Marie Kazalia’s Vision Statement

I engage with written aspects of world cultures in present tense language of combined character forms–fragmented, enlarged, abstracted (aka Asemic writing) in two-dimensional paintings of transparent and layered opaque poured paint runs–that does not add up to narrative.

Artist Statement for Marie Kazalia:

I am a USA born artist working with the possibilities of paint layers and poured paints and stain painting layers on my supports of canvas, panel and papers– such layering and poured painting is also know as Process Painting. The formal possibilities of my use of color layers and tones, variety of paints and the resulting surface texture are achieved by varying the paint flow, paint run overlaps, and by creating flow interference, splash and splatter. I have an interest in the possibilities of both maintaining and breaking the hard edge. Close-up gives the vantage point of the pleasure of the painterly poured paint run intermingled with elements of patterning and the finer details of applied image transfers and Asemic writing built up on my support in a dense bricolage. Asemic writing consists of language-like marks unreadable as writing so as to straddle the line between the visual and the textual. My Asemic writing is informed by my formal language studies of Mandarin Chinese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China, and language studies at private language schools in Tokyo, Japan and in India. My stronger American influences on my Asemic writing reference everyday product package lettering past and present. My high contrast mixed use of Day-Glo to earth color compositions are responses to Asian and American use of color from ancient to recent Pop aesthetics. Color influences of Japan, India and China and the forms of the written characters of the languages of those countries, as well as those elements in other Asian countries I visited–Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea–reemerge in newly abstracted and combined forms. Translucent and transparent  overlays of color contain the opacity of the drawn stroke.  In some of my paintings I work with my collection of large handmade Chinese calligraphy brushes. I abstract written language characters, cut up, juxtapose, and layer fragmented language signs together visually,–sometimes over, sometimes under poured paint, or sandwiched between the layers of my surfaces. In the image transfer elements of my paintings, I incorporate my own drawings photographically reproduced and printed on paper multiple times. Incorporating too, images from my camera–including outdoor night photography shots, and vintage b & w films I shoot capturing both the individual film frames and the overlapped combined images within frame transitions for use as image transfers. I also collect “found images” and have used images in my paintings that I’ve held on to for 7-8 or more years, printed to paper and used  as acrylic image transfers on my supports. Subject matter for my image transfers tend to center around vintage film, holiday and other social symbols and iconography, and commercial product packaging. My daily painting practice yields surprisingly varied results per canvas or composition within the repetition of these techniques and recurring interests of form. Each painting contains traces of what is significant to me, the artist, –my personal progress, growth, shifts, changes, expansions, forward motion, accumulation of thought and work, day upon day, contained within the layers of my paintings, as form, color and texture merge in the spirituality of my abstract painting practice that proceeds from the context of ideas, beliefs and emotions.

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Video Artist’s Statement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H5iKlFVrlM

(Time: 2:51) Progression of a painting over 30 days time.

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Artist Statement for mixed media collage series:

The forms, as I refer to the paper and board supports that I paint with Flashe vinyl acrylic paint for this series, are derived from two sources—1) drawings I made of a shape, from the end view, of my Mini Cooper front seat headrest, and  2),  from two cut forms from a fabric covered board I found in the basement of my deceased father’s house and can only guess what they were cut for, to vent what.  These forms reminded me of the form in my drawings, and so I too saved them as my father had (for years, decades?)–he never threw anything away, as is my habit, and so these found forms became my templates.

Some of the found images I use as acrylic image transfers in this series, are images on paper that I’ve held on to for 7-8 or more years before using them. Some are more recently found, or arrived in my mailbox contained within junk mail and circulars–or are images found with my digital camera lens, printed and used. My subject matter/imagery tends to center around –vintage film,  holiday symbols/iconography, and commercial product packaging.

Artist statement for mixed media paintings on canvas–Marie Kazalia:

My canvases are dense with bricolage, process painting and with visual elements of asemic writing. There are traces of me, my progress, growth, shift, changes, expansions, forward motion, accumulation of thought and work day upon day at various levels, all in the layers of the paintings I create–idea and form merge…

Marie Kazalia’s art blog, at: http://MarieKazalia.com contains samples of my work, as does my room in this virtual gallery, at:

http://www.b-uncut.com/gallery/artists/MarieKazalia/

Many of the images presented here represent the emergence of color and language influences from my 4 expatriate years in the Asian countries of Japan, India and China—primarily in the cities of Tokyo, Madras (now Chennai) and Hong Kong.

As an American, born in Toledo, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Fines Arts degree from the California College of Arts in the San Francisco bay area, I studied Japanese at a private language school in Tokyo where I practiced speaking, reading and writing Japanese kanji, hiragana and katakana characters. Hiragana and katakana  the more modern simplified characters most often used on the many large neon signs in the urban centers of Tokyo.

I also traveled, lived and taught in India for one full year, then moved to Hong Kong and enrolled in a Mandarin language course at the Chinese University– studying conversation, reading, and writing Chinese characters. Being able to read hundreds of the most common Chinese characters made it easier for me when I traveled by train through mainland China (the PRC=Peoples Republic of China) to Beijing, then down to Shanghai, and  back to Hong Kong, and during my one month stay in Taipei, Taiwan (the ROC=Republic of China).  I was able to read street signs, shop signs and  advertisements in Chinese throughout the PRC & ROC.

Each of my artworks contains variations on various aspects of characters from the written Chinese, Korean, Japanese and others languages– revealing an aspect of the beauty of each shape and structure–becoming more like symbols than meaning of words. The oversized dominant forms of  Japanese language characters in street signs, as identification or to advertise a product, have held their strong impact on me in conjunction English lettering and product imagery in advertisements and on large American billboards, and with the Chinese calligraphic characters I enlarge and abstract by combining, reversing, overlapping, filling, fragmenting and distorting.

Now, as returned expatriate, the color influences of Japan, India and China and the forms of the written characters of the languages of these countries, as well as the other Asian countries I visited for shorter periods–Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea–reemerge in their new abstracted and combined forms, in conjunction with the English letters of my native language, with overlays of color to obtain the translucency, transparency, or opacity of the drawn stroke visualized before I begin.