FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2015
Contact: Tamar Russell Brown, Gallery Sitka — 978.425.6290
Dynamic Abstract Painter Explores Another World through Her Artwork at Upcoming Exhibit in Shirley
SHIRLEY, Mass. — Painter Kellie Weeks speaks confidently and reverently about “another world” that she feels is the source of her inspiration and her artistic ideas. But her description of it does not sound like otherworldly mysticism, much less like traditional religion. Instead, it’s grounded in the very practical, earthy experience of an artist connected just as much to the here as to the hereafter.
“I’m a channel,” she says, a channel through which that other, transcendent reality can enter the material world. It originates on “that spiritual side of things. When I’m in touch with it in my work, I’m creating another world,” she says. Or rather, she sees herself as “more of a conduit” for the ideas in her artwork than “the creator” of those ideas.
Discussing the purely technical aspects of her painting, Ms. Weeks makes clear that the work is about careful execution and craft. Among her tools are not only brushes but also a torch used to melt wax and other materials right on the surface of the picture. She composes shapes in successive layers, allowing the colors and forms to struggle one against another, in a sense, or combine more harmoniously to create the finished image. “It’s all about the layering,” the artist says.
Ms. Weeks has worked a lot in recent years with encaustic, a compound of beeswax, tree resin and dry pigments. She also employs gold leaf, shellac and other media to achieve various effects. The works in this exhibit will be paintings on paper with cold wax.
The artist sees this other world pertaining to her life and the people in her life. “All my work pertains to my relationships in the here and now,” she says. Yet even so, she also feels her inspiration comes to her from that somewhat mysterious but ever-present other world. When she finishes a painting, she looks back on the inspiration that created it and her earlier pictures: “It came from that other world entirely.”
Ms. Weeks received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bradford College in 2001. Kellie’s work has been exhibited nationally in many juried and group shows, and is included in many private and public collections. She has produced many commissioned pieces. In October 2011, Kellie was honored to be included in a group show entitled “Imagination” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The artist will show her work at The Bull Run, 215 Great Road, Shirley, Mass., on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 5 – 7 p.m. Visit sitkacreations.com and kellieweeksart.com for more information about Kellie Weeks and her artwork.