Kim Sobel
Many of my paintings were inspired by an ethereal experience I had kayaking through mangroves in Southern Florida. I found myself completely enthralled by the complexity of this natural habitat, struck by the similarity to elements I pursue in my paintings; the fluidity of water, the endless, jumbled ropy roots, the pulsing forms mingling amongst intricacies. With intent to capture the unstoppable movement of nature I paint shifting layers seeped in color. Life revisits visions; experiences first remembered. Each return is an altered revelation. A first viewing is the beginning, paintings move on—nature's ever-changing state is contrasted with a caught moment. I aim to infuse my work with exuberance, bringing my paintings to life. Spiraling, tumbling ribbons and tangles, seeped in color, dance about the dense, saturated compositions. In my quest to make sense of the world, these provocative abstractions invite my consciousness to find patterns in the chaos, to recall other suspended moments and images, or simply to get caught up in the wild spontaneity. Echoes from painting's past appear when present categories are pulled out—Renaissance pictorial space behind the surface of abstract expressionism, Surrealist imagery behind natural forms, the mighty serpent of Laocoön behind the mangrove elements: enveloping, intertwined roots consciously interrupted by precise hard edges of paint as the changing state of nature is interrupted by the caught moment.
