Kirah Van Sickle is an adventurer at heart. Her early years set a foundation for travel, exploration and visual storytelling. Her acrylic and mixed media works explore incorporating found objects and papers with the paint glazes. These are deeply personal expressions of her memories and dreams. In addition to her studio practice, Kirah is a dynamic instructor and lecturer, leading custom studio courses through museum schools and local art associations, directed to both beginner and seasoned artists. She is an award-winning illustrator, graphic designer and studio artist, a certified Golden Artist-Educator, and active in community arts programming, preservation of cultural resources and enhancing arts education. Kirah lives on the Cape Fear Coast of North Carolina and is a staff instructor at the Cameron Art Museum, Johnston Community College, and Cape Fear Community College. Details on workshops, exhibits and work can be found at her website: www.kirahfineart.com
Artist Statement
The silence between words defines them, gives them meaning. This is Caesura…a notable pause. It is a threshold or vast sea over which one crosses, both literally and metaphorically on the journey to self. Visually exploring this theme creates a record of my travels, memories and dreams.
My process includes painting en plein air, exploring the immediacy, unpredictable aspects of color, time and place, as well as commitment to my studio practice. I paint vast color fields of a muted, complementary palette, seeking the geological patterns etched in nature, and memory. Incorporating ephemera between layers of acrylic glazes onto canvas provides a mixed media process that hints at experiences, producing nuances of texture and color. By marrying both my foundational, representational style with a contemporary mixed media process, my paintings speak to the duality and journey as artist. Exploring my own contemporary narrative, these works reflect the hopes and desires common to this theme – bridging the unknown, ultimately finding meaning and connection to ourselves and each other.
