Artist Statement: Kenneth Marunowski
I am an artist and a teacher. I create because I value artistic exploration and expression. I teach because I love to share, to engage in productive dialogues, and to help others grow. I paint in oils and draw in charcoal, and I teach in the Department of Writing Studiesat the University of Minnesota Duluth. Beginning summer 2015, I will pause my teaching career in order to pursue my art full time, which I hope will include a residency at The Curious George Cottage.
I am both a plein air (open air, or outdoor)and studio painter, most often using nature as my starting point, my muse. Nature has always inspired me, from hikes in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park as a child to weeklong paddles in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and backpacking trips in many of our glorious National Forests and Parks as an adult. I give back to nature through my art by celebrating, honoring, and extending my experience of Her to others. For me, nature and art are inextricably linked, and during the The Curious George Cottage Artist Residency, I aim to develop my advocacy of both as my art and my voice speak to others.Through the unique opportunity for place-based education, or experiential learning,that the Residency offers, I seek to develop people’s sensitivities and dedication to both art and naturesothat they too will advocate for their appreciation, conservation and renewal. The time for such advocacy is now when the value of art is grossly underrated and thus unsupported, and when the resource of nature is often taken for granted, abused and/or exploited.
During the residency, I will explore and deepen my connection to the Forest through drawing and painting. Typical of my artistic process, I will select a discrete number of motifs and depict them numerous times through both mediums and across a range of scales. The intimate understanding of a motif I gain through this process of repetition allows me todiscover a deeper reality of a particular place. Like author and naturalist Annie Dillard, I consider myself an “unscrupulous observer,” and I will use my skills of observation, representation and communication to share both the intimate and grandiose sensibilities of the White Mountains through direct interaction with the public and through the many drawings and paintings I will have completed during the residency.
Artistically, I imagine growing immensely during the residency as the artistic immersion it represents will come less than two months after I will have completed a two-week intensive painting “marathon”at the New York Studio School in New York City. A residency in the White Mountains will allow me time to process and experiment with the instruction I gleaned from the marathon. I imagine my artwork becoming more expressive and exploratory as my relationship with the Forest deepens during this two-week investigation into art and nature.
As one thoroughly invested in education, I seek to learn not only from but also about the Forest. From the Forest, I imagine learning about silence and subtlety, the unexpected and the inexplicable, elements of nature I seek to imbue in my art. About the Forest, I will read, focusing on literature that expands my understanding of the White Mountains in particular and of the relationship between people and nature in general. As I apprehend the content of such literature, for example, the need to respect fragile flora in alpine zones, I will infuse my public programs with such relevant information whilst illustrating my respect and care for the land through my art. As I experience and learn, so will others, and thus support for Nature and Creativity will strengthen and extend through art and education.