Theater

Theater

Piece description from the artist

I create image experiences that connect people to place as though they were dreaming. The challenge of representing the dream landscape has led me to explore the human dream experience as a series of combined elements. Lucid elements are the centerpieces of context and meaning in dreamscapes. Surrounding these clear focal points, we find an ephemeral blur or haze where images abstract and fade, connect and transition. Story scenarios play out in repeated sequences, often changing or prompting us to revise them. We solve problems, seek answers, wander, search, run, fall, yearn, fear and lust, all in cyclical short film like sequences. My process begins as a series of photographic events. Iconic images and stories are identified and catalogued. Selections are then composed yielding a narrative assemblage. The final step in the process includes expressing connections between the representational landscapes and ephemeral dreamscape experiences. Links between the two worlds are created as a series of traditionally painted layers and gestures.

Other works by Paul Kirley

About Paul Kirley

Sonoma, CA

Growing up in a family of artists and designers, art was an integral part of Paul's life as a child. His first set of brushes and introduction to painting came in the spring of 1969. His father was working with "Walter Gropius":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gropius in Cambridge, MA. His mom belonged to a figure drawing group that met on Wednesdays in his living room on Center Street in Marblehead. Paul's first paintings were black tempera on newsprint. He was 2 years old and wanted to be an artist when he grew up.

Kirley's artistic influences include a connection to landscape, buildings and place through family exposure to architecture and landscape architecture. He discovered both photography and a love of 50’s "abstract expressionist":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism painting in his teens. Paul lived to shoot photos, draw and paint. Trips to the museum became trips to church for him. He dreamed "Kline":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kline brush strokes, "Stieglitz":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz compositions, and "Rauschenberg":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rauschenberg combines.

Paul is an exhibiting member of the Arts Guild of Sonoma and regularly contributes to the Venice Artwalk.

See Paul's portfolio here
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