Art by Karen E. Gersch
diverse & original paintings
Words: inflammatory, soothing, inspiring, damning. Text as part of composition, a collaboration of speech with imagery. Laced with brush strokes, they become the language of agenda, opinion and heart song.
For decades I’ve painted and assembled collages of paper and paint: visual essays on topics that have touched me deeply. Early on, I tackled the subject of endangered animals, using torn, patterned rice paper. With the escalating threats to our environment and increasing assaults on individual rights, my attentions have skidded back to nature and humanity; those who also suffer silently. I borrowed from my animal series, the techniques for tearing, pasting and applying paint, both oils and water-based, to enhance or integrate the written content. They are portraits of the times; visual poetics for the deeply troubled climate in which we live.