March 3, 2003 – New works by two St. John artists moving into new directions, painter Kimberly Boulon and ceramist Mark Hansen, are showcased in the exhibition opening with the March "First Friday" reception at Bajo el Sol Gallery this week.
Kimberly Boulon
Boulon is well known for her striking landscapes and figure paintings. But the work she will display in the show opening on Friday reflects her movement into new directions in the last year.
"In this show I will be exploring the ancient Chinese yin/yang theory as it applies to realistic and impressionistic female figure and still life painting using oil and pastel mediums," she states. According to the theory, she explains, "there is an energy flow produced from opposing forces in nature that gives balance to life. Yin/yang thus applies to all artistic elements … from value and color to composition and movement, connecting drawing and painting and abstraction and representation."
Boulon's new work "is an outgrowth of my workshops with master artists Hong Nian Zhang and Lois Woolley at the Woodstock School of the Arts in New York," she says. Although she finds it necessary to explore various theories and ideas, "when applying a harmonious — unequal — balance of contrasts, I feel connected and complete in painting as well as life."
Mark Hansen
Hansen's current sculptural work "is experimental and very exciting," Bajo el Sol publicist Pat Whitehead states. "It explores raku-fired sculpture with digitally modified images, laser decal transfers and applied oxides and lusters."
"Increasingly in this century we are surrounded by electronic images and frozen information — date of birth, nationality, schooling — all recorded in binary digits that will last forever," Hansen says. "They are as invisible and as inextinguishable as God."
As a sculptor, he says, "I am intrigued by this marriage of two mediums, one ancient, one modern; one fired earth, the other electronic light and binary code. In these pieces, my aim is to explore that push and pull, the tension between all things that keeps them simultaneously together and apart."
The public is invited to the opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday. The exhibition will be up until the first week of April. The gallery is located in Mongoose Junction.
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