Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library. Courtesy photoBy KIRSTEN STROMBERG
Artist’s Statement
Many of my earliest memories are of drawing; are those of having artistic materials in my hands.
I love to look out at the world while keeping my hands moving. I have always wished to pursue what it is that the eye sees, and how our minds synthesize direct sensory perceptions into images that convey our humanity at the point of its intersection with the natural world.
Whether wild animal that would never pose, tree moving in the wind, or a person who evokes memories within us, the subjects I paint are in motion, so I wish to convey this. I do not aim to freeze an idea in time, but, rather, to share its mutability.
Oil painting has been a medium that has been important to me since the age of ten. I feel at home with both brush and palette knife. Nature, in its many manifestations, compels me to paint landscapes, wildlife, and the human form in a process where I suspend verbal thought, seeking to express gesture directly as well as to reveal both static and dynamic forces via light, shadow and color.
By the age of 11 I was allowed into the atelier of Ernst Krupp, and painted there weekly while my father was stationed in Germany for back-to- back tours of duty. The discipline of constantly working has remained with me, and colors all the artistic areas important to my aspirations of living as a Renaissance person in the twenty-first century.
I continue to draw, and sketch; have worked in three-dimensional media as well.
Major influences include traveling, with the conscious goal of learning about other cultures, both in terms of history and in terms of what artists are creating today. I have been inspired by cave-paintings; have been thrilled by current installations. I have also been influenced by classical musicians, writers, sculptors, dancers, and other painters.
I have been committed to seeing the works of great artists, in person, from Rembrandt and Vermeer, to Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rodin, Monet, Bernini, O’Keefe and Cassat as well as to training with living artists.
Among those artists working today, I admire Veljko Djurdjevic, Romel de la Torre, Greg Beecham, Jeff Legg, Richard Schmid, Aaron Schuerr, Kathleen Dunphy, Frankie Johnson, Dustin Van Wechsel, Lorenzo Chavez, Brent Cotton, Heather Ward, and many others.
I studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and have a degree in Fine Art from Chapman University. Studies abroad in Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan continue to inform the art I create. When I walk the trails of Los Alamos, among the mountains, I feel present. I hope to bring this to my canvas in a tangible form that others can feel.
Editor’s note: Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library
Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library. Courtesy photo
Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library. Courtesy photo
Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library. Courtesy photo
Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library. Courtesy photo
Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library. Courtesy photo
Paintings by Kirsten Stromberg are on display through Oct. 12 in the upstairs gallery at Mesa Public Library. Courtesy photo