Lisa Kairos
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(650) 670-7767
My paintings explore the relationship between natural and human environments and how we perceive them. I am drawn to landscapes that combine nature and utility, usually the remainders and margins of urban space or land that has been shaped by use, infrastructure, and sometimes restoration. I focus on areas where one type of space transitions to another: shadow to light, burn pile to ash, tidal marsh to open water. I look for a glitch of beauty in unexpected places, a moment of slippage and surprise; where one thing becomes another, I find a metaphor for transformation.
I create these works with many transparent layers, staining, painting, and drawing. I combine and recombine imagery, creating visual fields that hold the feeling of the places I’ve explored. Sometimes I work with pigments and materials found in the landscapes: wildfire charcoal, water, ochre, iron and copper, plants, chalk, salt. Ambiguous gestural passages and fields of color mingle with cartographical and technological references. The result is a complex of color, form, and line and a sense of floating space.
