Kim Gates Flick, visual artist/ mixed media

“In the wildness… is the preservation of the world.”
Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862)
American Essayist, Poet, Naturalist

Thoreau’s deep seeded sentiment is at the heart of the paintings by Kim Gates Flick.  With a shared reverence for her native Bald Eagle mountains and current concerns of sustainability, she begins her work within such a “wildness.” This diverse region is the welcome mat or  “gateway” to what begins a two- million acre tract of northern state territory, known as “The Pennsylvania Wilds.”  Kim extends this welcome mat into artistic exploration, inviting contemporary contemplation of the wonders of the wilds she calls home.  Recent efforts to increase public awareness and protection of such natural areas have artists like Flick searching for ways to create visual contemplations for audiences to consider the delicate and intricate system we are a part of – not apart from.  In her unconventional practice of painting, a pristine and unprimed canvas is subjected to the natural elements of  wind, earth, sun and rain.  Reminescent of ancient rituals, she mixes raw pigments with natural dye substances found on site..  The emerging abstract organic patterns formed as a result are integrated into a series of works she calls “wildlings, ” with the final work as unique as the wilds itself.  While it is not uncommon for artists to begin by painting a neutral ground on the canvas  ~ It is very uncommon for an artist to begin by putting the canvas in the ground .  . . and in stumps, under moss, hung from trees and whever else this wild spirit leads.  Acting as an artistic interpretor she translates this time of personal experience for holistic and universal consideration of the ways in which we interact within our natural environment.   Intuitive and circular in her artistic methods, the finished work is presented as an open invitation for viewers to continue the meditation and contemplation of the artist’s initial point of inquiry.  Each time, space and experience  yields a different result.  Yet the work in process looks nothing like a painting, instead are reminiscent of familiar forms: cocoons, poultices, fungus formations, burial cloths, animal nests, mandalas, seed stashes, animal rubs, like artifacts from our collective cultural memory bank. Finding a natural stopping point, she returns home, leaving her creation behind as a memorial to what remains and what promises to be.  

Time lapses and nature continues the work. The wind, rain, dew of the grass, forest floor organisms, growth patterns, frost, sun all contribute to the work in process.  After a time, the artist returns to claim her creation.  Sometimes, it is hidden from her, so assimilated she has trouble identifying it, other times it has been moved or seemingly unaltered and unaffected.  She unfolds, unwraps, unassembles it, in attempt to return to the original format of canvas started with.  The experience has left its recorded imagery and true to the nature of the Wilds, sometimes what is revealed is a most beautiful organic pattern of wonder, other times the harsh cruel reality of decay.  Like a found buried treasure, Kim returns with the visual “memory,” to begin the work of lovingly cleaning and preparing it to use as a ground, not just to paint on but to paint from.  Here she returns full-circle to the original intention, but with a much better understanding and insight from such “field studies.” Back in studio, she continues her work using an old method called maraflouging adhering the canvas to archival substrates.  As she brings her wild grounded guest into the language of painting, she enhances and reveals the intricate abstract forms, allowing her own memories of natural experience y to lead her intuitive expression.  The finished original work is exhibited in the same spirit it was created: as an invitation to the viewer to contemplate and meditate on preservation within the wildness and perhaps therein lies the preservation of self and the sustainability of art in our society. 

Work Proposal:  50 original miniature mixed media 2D works that will fit on supplied desk top easel.  One side will have the original work the other side a selected quote; both for artistic meditation and contemplation.  Mini-easels and wildlings can be collected and given as gifts or set in easy sight, on a shelf, desk, nightstand, and changed monthly for ongoing muse meditation and creative contemplation.