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"Carolyn Mary Kleefeld: Visions from Big Sur" at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
By Jonathan Weichsel
Our cities and suburbs are so tied up with the material world, we spend so much time in our cars, our houses, on the phone or the computer, and we think so much about business and networking, that sometimes we forget that there is something larger than ourselves, larger than our careers, and larger even than the concrete hives we choose to call our homes. The thing I am speaking of is nature. Nature is big. It is spiritual. It transcends the material world, and plays no role in most of our ambitions and goals.
Sometimes it takes an artist to remind us that nature is out there. After all, none of us are irrevocably severed from nature. It exists within each and every one of us. We see it in our sublime nighttime fantasies, and those beautiful daytime imaginings we sometimes catch ourselves engaging in, which we quickly suppress.
For the past 25 years, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld has been living in Big Sur, in near isolation from the social world. She has spent her days communing with nature to the point where she no longer exists, except as a conduit for things that transcend time and matter. In Big Sur, the entire universe has passed through Carolyn Mary Kleefeld through her paintbrush, and has left its imprint on many canvases.
If this sounds like nonsense to you, head down to the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art before December 14th and see for yourself. Kleefeld's paintings speak better than words ever can.
The exhibit starts with some of Kleefeld's earliest works, painted around 1984 and 1985. These are joyous self portraits that strive to celebrate the artist's inner beauty. My favorite of these was asparagus lady, which portrays the artist as a dancing stalk of asparagus, and the Un-Dryad, in which the artist's arms are outstretched invitingly like two sun beams or wings.
As Kleefeld grew as an artist, her subject matter slowly evolved from dealing with the internal to dealing with the external. Her next phase of work, Cosmic Abstractions and Landscape Abstractions, painted in 1985 and 1986, are poetic, lyrical works of art that celebrate the individual's access to nature and the cosmos. Kleefeld has unlocked the door separating the socialized human from the natural world, and she captures that world on canvas without inhibition.
The painting "I stomp down the brush" records the process by which the artist won her skeleton key to the doors of perception. The painting depicts the artist, surrounded by the cosmos, stomping down on her brush. But the artist is not stomping angrily. She is dancing. The brush in the painting represents unwanted patterns of the mind brought about from decades of social conditioning. By clearing the brush of her mind, Kleefeld is able to find her natural self hidden beneath.
The Cosmic Abstraction "alchemy" deals with primogeniture. The alchemists of old strove to create Homunculi, little men generated from raw materials mixed with certain chemicals. The painting depicts an embryonic figure rising up out of a primordial soup, into the cosmos above. This embryo is in the middle of the process of generation. The alchemists wanted, through the spontaneous creation of life, to become like God. The artist is also a creator. But, instead of being like an alchemist, at odds with the universe, the artist strives to live in harmony with the natural world. The embryo in "alchemy" can be seen as a thought, or a feeling, growing into a work of art.
The next phase of Kleefeld's development as an artist covered in the exhibit is her "Linear Fantasies" period. On the surface these are playful, whimsical works of art consisting of horses, birds, fish, strange creatures, and humans having fun in fairy tale worlds. These paintings are so packed with detail that one can enjoy looking at them for long periods of time, and come back to them over and over again, without losing the thrill of discovery.
Where the "Cosmic Abstractions" and "Landscape Abstractions" are celebrations of the universe, the "Linear Fantasies" are celebrations of the imagination. "Spying through time" depicts a woman kissing a fish. The woman has a cloud-head growing out of the top of her head, and this cloud head has another head growing out of it. Everyone looks happy. "Cosmic cartoon" is full of happy women, men, horses and birds just existing primitively and peacefully. "Going to see pops" depicts a very elegant horse riding in the car of a carriage. We do not see who or what is in the front pulling the carriage.
Visions from Big Sur is playing at the Frederick Weisman University of art at Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway Malibu CA 90263.