Kay Jackson

Creating art is an act of faith. With each passing year it takes an increasing commitment to continue an activity most people think is spontaneous and blissful. As a young artist, I spent the first decade learning how to paint, and as a mature artist, I am finding a major part of the creative process is deciding which direction will allow a genuine and unique response. In today’s world, artists have endless freedom coupled with the challenge to fit into a digital world offering new mediums and possibilities with the numbing effect of visual overload. Traditional work from past centuries inspires my artistic direction and I am constantly looking back to inform my work as I struggle to push forward. In addition to oil on canvas, I use the obscure and ancient medium of gilding to call attention to endangered species, pollution and our compromised environment. Gold leaf has been used throughout history to elevate objects to a spiritual level, to add an eternal and noble aspect with visual effects that hold a mysterious power over us. When gold leaf is used on a canvas with oil glazes, it reflects available light producing amazing optics unusual for two-dimensional art and when used in the most ancient and traditional form, a technique called water gilding, the gold leaf appears to be solid sheet of gold. For the past twenty-five years, I have tried to call attention to the environment by painting industrial landscapes, maps, clocks, global views and crowds of people. By exploring various subjects, and knowing that everything is connected, I hope to access a new way of seeing our environmental situation. As artists we are always wrestling with the age-old challenge of revealing something extraordinary by exploring the ordinary.