Happy New, Year and Work!

Now that the holiday season has been thoroughly enjoyed and 2019 has been put to rest, we at Zimmerman Fine Art Studio are beginning 2020 with a new drawing and a set of three new serigraphs in the works!

Home Series - Horse, graphite drawing, 14 x 12, copyrighted by Kathleen Zimmerman

First, we are proud to say that Kathleen Zimmerman started the New Year with her first drawing of 2020 titled Horse. It is part of her Home Series and a welcome addition to the previous three drawings, Bird, Dog and Fish.

Note: Images of Bird, Dog and Fish’s serigraphs are shown below.

In this series, Zimmerman raises the question of what makes a home? Is it just a temporary safe haven... a place to raise one's offspring... a permanent sense of belonging... a place to protect... or an ever-changing location dependent of the food supply… or is it family or friends that determines what makes a home?  By looking at what seems to be the most important factors to different animals when they choose their homes, Zimmerman gently urges the viewer to think about what is the most important factors to them.

Zimmerman’s latest drawing continues this by urging viewers to think about what makes a horse feel at home? Is it a nice shelter with plenty of hay to eat… attention from humans and work to perform… or open spaces to run free in… or in today’s world, is it a balance of all three? In Zimmerman’s drawing, she plays with these ideas in her symbolic and surreal manner showing a horse in a dreamscape of sorts, with lush grass caressing its long legs and Zimmerman will add a touch of green to the serigraph to give it the sweet taste of spring.

Like all of Zimmerman’s serigraphs, each print will be hand-printed on Coventry Rag 290 gram paper using archival serigraphic inks in limited editions of 24 with 2 artist proofs and 3 printers proofs signed by the artist. We will post an image of the serigraph under our menu heading, serigraphic prints, when it is available for adoption.

Second, we are currently producing the serigraphs of our East West Series! The set of all three editions should be finished in early February if all goes well. We plan on posting images of the serigraphs in our March post and telling you about the idea behind this series, so keep turned for that.

Note: Above are images of the drawings of East West Series - Cosmology, Iconology and Mythology’s.

Third and possibly most important, here’s hoping EVERYONE has a happy and productive year!

Zimmerman Fine Art Studio

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Music (Instrument) and Dance →

Many artists work in a variety of mediums. Kathleen Zimmerman creates drawings, serigraphs and cast sculpture. But many visual artists are also involved with the performing arts and vice versa. While Zimmerman did not pursue music or dance professionally, she did grow up playing the clarinet throughout school and learned to dance as a young adult. We mention this because her love for both these forms of expression can be seen in a couple of her series’ titled Instrument and Dance.

In Zimmerman’s Instrument Series, she began by drawing a related pair of artworks titled Fe and Male. In this piece, she decided to use the innate forms of the guitar and the clarinet to refer to the feminine and masculine anatomy along with abtracted notes and hearts to create a playful harmonious backdrop. These two instruments, the guitar and clarinet, are widely used in American and French romantic music, respectively, so seemed to lend themselves to this sort of interpretation. In these paired images, the basic forms are intended to carry the viewers eyes from one drawing to its counterpart connecting them visually while the textured rendered forms create a similiar visual rhythm that furthers the connection. While creating these drawings, Zimmerman enjoyed the back and forth movement between them so she may continue that way of working throughout the series. We will see as the next drawing or drawings are created. As of right now, drums and flutes have grabbed her attention, so we will see what kind of visual music Zimmerman makes with these two instruments.

Note: Images of the original drawings of Fe and Male are shown above. We will post images of the serigraphs as they come to life. As new work in this series is completed, they will be posted on the drawing page or maybe even in another blog post.

In Zimmerman’s Dance Series, she decided to use different human-made subject matter such as cups, chairs and brooms along with the basic shapes created by the dancers feet as they dance to create the visual homage to these different dances. For Salsa, hot steamy cups of coffee along with a jagged pattern were used to capture the essense of this sexy latin dance with its hip shaking and flamborant movements. For Swing, overlapping tangled limbs of chairs along with a oval pattern were used to capture the essense of this joyful country dance with it back and forth spinning movements. And for Waltz, graceful handmade brooms along with a rounded triangular pattern were used to capture the essence of this refined classical dance with its three step glidding movements. These are the first three in this series but others are bond to follow in their footsteps, as Zimmerman laughingly points out.

Note: Zimmerman did not restrict the drawings to a rectangular format letting the backgroup rendering anchor them on the page but added rectangular blocks of vibrant color to the serigraphs. Both work on different ways to enhance and add meaning to these artworks. Images of the original drawings along with the serigraphic prints are shown above.

While Kathleen Zimmerman has not done any new sculptural work in these themes, her first public commission titled Melody is a good example of her use of the visual arts to express her interest in all the arts. Time will tell if Zimmerman sculpts new work playing off the themes of music and dance.

Zimmerman Fine Art Studio

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Solo and Galleries Exhibitions in Connecticut

Kathleen Zimmerman’s artwork was selected for two Solo Exhibitions in her home state of Connecticut. While she has had Solo Exhibitions before, she was honored to be invited to show not only once but twice by curators this year. Each exhibition was installed in late August so they could be residence throughout the fall and early winter.

Note : The Norman Stevens Gallery exhibition will run until January 10, 2020, while the Bell Galleries exhibition will run until the last week of November.

Below are a few photos of Kathleen’s exhibition at the Norman Stevens Gallery, which is located on University of Connecticut’s main campus in Storrs, Connecticut. Kathleen has not had a chance to take photos of the Bell Galleries exhibit yet, which is located on the International Ethel Walker School’s campus in Simsbury, Connecticut.

Besides these two Solo Exhibitions, Kathleen’s work will be showing at both the Silver Circle Gallery in Putnam, CT and the Artisans at Middle River Gallery in Stafford Springs, CT.

Below is a photo of Kathleen’s Universe Series at the Silver Circle Gallery during their Annual Exhibition in September. Kathleen is a gallery artist at Silver Circle and loves how her work looks in this dramatic space.

This October, Evening and Morning Star from her Star Series will be in the gallery, so be sure to visit them if you are in the area or better yet adopt them and take them home.

Below is an exterior photo of the Artisans at Middle River Gallery and a few photos of Kathleen’s digital prints that reside there. Kathleen is a gallery artist at Middle River Gallery, which is located in Stafford Springs, CT so will be adding new work as it becomes available.

Note: Kathleen delivered the digital print of Midday Star to the gallery this week! The previous post gave patrons a glimpse into how this particular drawing evolved from start to finish.

We hope this post will give our patrons in Connecticut a quick update on where to find Kathleen’s work.

Zimmerman Fine Art Studio

Update: Ben Crnic, a correspondent for UConn’s newpaper The Daily Campus, wrote a nice article about Kathleen and her work for their October 17th issue. It was titled Kathleen Zimmerman hopes to inspire new ways of thinking with art. He began by writing:

“If you were to visit the Norman Stevens Gallery in the Homer Babbidge Library to look at Kathleen Zimmerman’s work, you would see an abundance of abstract lines and shapes that come together in just the right way to form a recognizable image. The contrast between light and dark in her carefully woven drawings pops out at the viewer, drawing them in to contemplate what Zimmerman is trying to say.”

To read the entire article, go to The Campus Daily website.

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Evolution of a Drawing

Many patrons ask me how I create my work, so I thought I would share the creation of a drawing as I am working on it. Now the hardest part and what takes the longest cannot be shown, which is the time I spend thinking about the idea behind the work of art. For this particular drawing, being one in my Star Series, I explained my idea behind this series in my previous post “Why did I title this series, Star Series?”. This is what I wrote:

The idea behind this series was to portray a variety of different animals that have for some reason or another grabbed our attention and become Stars, in a sense. Stars in that they have become icons that are used widely in stories and popular culture. In taking on the series, I decided I also wanted to create a complementary pair through the use of color and other characteristics that symbolically connected them. Maybe in this way, I could gain another level of insight into why these particular creatures hold such a high place above their counterparts. And besides, I love challenges and there is something about working in doubles that I love, yin yang and all that. Thus, Evening Star and Morning Star seemed the appropriate titles to honor and to communication a sense of wonder in these related works.

My paired works, dog and cat or really their wild counterparts, tiger and wolf, were shown in that post.

The drawing that I created while writing this post is the panda not part of a pair but a masked yet adorable creature that embodies a gentleness of spirit and have such a clumsy yet delightful way of moving. Below, I am showing the finalized state of Midday Star, just to show what is usually the first exposure a patron gets to the work. Here Panda is shown as the final drawing and ready to be used to make a serigraphic print. The serigraph will take it one step further by adding a flat area of color around the ears and the texture of the screen to add further meaning and beauty.

But it started as a simple line drawing. The image below is this line drawing in which I set the basic composition. The line drawing for me is like the foundation of a house. If it is good, the rest of the drawing has a strong probability of success. All the lines and shapes must be aesthetically pleasing and work to communicate the idea behind the drawing. If the subject matter is a fellow creature, early on I add some shading to the eyes, nose and mouth to the line drawing to make sure it will come alive. It is no use going any farther if it does not. Luckily, I can see the gentle nature shining through even in this early stage, so I continued. Note: This image is at a slight angle so the bottom part of the drawing looks larger than it is, but it gives you the idea of what the drawing looked like in this state.

The next state shows the refinement of the lines and additional shading as I start to develop the drawing. I should say that I don’t always add shading because some line drawings end up being the finished state. I always determine when a drawing is finished when it communicates the idea and doesn’t need anything else. But in this case, the idea was a little more complicated and the drawing needed more. So, I continued. First, I shaded the darkest areas to determine the different values that I wanted and where, to give a balanced and visually stimulating image. As I worked on the shading, additional shapes started to evolve. This tends to happen while I am thinking about the subject matter and the idea behind the drawing. Note: At this point the shading is still pretty rough and undeveloped but I can see potential and felt it was a good start.

As I continue to draw, the abstract shapes start to play off one another leading to further abstraction and a more balanced overall feel to the work. While it is pretty much developed by now and has fully come alive in the sense that it is more than a bit of graphite on paper, it has a long way to go to be a complete statement. Still I liked its simple beauty, and this made the next stage a challenge. It is easy to get sucked into the beauty of forms and forget what one is trying to communicate.

So, I had to step back and again think about the idea behind the work. This drawing is about more than representing a panda bear but is really an attempt to understand the reasons why we are drawn to this species. I felt I needed to expand the abstract passages a bit more to add a deeper meaning and a bit of mystery before it was a completed work of art. When ideas are complicated and mysterious, the visual language used to communicate them often needs to be too. Thus, I continued and as I finished the drawing, I was happy I continued because it did become a complete visual statement.

The last stage consisted of cleaning up the white areas, refining the shading, reinforcing certain lines and expanding on the abstractions. Below is again the final state in the evolution of this particular drawing. I hope this post helped readers get a look behind the work seeing it as this artist sees it. I will post the serigraph once it is finished and available for adoption, ha-ha.

PS - I think there are two things I would say that are extremely helpful to me when working on creating a work of art. First, my work is at its best when it balances the intellectual idea and the aesthetic beauty. Second, I always need to take the time to step back as I am creating so I am forced to consider if it has everything that it needs to say what I want it to say yet has nothing it does not need. For me, this is always the signal that the drawing, print or sculpture is a completed work of art.

Kathleen Zimmerman

Later additions: As promised, I am posting an image of the serigraph, Midday Star. I used a bright green ink to represent Pandas’ forest habitat and harmonious, optimistic personality. It was created in 2020 along with the above video.

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Late Summer and Beyond

Kathleen is a gallery artist at Silver Circle Gallery and has been invited to exhibit her Universe Series along with Otter from her Waterlily Series in their Annual Collective Exhibition. The gallery will also be showing Kathleen’s Global Series - Bear Hugs in the main gallery space, which are shown above. If you live close by, be sure to visit the gallery @ Block 134 Main St, Putnam, CT during the month of August. The opening reception is Friday August 2 from 6 - 8 pm. Kathleen will be in attendance to meet patrons, talk art and generally have a good time! But if you don’t live close by, we are presenting them here for your late summer enjoyment. 

Note: They will also be featured in Unity magazine and on exhibition beginning in September throughout December in solo exhibitions at the Norman Stevens Gallery in Storrs, CT and the Bell Galleries in Simsbury, CT. For more information about these exhibitions and others, go to our Contact page and sign up to be put onto our email list!

Kathleen's Universe Series is a set of five related serigraphic prints that look at the Universe and our reaction to it. These playful explorations invite you to ponder the latest theories about space. Let your minds wonder as you dream of scary aliens invading from afar; imagine what makes up the rings of Saturn; consider what it would be like living in the caves of Mars; think about when we might be drawn into the black hole and create your version of heaven as you look up at the stars? When Kathleen created this series, she used a variety of animals to represent life, so she could take this journey with some not-so-scary life forms.

In Night Mare, a horse is laughing at the notion that scary aliens will invade from afar. This asks the question, are there 'aliens’ or other life forms and if there are, does it help to worry about them invading?

In Saturn Siesta, two dogs make up the rings of Saturn. This asks the question, now that we know what the rings of Saturn are made up of, does it make us long for the days of our ancestors and the stories they told to help them connect with the outer world?

In Monkey Mars, three monkeys are enjoying life in the caves of Mars. This asks the question, will life forms from Earth move to other planets and if so, will they find some sort of happiness there?

In Rabbit Hole, a couple of rabbits are calmly analyzing the situation as they watch more matter being pulled into a black hole. This asks the question, how do scientists and laypersons deal with the realities of space and the unknown?

In Milky Way, a cat sees what she wants to see when she looks up at the stars. This asks the question, are our beliefs based on anything or are they just wishful thinking? 

My inspiration came from the time I was living in China and listening to a series of podcasts about the latest scientific theories about space. In reaction to this, I created this series of five related drawings that contrast simple line drawings with chaotic complex abstract passages. These were to express a laypersons understanding of these complex theories.  When I created the serigraphs, I used rich black ink set against the white of the paper with just a touch of color to capture the contrast between light and dark matter with a glimmer of insight. 

 Kathleen included Waterlily Otter to help our minds return to Earth and relax along with him as he floats gently along glazing at the stars above. Summer is the perfect time to be thankful we live on our beautiful watery home planet. 

So from us at Zimmerman Fine Art Studio, enjoy the rest of your summer and let your imagination swore!

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