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Joyce Koskenmaki
I live in the far northern reaches of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The wilderness around this area provides my chosen imagery. I am drawn to the relationships of shapes and colors and light and dark which I remembered from my early childhood experiences. I returned here in 1998, pulled by a longing to recover the depths of connection between humans and nature which I had lost living in congested areas in other parts of the U.S.
My current imagery is focused on trees, primarily birch trees. I spend a lot of time walking in the woods photographing and sketching. In these studies I begin with ink on paper. I then take the drawings to my studio to develop them further and to assimilate the imagery into my work process. Eventually they become either finely evolved drawings in ink or mixed media, or large oil paintings.
My work is not traditional landscape art. My early graduate studies in Chinese landscape painting and travels in China, as well as years studying and practicing Zen Buddhism, have deeply affected my approach to my work. My intent is to try to reach an expression of that which exists beyond the surface and holds everything together. I wish my images to be like icons, which have been called ìdoorways to the spirit.
But there is also a sense in which I am deeply concerned with the natural environment which we all share and which is rapidly being endangered by our corporate culture. Nature has been commodified into 'scenery' which has become the primary means of connection with the land of much of our contemporary society. I wish to provide a way in which people can look more closely at the land we all inhabit, to become more intimate with it, to see it in human terms, and to call it all our home.
view joyce's works: |
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