed her task, the wet paint made complex swirls. I found the design intriguing, resembling, to …
I stripped off my shirt and dipped a string in black paint. Jane, an artist and friend stood ready with my camera. When I held the string out to her, she took it and carefully tied it around the center of my back. Slowly, I raised my right shoulder as high as possible. Hearing Jane …
Last spring, when COVID started, I decided to paint a self-portrait. This seemed like a worthy endeavor during a pandemic: to leave my countenance behind should I succumb to the virus. I enjoy combining oil paint with an 8B pencil. First, I stain heavy paper with abstract oil wash designs, the paint thinned with turpentine. …
2020 November 11 – 2021 December 31Making the Invisible VisibleVirtual Exhibition Kauffman creates mixed media pieces that depict people in meditative states; they dwell where the physical and the spiritual meet. As in much religious art, the creative process itself strengthens the artist’s private contemplative practice. View the exhibit online here. Kauffman begins by making …
The pandemic has held us captive for almost a year. We’ve needed to make long-term and on-going adjustments to protect ourselves. As we approach our first anniversary with COVID19, we’ve seen the people who couldn’t cope: the ones in denial who said it wasn’t real, the ones who rebelled and met together in large unmasked groups, …
In October, our thoughts turn to those spirits who may still roam among us. Other cultures didn’t try to keep these phantasms away, but encouraged them to stay with us, believing them to be ancestors who could help us from the beyond. The Standing Gong from North Ambrym Island in Vanuatu, a South Pacific nation, …
