KIM-LEE KHO
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • 2025 Facial Expressions
    • Burnt Offerings (2023)
    • My Father's Things (series)
    • Burnt Offerings (2022) >
      • Sponsors: Thank you
    • A Full Heart
    • Heartspace
    • Subject to Limitation >
      • Boxed In
      • Expanding Media
      • Fences as Barriers
      • Containment
    • Skin
    • Face[t]s
    • [Un]Settled
    • Digital / Photo / Mixed
    • Painting
    • To See More
  • SHOP 📦
  • Courses & Events
    • Current + Upcoming
    • Virtual Studio Parties
    • Gallery Walk & Talks
    • Testimonials
  • Blog
    • News Archive
  • ABOUT
    • Biography
    • Statement
    • CV
    • Publications/Media
  • Contact
  • Product

Spring: The Perfect Season to Contemplate Growth & Not-Knowing

4/12/2020

0 Comments

 

The realm of not-knowing is a great place for an artist to be, because
​what we already know
​we can no longer discover.

Picture
'Spring Returns' photo-digital artwork by Kim-Lee Kho, 2017.
As I re-build my business, not quite from the ground up, (the foundation remains, but the structures above must be replaced), I find I am spending a lot of time in the realm of not-knowing.

Life under pandemic has changed our rhythms and routines, our customary locations, and how we spend our time. My husband and I (but especially him) used to spend way too much time driving from place to place, because our work was in-person but also in a variety of locations.

Now by building up our tech and online skills, there is so much new and in flux but so much less by way of complications and travel. We just have to adjust to frequently re-arranging our home and studio to accommodate all the new virtual events and courses.

But looking deeper than that, I realize I am accustomed to spending a lot of time in that place of not-knowing, whether I'm developing new work for an exhibition, or at an earlier stage even, when I am excavating in order to discover new ideas in my studio, it is imperative that I enter that psychological space, or I will not get to what matters or what's new. Neither I nor my work would grow.

Other artists may work differently, but I think most have to work like that at some level, (and not just artists either!) or they would not make discoveries. And without locating something new, something fresh, where would art be? It would not move forward, nor would it deepen.

Spring is a season of the new: new growth, new life. And as this weekend is one of sacred spring festivals, Passover and Easter, it may be the perfect time to contemplate this.

​Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
0 Comments

Looking Back at My Own Early Foray into Contemporary Portraiture

5/13/2019

2 Comments

 
I’ve been thinking a lot about contemporary portraiture lately, having just given a new talk on the subject, followed by a new weekend workshop.

I’ve been drawing or painting or otherwise making portraits my entire life, and it remains an important aspect of my work.

Nowadays a lot of my portraits are photo-based, as you can see in my posts and website. I got thinking about when I first started working on photo-based and photo-digital portraits, and realized it was for my first solo show as an adult, entitled Face[t]s of Valerie, in 2007. All of the portraits were of my friend Valerie, alone or sometimes in combination with me.

This image was kind of the title piece for the show, and the deepest I explored digitally in it, (the show was multimedia, because I am nothing if not a “multi” kind of artist, lol!). It’s called The Many Facets of Valerie.

In it you can see numerous shots from the bigger shoot, allowing me to show what interested me: the living face of my subject, its variability and expressiveness. “I am large, I contain multitudes” wrote Walt Whitman, as we all are.

So it’s a seminal, developmental piece. It started a train of thought that hasn’t stopped since, though it has branched off and grown in many directions.

19"x13” digital print. And yes, it’s available.

Does this kind of post, deep-diving into an individual piece, interest you? If so, please let me know in the comments. 
Picture
The Many Facets of Valerie by Kim-Lee Kho is a photo-digital portrait that was seminal in my development. From 2007.
2 Comments

Growing into New Experiences (& Big, Old Spaces)

11/14/2016

1 Comment

 
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”
​– Oliver Wendell Holmes
The In Situ arts festival in late October was an extraordinary experience for me as an artist and a fun one in general.

With two large scale pieces in the main space and an entire room installation (allowing plenty of space for dancers to perform in), it was wonderful to stretch out (mentally and physically) into so much space.

The intensity required to conceive and execute so much in so little time is not sustainable for long (by me at least) but has some benefits. As I was just describing to a friend, it kept the threads of my thoughts white-hot, so every hour of work built 100% onto the previous hours, days and weeks of work – since most other distractions had been put aside... even sleep!

As well, working with the festival's fabulous lighting designer Joe Pagnan and working with light in the drawers and other components of my room installation 'Containment', has forever changed my thinking around light.

The incredible support and enthusiasm of Heather Snell, director/artistic director of the festival, and her wonderful husband Ken, was fertile ground in which to grow (thank you both!).
Picture
Insubstantiated III by Kim Lee Kho | acrylic paint pen on polyester voile, PVC tubing and LED lights; approx. 3ft dia. x 12ft h., 2015-16. Photo: Kal Honey

While I had nothing like enough time to get ready (in fact I am still trying to recover from the 24/7 preparations) but the joyful, creative and expansive experience that this was, coupled with the new work I produced for it, means I am glad and grateful for the opportunity.

And I still love that gorgeous, decrepit building!

Thanks to all who visited! For any who could not, I hope these photos will go some way toward compensating.
I make my work to be shared. With you. 
Which is why, although only a one-woman operation, I do my best to share via my blog, social media and email 'Update' newsletter.
I know each thought, event or artwork is part of a larger story and an opportunity to build meaning and to connect.

If you would like to support my projects (even $10 would help, believe me!) please click below and accept my heartfelt thanks.
Donate via Paypal

I will be updating my In Situ album on Flickr with more photographs soon, so check it out next week!
1 Comment

Philip Guston on Making a Mark

10/26/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Making marks in a painting or drawing sets up a dialogue between artist and artwork, one that is full of questions, challenges and responses.
Picture
Sleeping by Philip Guston; 1977, Oil on canvas, 213.4 x 175.3 cm. Private collection © The Estate of Philip Guston
Philip Guston was a Montréal-born painter (1913) who became a major artist in the US.

I admire him for his honesty, making radical changes to his work over the years, going from skillfully figurative to purely non-objective (i.e. abstract) and then back to figuration; changes that had to be made in order to be true to the changes in himself as an artist.

The apparently crude approach he finally adopted (he said he wanted to paint like someone who could not paint) centred on a very personal vocabulary of recurring imagery and symbols.

​This quote from Guston shows his intimacy with and insight into the painting process.
0 Comments

    Kim-Lee Kho

    As a visual artist I like nothing more than getting up to my elbows in paint or little plastic toys, or wading in at the deep end in pursuit of an idea. When I am not teaching others in a similar vein, you can find me researching, writing and noodling around in my studio, seeing where my latest lines of inquiry lead me.

    RSS Feed


    Subscribe to receive updates on my upcoming events, exhibitions, workshops, Gallery Walk&Talks, and more!

    * indicates required

    Archives

    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Artists
    Artlovers
    Art Opportunity
    "art Patrons"
    Beauty
    Beginner Mind
    "blank Slate"
    Book
    Cheap & Cheerful
    Colour
    Community
    Conversation
    Courses
    Craft
    Creativity
    Daily Practice
    Daring
    Demonstration
    Digital
    Drawing
    Early Work
    Event
    Exhibition
    Failure
    Favourite Tools
    Fear
    Fibre-based
    "getting Started"
    Habits
    Holidays
    Ideas
    Inner Critic
    Installation
    In The Arena
    Jurying
    #kindnessmatters
    Learning
    Lettering
    Living Too Small
    Materials
    Media
    New Work
    "new Year"
    Painting
    Pattern
    Perfectionism
    Photo Based
    Photo-based
    Photography
    Portraiture
    Printmaking
    Promotion
    Publicity
    Quote
    Reflecting
    Roosevelt
    Sales
    Sculpture
    Serendipity
    Solitude
    "sponsorship Opportunity"
    Studio
    Talk/presentation
    Travel
    Upcoming

    All images and content on this website © Kim-Lee Kho 2005–2018 except as indicated. All rights reserved. No reproduction without express, written permission.
* indicates required

      All images and content on this website © Kim Lee Kho 2005–2020 except as indicated. All rights reserved. No reproduction without express, written permission.
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • 2025 Facial Expressions
    • Burnt Offerings (2023)
    • My Father's Things (series)
    • Burnt Offerings (2022) >
      • Sponsors: Thank you
    • A Full Heart
    • Heartspace
    • Subject to Limitation >
      • Boxed In
      • Expanding Media
      • Fences as Barriers
      • Containment
    • Skin
    • Face[t]s
    • [Un]Settled
    • Digital / Photo / Mixed
    • Painting
    • To See More
  • SHOP 📦
  • Courses & Events
    • Current + Upcoming
    • Virtual Studio Parties
    • Gallery Walk & Talks
    • Testimonials
  • Blog
    • News Archive
  • ABOUT
    • Biography
    • Statement
    • CV
    • Publications/Media
  • Contact
  • Product