painters
Artist Statement
James Kao
July, 2011
Hokusai envisioned thirty-six views of Mount Fuji. Cezanne gazed at Mont
Sainte-Victoire with fresh energy over sixty times. I, too, am looking for my
earthly motif that ranges into the heavens.
I am dreaming of white mountains cast in numberless shades of summer green.
-----
July, 2010
Chinese writing and primitive art-forms bewitch, and I am drawing towards all that
is child-like, animal-like, and angelic.
-----
February, 2008
I sense an artistic responsibility to grasp, reprocess, and re-present our world.
This is also my privilege.
-----
June, 2006
I paint quietly and slowly.
-----
May, 2006
My paintings and drawings record direct and repeated observations. Each
reiteration of similar motifs marks an increasing intimacy with the world and
moves an observational practice closer to a private meditation. My comfort in
familiar objects and their spaces manifests in an aging collection of citrus fruit—
once-fresh oranges are now desiccated, discolored, misshapen, and hard to the
touch; and my desire to escape the mundane impels me toward the uncanny.