There’s bliss to be found in pure, uncontained mess. Such bliss can also be found in Kim Carlino’s abstract art. Shifts of scale, opticality, illusion, and a happy mishmash of colors and mediums are all to be expected within her work. Upon reflection, Carlino describes it as a “deep internal/external space exploration meets topographical geometric interventionism.”
She treats her work as an arena in which pattern and form engage and accentuate the contradictions, opposites, and contrasts that exist in this fabricated world. With the aim to create organic, fluid-like forms, she likes her tools to have high-flow capabilities, such as watercolor, inks, and high-flow acrylics. But her toolbox also includes oil-based markers, graphite, sharpies, and even spray paint and stencils.
Working on nonporous surfaces, she floats watercolor, ink and high-flow acrylic into the surface of the water and into each other to cause interactions of materials and pigment that create granulation, striated edges, and floating islands of color. As this dries and evaporates, everything settles and the form emerges, an image formulated from pure, blissful chaos.
“I am interested in materials that have different surface qualities from matte or glossy to metallic or somewhere in between,” she told Jung Katz. “I work on nontraditional, paper-like surfaces such as yupo, duralar, acetate, and tyvek. My best friend is my compass and ruler collection.”
Take a peek inside.
