Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!
Happy Sunday, everyone. This week I am so excited to share a Short Answer Sunday with artist Carlie Kinto. Carlie and I went to the same grad program in DC, and even though our time there didn’t overlap, I’ve been an avid follower of her work since about 2010. I most often think of Carlie as a painter, although she also works with jewelry, metals and 3D mixed-media arrangements. Her paintings combine a broad range of paint media (gouache, acrylic, oil, Flashe, ink, etc.) and also less traditional painting substances like rhinestones, glitter and sand. Carlie’s use of the conventional and the idiosyncratic extends into her supports which run the gamut of size, shape and material.
There are many reasons why I am drawn to Carlie’s work, but one striking reason is her investigation into two ongoing, yet distinct, bodies of work—one that is primarily abstract, and another which is based on the observational, natural landscape. Although they are different bodies of work with varying agendas and processes, to me, they are cumulative and in dialogue. Carlie’s abstractions often include spiritual symbolism—spirals, moons, stars, mandalas and double ellipses. Much of this imagery references phenomena in the natural world, but Carlie’s renditions feel like a turn inward, an inner vision that feels both familiar and unnameable. Her deliberate, chromatic landscapes encourage close looking and evoke a similar sense of solitude, wonder, pattern, and time. Whether representational or abstract, all of Carlie’s paintings show the artist’s penchant for layered mark-making, vibrant, complicated color/pattern relationships and her awe + reverence for the natural and spiritual worlds (which are maybe not so separate after all).
Carlie’s responses are wonderful and provide such a great foundation for looking and thinking about her work. For more about Carlie Kinto, go to her website and follow her on Instagram. Thanks for reading, pals 😊
xo, Lauren
Name: Carlie Kinto
Occupation: Artist (day job- Administrative Assistant to a design team)
Astrological data: Sagittarius Sun and Rising, Gemini Moon, Libra MC
Hometown: Bend, Oregon
Current location: Portland, Oregon
Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?
Art books, word of mouth, art shows
An artwork that makes you laugh?
An artwork that makes you cry?
“The Artist is Present” by Marina Abramović
Most underrated artist?
It’s hard to answer this one because I feel like there are so many great artists making art today that don’t get enough recognition
An artwork that you’d like to live inside for a week?
“Paysage méridional: Le Cannet” by Pierre Bonnard
 |
Raina Lee stoneware paintings, Lily Stockman, Yevgeniya Baras
An artwork that feels like a warm hug?
“Two sunflowers” by Joan Mitchell
“Mimi’s Garden” by Hayley Barker
 |
Joan Mitchell, Two Sunflowers, 1980. Oil on canvas, 110 1/4 x 142 x 1 1/4 inches |
What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?
Soulfulness… the artist’s hand, a bit of tension, texture, imperfections
Erotic artwork? (Ed. note: this is a multiple choice question)
Other: Depends
What’s an artwork that doesn’t look like art?
Jewelry doesn’t get enough credit as art
What’s an artwork that you suspect that you shouldn’t like, but you do (guilty pleasure)?
“The Kiss” by Gustov Klimt and in general decoration and pattern
What’s an artwork that you secretly hate?
Most insane art piece?
“The Four Seasons” Charles E. Burchfield
Light Years, “finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions” by Judith Pfaff
 |
Charles E. Burchfield, The Four Seasons, 1949-1960, watercolor on joined paper mounted on board, 55 7/8 X 47 7/8 inches |
Fav monograph or art book?
Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group
Fav museum or gallery in your current location?
Last exhibition you saw irl?
A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit at Palm Springs Art Museum
An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?
Tantric paintings from Rajasthan, India. (From the book ‘Tantra song’)
An artwork that you’d like to see before you die?
“The Ten Largest” by Hilma af Klint
What art material do you love to nerd out on?
Sennelier oil pastels 💸
What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?
What’s a book that changed your life?
You Were Born For This by Chani Nicholas
What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?
❤
Carlie Kinto is a multidisciplinary artist who creates abstract and landscape paintings, jewelry and installations.
Her abstract paintings reveal the metaphysical and otherworldly through a meditative process of building layers through repetitive mark-making, using intuitive techniques like scrying to allow images to unconsciously emerge. These coalesce into compositions that embody primal ecological forms and processes such as the spiral or cell division and evolution, reflecting Carlie's interest in the patterns the universe reveals from the cosmic to the microcosmic.
Her landscapes are painted on location. Similarly to her abstractions they are created through a process of building layers and repetitive marks with the intention to capture the energetic vibration, and the constant change and motion of nature. She embraces the chaos and bright colors of lush gardens and tress to capture the emotionally expressive feeling of a place.
Carlie Kinto received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from University of Oregon in 2007 and her Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from American University in 2010.
For more about Carlie Kinto, find her on her website and Instagram.
No comments:
Post a Comment