Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Show • July 2016

Post date: Jan 10, 2017 12:16:55 AM

Claudia McKinstry, Artist’s Statemen, Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Show, July 2016: “Here and There”

They say that the best part about traveling is coming home, and I agree. I have deep roots here on Bainbridge Island, but in the past few years have had the opportunity to do some travelling. Some of those experiences I share with you in these works, along with slices from my life here at home. A rather eclectic collection of paintings, all have stories and heartfelt personal experience, with a hopeful respect for the beauty, mystery, and complexity that exists everywhere.

Beauty is a very important concept to me. It is a great antidote to the ugliness, sadness, and chaos of the world – a healing power that puts one’s heart at rest. Beauty is a value that adds meaning to life. This is one of the reasons that I keep coming back to botanicals. I don’t seem to be able to go for a whole year without painting a flower.

But life can get very big sometimes, and one way to find meaning in difficult things is to create stories, metaphors, and parables. A stairway, a window, an alley can be a way to look at mysteries and somehow see a larger meaning. The amazing thing to me is that everyone comes up with their own version of what is happening.

And so if my traveling is half way around the world or a trip to the chicken coup I await the “painting alert” – the unexpected, unexplainable moment when something quite ordinary becomes an idea that may become a painting. Here you have it, my painting alerts from here and there!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit this exhibition. Many thanks to the wonderful staff at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts, who do such an amazing job of representing the artists on this island.

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Bainbridge Arts & Crafts: http://bacart.org/galleries/july-2016-claudia-mckinstry-here-and-there-brian-watson-so-close-so-far/