Thursday, February 28, 2008

Bleend


Bleend
Originally uploaded by Daniel Kerkhoff
When We're Not Looking..." is an exhibit of paintings and drawings on un-stretched canvas and brown paper. The canvases are back lit, creating a luminous experience for the viewer. These canvases also hang on the wall in a special way developed by the artist. They remain un-stretched and therefore flexible and mobile, retaining a connection with art made thousands of years ago on animal hides.

Kerkhoff uses various mediums: acrylic, gesso, pastel, oil pastel, ink, graphite, white-out. Poems by various poets the artist likes are also placed beside the works of art. It is a way of having a conversation sort of like fulfilling the artists's desire to sit down and share a drink with these poets.

He explores the unkempt experience of creation, the process, the interactions and relationships that develop over time. He believes art can reveal our prejudices, illusions, and the box-like structures that our perceptions can inhabit. It is a humbling experience.

He is learning that we can make breakthroughs when we stay and remain looking and relating with that which we can not easily identify and label. And also stay and remain looking and relating with that which we all too easily identify and label. If we stay open, something unexpected happens. Something is created and there is change. This experience can happen while looking at a painting over time. This is one of the reasons he paints.

"I often see through things right to the apparition itself." --Grace Paley

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

When Were Not Looking... The Warren Art Show, Minneapolis, MN, March, 2008





Volverosa
Originally uploaded by Daniel Kerkhoff


"When We're Not Looking..."
by Daniel Kerkhoff


The dots aren't connected.

It's untidy, unkempt, with rough edges,
a sketch, dirty and simple,
many unknowns,

We, us, ourselves, all of us,
wrinkled, overlooked,
mysteries, dismissed.

Loved, cracked, wounded,
imperfect, creations, mislabeled,
unfinished, in space.

Noticed, unnoticed,
apparitions.
What is it?

What is it?

It, is itself,
Meaning, understanding,
Meaning, standing under,

Standing with.

Looking.

It, takes time.
Real looking, takes
more time than we...

We think we have,
when we're not looking...

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

BlueHeron-DanielKerkhoff


BlueHeron-DanielKerkhoff
Originally uploaded by Daniel Kerkhoff
My parents live on 60 acres of CRP land along the Maple River, 2 miles from Good Thunder in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. Surrounded by pig farms and turkey farms, it is valleys and little prairies of Switch Grass, home and resting place for white-tailed deer, beaver, fox, coyotes, wild turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, red tailed hawks, bald eagles, pheasants, raccoons, ducks, finches, crows, pilliated wood peckers, the blue heron, and many others. I walk this land and I feel reconnected and thankful.

Bekkon- by Daniel Kerkhoff


Bekkon
Originally uploaded by Daniel Kerkhoff
...a process of beckoning and listening, listening and beckoning. Beckoning to what's more, out there, more than right here, beckoning to just this. Sometimes a scream,a calling out, a grope, opening, silence and stillness, the process of rising up, calling forth, the desire to hear and then listen...