Oil Fire by kirstin ilse

kirstin ilse

Oil Fire, c. 2004

protein dye on silk

35 x 24 in (88.9 x 60.96 cm)

Inv: 455

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 Moon, c. 2018

Paper, Silk, Polymer, Nylon, Polyester Organza, Mylar, Polyester Quilt Binding

14 x 14 x 3 in (35.56 x 35.56 x 7.62 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)
Rapture in Quarticity, 2010

protein dye on silk

57 x 37 x 0 in (144.78 x 93.98 x 0.0 cm)
Fire Sky, 2010

protein dye on silk

35 x 35 x 0 in (88.9 x 88.9 x 0.0 cm)
Arcing Fire, c. 2006

protein dye on silk
Fire In The Sky, 2002

protein dye on silk

35 x 35 in (88.9 x 88.9 cm)

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Additional Details

Additional Artworks

Sea Liquidity, c. 2020

Stop Flow, c. 2020

Blue Moon, c. 2018

Into The Deep, 2017

Rapture in Quarticity, 2010

Fire Sky, 2010

Arcing Fire, c. 2006

Fire In The Sky, 2002