One-Page Portfolio: Cindy Kane

 

“Undertow” 60 x 40 in., mixed media on luan panel.

My obsession with whales began after a whale-watching adventure based out of Provincetown. That experience of seeing a creature the size of a building leap out of the water moved me profoundly, but it took years to process what I’d seen and face the challenge of how to express it in my work.

I decided to approach the subject from the perspective of their dark, speckled gray skin, whose varying texture, deep tones, wounds, and shadowy white scars present a visual narrative of their lives. I began by superimposing the shape of the whale over some of my map paintings. I have always depended on the pentimento of older work to deflect the anxiety of facing a blank canvas.

Sometimes while I’m working on a painting, a title will appear in my mind’s eye. Words like Gravity, Undertow, Floating World, Black Tail, or Swim can guide the work into its future shape. In this way, the painting is not about a whale as much as it is about the life it lives in my imagination.

Cindy Kane’s show opens at the Granary on July 8, 5 to 7 pm, and continues through July 21.

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