Other Artists: Bonnie Astor/ Kerri Boccard/ Kaiser Kamal/ Elinore Schnurr
Karen Fitzgerald
About the Work: The Four Elemental Forces
"Enter the breathing that is more than your own,"this phrase from a Rilke poem suggests the wideness of our world, our universe. All is alive with breath. These 4 orbs suggest each of the elemental forces where breath is manifest; in each breath is existence itself. In the air, birds remind us of the aliveness, the changing roil that is our atmosphere. The invisible wind teases us, and sometimes takes our breath away. Being beautifully startled deliberately connects us to the sky.
Fire is an element of transformation. It purges whatever it encounters, whether property or ecosystem. Experiencing fire can be fearsome, its destructive force cannot be argued with. Its force is also powerfully regenerative. The realms of water; lakes, rivers, and the oceans, are alive with breathing. The breath inherent within this force is the very essence of sustenance, for little can remain alive without water. The elemental force of Earth also exists in the realm of life support. Trees, grasses and the soil which produces our food is alive with a kind of breathing we know when we cross a field walking in our bare feet. Each of these four works are painted in a color scheme that recall these elemental forces. Shapes and silhouettes that reference each realm are integrated into painted grounds using gilding with precious metals.
During this time when breath itself is constantly in the news, these four orbs give us a chance to pause and imaginatively connect our breathing to not just the physical nature of something we do automatically, but to also re-connect us to the very metaphysical nature that our breath essentially is. We mix our essence with all that is when we breathe, in and out.
About Karen Fitzgerald: Karen Fitzgerald was born and raised on a dairy farm in the Midwest. It is this early, close relationship with the natural world that informs her work. This work has been actively exhibited in the United States. The Queens Museum of Art, Islip Art Museum, Rahr-West Museum, Madison Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, the University of Arizona – Tucson and the United Nations in NYC have featured her work in their active exhibition schedules. She received grants from the Queens Community Arts Fund, the Greenwall Foundation and the Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work is in many private and public collections, including the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library, Related Group, the Rienhart Collection of Germany, Montefiore Medical Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NYC, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Rahr-West Art Museum and special collections at Princeton.