Kathi Packer – Statement

I went on my first African safari in 2008 and returned home profoundly changed. Imagine being in a jeep surrounded by endless herds of wildebeest and zebra in search of green grass. I couldn’t stop thinking about this experience and returning to the figure as my subject matter no longer felt meaningful. I was obsessed and luckily had hours of video to relive this experience. I immersed myself in the process of watching and hearing wildlife once again as if for the first time… until, one clip captured my imagination – a rolling Zebra.

Perhaps it was because I drew horses incessantly as a child or that I owned a horse in my teenage years. I felt compelled to draw the Zebra in its full range of behavior from rolling in a dust bath to running in a herd until I filled a 25′ x 12′ studio wall, twice. That was a year of letting images wash over me free of intent, except to understand the form, space and movement. Twelve years later, I’ve learned much from the process… that painting the same subject over and over again shrinks the space between seeing and understanding. Antonio Lopez Garcia’s spoke to his own obsession with one subject as “…the hidden side of things which nobody can precisely explain, but of which, the mystery of the real is revealed through an artist’s medium.”

My form and color have moved away from naturalism and realism as I reach for more expressionistic color and form. Yet, nothing is routine. I’ve engaged in this process hundreds of times with no blueprint… only a blank canvas and the unknown… and a desire to access an internal world where imagination and creativity reside… I have no guarantees just a wish to keep myself open to endless interpretations of a world I believe to be true.

Also visit: www.kathipacker.com