In and Out of the Studio

During the worldwide health crisis, I like most people, am doing as we were advised to do by the health professionals, staying in-place to prevent the spread of the virus. For me, that means working alone in my studio. (Well, not totally alone, my dog Izzy is here providing her much appreciated emotional support). Anyway, I have spent most of the last couple of weeks doing the finishing touches on the drawings for some digital prints, posting images of them on my website and Facebook page, packing up the molds of my recent sculpture so they are ready to ship and now writing this post. I almost didn’t write this post, but then I decided it was better to concentrate on being productive and positive rather than the opposite. I will admit all of this wasn’t an easy thing in this time of uncertainty and concern. Staying focused and trying not to worry is definitely easier said than done, as you all know.

Izzy my studio buddy.

Izzy my studio buddy.

As fate would have it, the digital prints I needed to finish in my studio were from my YinYang Series. This series began as an exploration of what I saw as ‘so Chinese’ when I was living in China a few years ago. As I was working on it, it became evident that it was really about the concept of dualism, or the theory of YinYang. The idea of how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent. This is so much a part of this culture’s way of looking at the world and is something to think about in our global community. While I did the initial drawing back then, I have been stalling their translation into digital prints. This was due to their number, and never seeming to find a focused period of time to deal with them all. But now that I have the time, I have become mentally ready to revisit my Chinese experience.

The YinYang Series is a series of thirty paired images. Each pair expresses a concept hinted at in it’s title. For example, Community concerns how all life forms, whether it be humans or bees, have learned to work together for their welfare and survival. Community 1 was inspired by a human-made cave dwelling while Community 2 was inspired by a beehive that was incorporated into a stone formation, I saw just outside of Beijing at different locations. Both the cave dwelling and the beehive struck me due to their visual similarity and the fact that they demonstrated tight-knit communities through it’s form and function.

The images below are just a few pairs in the YinYang Series, but the rest can be seen on the digital prints page on this website. The titles for the images in this post in order from top to bottom are; Elements 1 & 2, Farm 1 & 2, Job 1 & 2, Kart 1 & 2, Kind 1 & 2, South 1 & 2 and Vegetation 1 & 2. While I got started by telling you the inspiration and the thinking behind Community, I will let you decide for yourself what you think the inspiration and idea behind the rest of the paired prints are.

The molds I packed up were of my recent sculpture, Counting Sheep, Moon Rabbits and Community Spirit, as well as Farm Labor and Bear Hug. I have mentioned in my biography (on the artist page of this website) that Counting Sheep deals with the interpersonal dynamics of groups and that Moon Rabbits play off rabbits’ inherent form and mythical ideas surrounding these animals. But my latest sculpture, Community Spirit, is making its debut in this post. It communicates the gentleness of spirit of lambs and their desire to belong to a group or environment. Like all of these sculptures, they work visually alone as well as in groups, expressing different concepts. Farm Labor and Bear Hug are earlier works that I am now casting. I had gotten away from casting for a time due to living overseas and travel, but have once again started casting in earnest. That being said, Farm Labor honors horses for their physical strength, vitality and the labor they perform while Bear Hug expresses concerns surrounding the effects of global warming. All these sculptures will be shipped out of the studio when it is safe so they can hopefully be cast in bronze by this summer. I am scheduled for two Solo Exhibitions, one here in Connecticut and one in Vermont, and then we will have to wait and see how the situation evolves. You can see images of the plaster casts of these works of art below. They are presented in the above order both alone and in couples.

Note: If you would like more information about my casting process, I have a process page on this website under the menu listing (serigraphy, digital printmaking and casting) on this website.

A final note, I will update this post with news about the progress of the castings, about my Solo Exhibitions dates, my galleries re-openings and the next serigraphic print. In the meantime, I wish you all a safe, productive and positive month!

Kathleen Zimmerman

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

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.

Horse Barn grn.jpg

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

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.

Melody (life) br.jpg

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

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.

Siver Circle September 1 s.jpg

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.

Star - Midday dp.jpg

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.