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Marilyn Kingmarilynking4888@gmail.com
944.744.7675 |
Artwork
Artist Statement
I grew up in Hawaii, California and Alabama, which exposed me to a variety of artistic styles. I started painting in high school and continued my study in college. When my children were little I enjoyed a Mom’s weekly night out at a pottery studio. That culminated in a pottery studio of my own. Someone gave me a silk screen and I produced abstract serigraphs, or silkscreen prints. Soon after that I bought a loom and began to weave. I decided to spin my own yarn and even raised a flock of sheep to provide the wool for the spinning. I studied natural dyes and gave workshops on dyeing yarn. I opened a craft shop where I sold my work and that of others, along with art supplies.
Now retired, I use part of my time for writing and have published a book of short stories called “Sisters.” In wintertime, you’re likely to find me at Art Center Manatee in Bradenton sitting at a potter’s wheel. The summers are spent enjoying the natural beauty of Leelanau County where my artistic bent is satisfied with painting in watercolor, acrylics and pastels.
Many artists paint what they see. I sometimes paint what no one has ever seen. The more abstract a painting is, the better I like it. I hope you do too.
Now retired, I use part of my time for writing and have published a book of short stories called “Sisters.” In wintertime, you’re likely to find me at Art Center Manatee in Bradenton sitting at a potter’s wheel. The summers are spent enjoying the natural beauty of Leelanau County where my artistic bent is satisfied with painting in watercolor, acrylics and pastels.
Many artists paint what they see. I sometimes paint what no one has ever seen. The more abstract a painting is, the better I like it. I hope you do too.
Artist Interview
Please call me Lyn.
Q. What was your first memorable experience with art?
A: I needed one more class to graduate, so I took art my senior year at Murphy High School in Mobile, AL. Very early in the class, we went outdoors to sketch the buildings of our campus-style school. My teacher suggested that I take off my glasses to sketch because that would make it easier to avoid doting on the details. I did so and was amazed at the difference it made in my freedom to draw only the important parts of the picture.
Q. Can you explain when you wanted to become an artist? What turned you onto art?
A. I took painting at Stephens College, Columbia, MO. We walked through the Art Gallery on our way to class, so were always aware of the changing exhibits. The exhibit that blew me away was one about the architecture and furnishings of the Bau Haus Movement. It was about then that I began to pay attention to abstraction. I realized that there were many degrees of abstraction on the way to the total rejection of reality.
Q. Is there a single piece of artwork that impacted you?
A. I spent the first nine years of my life in Hawaii. I loved looking at the quilts made by Hawaiians using abstracted tropical flowers as motifs. As I grew up I realized that you could employ art in your home and wear it every time you dressed. It did not have to be in a frame.
Q. What artists influenced you the most?
A. I admire Picasso and particularly like his image of a woman looking in a mirror with one half of her face, and looking at you with the other half. The colors and the movement of the picture never grow old. Pollock is another of my favorites. My son took me to an exhibit in San Francisco that had many Pollock originals in one room with later Pollock wannabes in another. The wannabes didn’t come close to having the power and impact of Pollock. If you copy someone who is great, your own work may not achieve that same greatness.
Q: What do you like most about the medium and surface you use?
A: I sometimes paint on Yupo with liquid acrylics. Yupo is a synthetic paper made with polypropylene, and is readily available from art supply stores. I love the effects that I can achieve by manipulating the paper and wet paint. I have just recently started painting on stretched canvas with watercolor. I love the movement of paint that can be achieved with that surface and wet applications of paint.
Q: What ideas are behind your current work?
A: I am working toward being looser and more abstract with my work.
Q: What do you want people to respond to in your work?
A: I want viewers to find something unique when they look at my work.
Q: Do you have a predetermined idea of what your finished work will be like, or do the ideas emerge in the process?
A: When I write, the characters tell me what the ending will be. When I paint, the image does the same thing.
Q: How would you describe your work to a visually disabled person?
A: I would tell them that most people paint something they see. I paint something that no one has ever seen. That they can imagine what it is just as well as a seeing person.
Q: What are your goals for your work in the next few years?
A: To paint or to write every day to develop a healthy body of work.
Q. What was your first memorable experience with art?
A: I needed one more class to graduate, so I took art my senior year at Murphy High School in Mobile, AL. Very early in the class, we went outdoors to sketch the buildings of our campus-style school. My teacher suggested that I take off my glasses to sketch because that would make it easier to avoid doting on the details. I did so and was amazed at the difference it made in my freedom to draw only the important parts of the picture.
Q. Can you explain when you wanted to become an artist? What turned you onto art?
A. I took painting at Stephens College, Columbia, MO. We walked through the Art Gallery on our way to class, so were always aware of the changing exhibits. The exhibit that blew me away was one about the architecture and furnishings of the Bau Haus Movement. It was about then that I began to pay attention to abstraction. I realized that there were many degrees of abstraction on the way to the total rejection of reality.
Q. Is there a single piece of artwork that impacted you?
A. I spent the first nine years of my life in Hawaii. I loved looking at the quilts made by Hawaiians using abstracted tropical flowers as motifs. As I grew up I realized that you could employ art in your home and wear it every time you dressed. It did not have to be in a frame.
Q. What artists influenced you the most?
A. I admire Picasso and particularly like his image of a woman looking in a mirror with one half of her face, and looking at you with the other half. The colors and the movement of the picture never grow old. Pollock is another of my favorites. My son took me to an exhibit in San Francisco that had many Pollock originals in one room with later Pollock wannabes in another. The wannabes didn’t come close to having the power and impact of Pollock. If you copy someone who is great, your own work may not achieve that same greatness.
Q: What do you like most about the medium and surface you use?
A: I sometimes paint on Yupo with liquid acrylics. Yupo is a synthetic paper made with polypropylene, and is readily available from art supply stores. I love the effects that I can achieve by manipulating the paper and wet paint. I have just recently started painting on stretched canvas with watercolor. I love the movement of paint that can be achieved with that surface and wet applications of paint.
Q: What ideas are behind your current work?
A: I am working toward being looser and more abstract with my work.
Q: What do you want people to respond to in your work?
A: I want viewers to find something unique when they look at my work.
Q: Do you have a predetermined idea of what your finished work will be like, or do the ideas emerge in the process?
A: When I write, the characters tell me what the ending will be. When I paint, the image does the same thing.
Q: How would you describe your work to a visually disabled person?
A: I would tell them that most people paint something they see. I paint something that no one has ever seen. That they can imagine what it is just as well as a seeing person.
Q: What are your goals for your work in the next few years?
A: To paint or to write every day to develop a healthy body of work.