Cloud Layers and Flame by kirstin ilse

kirstin ilse

Cloud Layers and Flame, 2007

protein dye on silk

55 x 35 x 3 in (139.7 x 88.9 x 7.62 cm)

Inv: 600

In a rich cherry wood frame. Painting fire as a metaphor, I work to the limits of the medium exploring thematic meditations on subjects ranging from current events to broader philosophical problems and human struggles such as love, loss, duty and society. The graphic control of a drawn glue line is up against the chemistry and physics of dye in an organic material. A place of balance between chaos and control is both the nature of the medium, and deeply the story of the pictures I make. Dye is painted in wet-in-wet working over an area as many as twenty times to move and pull a color into another color and leave them sitting at various heights in the weave of the substrate silk. Labor as evidence to the theme, I hope to give my audience an object of ponderance with which to as easily greet in the morning as to rest the eyes on and follow it around in the course of making a decision. The layered, organic nature of the medium is built around a devotion to and exploration of light. The tonal dimensionality keeps the image alive and changing throughout the day in reflection of the light around it. Please feel free to share your mind in response to the titles I choose. These paintings are all in dialogue with current shifts in culture, they would not exist without the eye of the beholder and the way of the people who want to take part in what we humans decide to make of ourselves.

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From kirstin ilse

Sea Liquidity, c. 2020

Silk, polymer, mylar

10 x 10 x 1 in (25.4 x 25.4 x 2.54 cm)
Stop Flow, c. 2020

Silk, canvas, painting, acrylic, mylar
Blue Ball, c. 2018

protein dye on silk

35 x 35 x 0 in (88.9 x 88.9 x 0.0 cm)
Into The Deep, 2017

silk painting, mylar, silk, nylon, paper, polymer, acrylic paint

14 x 14 x 3 in (35.56 x 35.56 x 7.62 cm)
Fire In The Sky Segmented, c. 2016

protein dye on silk

35 x 23 in (88.9 x 58.42 cm)
Inauguration, 2016

protein dye on silk, UV dipped

48 x 14 x 0 in (121.92 x 35.56 x 0.0 cm)
Tell Me About Yourself, 2015

protein dye on silk

6 x 6 in (15.24 x 15.24 cm)
Fire Sea of Love Suite, c. 2015

protein dye on silk, varnished

6 x 6 in (15.24 x 15.24 cm)

View All Artworks

Additional Artworks

Sea Liquidity, c. 2020

Stop Flow, c. 2020

Blue Ball, c. 2018

Into The Deep, 2017

Fire In The Sky Segmented, c. 2016

Inauguration, 2016

Tell Me About Yourself, 2015

Fire Sea of Love Suite, c. 2015