ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a figurative painter. My work explores the movement of the human form and the emotion expressed by said movement. Much of my work is seemingly incomplete; large areas are left white and unpainted, an eye and a nose are all that makes up a face, limbs appear unconnected to a visible form, the environment is unseen, paint is smeared, scraped, and wiped away. My process relies as much on erasure as on creation.

I like other people’s trash. I find a piece of detritus and extract my own meaning from it. I collect old letters, postcards, photo albums, yearbooks, and these are my source material and inspiration. My reference material is central to the meaning in my work. I seek to isolate and highlight the things that make the image intriguing to me, whether those details are actually a part of the image or part of my imagination.

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Instagram: @kirstenvalentine or https://www.instagram.com/kirstenvalentine/