A.Kimberlin Blackburn Artworks

Art works by

A.Kimberlin Blackburn

FROM LIFE DREAMS

KINIPOPO FINE ARTS GALLERY
12/31/1999 - 2/2/2000
Wailua, Kauai, Hawaii
one woman show

Wageman's Advertisor Review below

Art Review: Sculptures adorned with beads evoke dreamlike splendor

By Virginia Wageman, Advertiser Art Critic, 1/16/00

The magical, exuberant sculptures and paintings of A. Kimberlin Blackburn are shown in this mini-retrospective
of the artist's career over the past 15 years. For Blackburn, life is an evolving dream, as suggested by the show's subtitle.
The works exhibited are clearly autobiographical, reflecting the loss of beloved parents and a deep, spiritual connection to the land.
Blackburn is drawn to ancient, universal symbols, which she adapts for her own purposes.
For her, the triangle symbolizes woman, while pyramids represent men. These symbols recur in nearly all the work.
In art school in the 1970s, she concentrated on fiber arts, a direction whose influence can be seen in the decorative quality
of the paintings and sculpture, especially in the beaded three-dimensional work.
Working with a multitude of strands of colored beads, she decorates wooden sculptures that have been painted with acrylic.
These works are her finest.
Graceful, forceful forms sparkle in beaded splendor, with subtle shades of some colors and vivid splashes of others.
Many of these works reflect Blackburn's life as the wife of a Kauai vegetable farmer.
Lush green foliage and sparkling blue waters are executed with thousands of beads.
Though rigid in form, palms appear to sway and water seems to course through the fertile land.
One such piece is "In the Taro Patch," in which a farmer stands amidabundant taro plants, backed by two palm trees.
The taro leaves, in varying shades of green and glistening as if just wetted by a passing shower, are nearly as tall as the man;
encircling him, they serve as his protector. Nurturing the taro is the base of red earth and blue water. In a series of sculptures of winged,
triangular-shaped faces, Blackburn associates women with angels or spirits.
These spirit faces &emdash; some painted, others painted and beaded &emdash; soar throughout the walls of the gallery,
as if overlooking or commenting on all. They are titled, in groups, "The Chorus," "The Choir" and "The Chorale."
Blackburn's paintings, attractive in their pattern-and-decoration style and intriguing in their probing of the spirits
as the artist speaks to her deceased parents, hold their own against the sculpture.