ARTIST STATEMENT
Seduction + Humble Beauty
Drawn to buildings of utility, I love the unembellished, un-self-conscious organization of parts, the rich surfaces, the space. Things rubbed, used, aged, ignored, rusted. Their systems, patterns, and patina speak without agenda. I am trained classically as an architect. I find formal relationships in informal places.
My paintings are primarily oil and have historically had an architectural focus. I am interested in how we experience things and create memories. I study the way things are connected and organized. My formal training creates a visual filter that enables me to see these relationships in places often deemed mundane. My work gives voice to places that are forgotten or neglected, to buildings that are in our midst but undervalued and not seen.
My new body of work represents a significant shift for me. I have left a more image-based practice for one that exists purely in my head. I am more interested in lines and organizations, color and color relationships, the building of layers, transparency, and texture, obscuring specific information, and ultimately of creating space on the canvas. I have found that my architectural background is alive and active as I paint.
Architects notoriously bring precision and control of outcomes. I work to let go of some of these tendencies and respect also, intuition and feeling. Many times I release precision into the paint and bring it back in a more intuitive way.
I savor layers of information and vestigial lines; remnants of another moment or thought. I constantly consider color for the sublime joy it can deliver as well as nuances and subtle shifts in relationships.
Years ago I had a professor who famously said, “Never draw more in the morning than you can erase in the afternoon”. I edit with paint, but also through erasure and the removal of paint by rubbing and scraping. I ultimately want to create a new space, a new experience.
I am also involved in a series of pieces I call the “curiouscowportraits”. The cows are soulful, and represent, to me, a way of life. They are born and raised in the mountains, roaming and eating grass. I have seen the rancher and his wife use such a gentle touch to work their herd. They lay a still hand on a head to quiet an anxious cow getting examined or vaccinated. The gentleness is moving, and the lifestyle, authentic and affecting. The curious cows allow me freedom in painting. They allow my hand to come though my work, my colors to be free, my strokes to be felt, my vision to be my own.
ARTIST BIO
Karen J.S. Tashjian received a BS in Design, Fine Arts, and Architecture, and a B.Arch. in Architecture, both from Cornell University. She is currently licensed in New York State. She has practiced architecture, and taught Architectural Design Studio at the University of Buffalo for 18 years. She has been painting seriously for over 20 years. She currently has a studio at home, and a painting studio at the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal in Buffalo, NY. She lives in a passive solar residence which she designed. She is a wife and mother of four, now grown, children.
I aspire to live an impassioned life that is proactive and committed to the things that I value, to live as an artist, directed by my creativity and by my moral compass.
MARCH 2021