| Artist's Statement for "Solitary Kingdom" Exhibition This body of work is an allegorical exploration of those difficult life experiences we encounter and how we process them within the inner realm of our psyche. Even though these symbolic scenes express a personal mythos, my hope is that viewers will extract their own personal interpretations and find their own stories within them. The character in these paintings has been developing for several years and finally materialized into the mysterious figure you see before you. She seems lithe and young, yet something about her is weary and old. Her garments are like those of both king and jester. She is at once sage and fool. Her expressions are vague, leaving viewers to sort out their own emotions, reactions, and meanings to these images. She has been my constant companion and guide through one very difficult year of my life. May she be for you a symbolic doorway to your own Solitary Kingdom, with its feast of losses, unexpected gifts, sudden shifts, gradual changes, difficult choices, and enduring hopes. —Kristal Tomshany
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My current work combines a rendering of static, three-dimensional forms over a gestural brushwork of dynamic energy. I have been searching for years to find a technique that expresses the formless presence that pervades the essence of all things. Though my art may vary somewhat in subject matter, the heart of my content is concerned with capturing a glimpse of the "something beyond" which manifests itself in the physical world, yet transcends it. Brushwork has become increasingly important to me. It is the breath of my painting and imbues it with both invisible energy and physical substance. The layering of transparent, semi transparent, and opaque pigments is fascinating to me. The process itself is a metaphor of mystery, of the revealing and/or concealing of form and of spirit. It speaks also of time, memory and poetic resonance. I find I must love the objects I choose to paint. Sometimes I choose an object I do not love and learn to love it through the process of painting it. It never fails to win me over and to convey meaning to me. I can never be neutral or objective in my affections for the things I paint, or the painting will lack power and spirit and will not carry the vestiges of attentiveness needed to probe another human heart. |