Today we’d like to introduce you to Kari Dunham.
Kari, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I remember being in my first painting class in college and having this epiphany where I realized there was color in light and in shadow. I never saw the same after that. I looked more closely and saw more. I would say that that moment in Painting 1 is when I really became a painter. After graduating undergrad, I spent one year doing Faux Finish Painting back in Southeastern WA, then moved to Portland, Oregon where I worked at a glass manufacturing company for my day-job and pursued my painting practice in the evenings and on the weekends. In 2011, I moved to Southern California. I did the Post-Baccalaureate Program at Laguna College of Art + Design for one semester and then entered LCAD’s MFA Program in Painting in the Spring of 2012. Two years later I graduated with my MFA, had my MFA Thesis Show at the Arena 1 Gallery in Santa Monica, and began teaching as an adjunct at Azusa Pacific University.
I am also passionate about teaching and mentoring students. I teach at Biola University, Concordia University, Irvine Valley College, and Azusa Pacific.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I make paintings and drawings. Oil is my favorite medium, and I have also been doing more acrylic painting lately. Additionally, I keep a regular sketchbook. I make both small intimate works (which are often still life) and large scale figurative paintings. My still life and interior works are about home–the objects and spaces that I paint are personal works because they derive from the physical space where I live. I think too the way in which I paint them is giving voice to these objects. Melissa Beck and I did a brief artist talk at our House Show #1 and she said that my paintings evoke a certain sense of reverence. I like that. I think too about the monumentality of the ordinary. I currently have a large scale (6 canvas) painting project in progress of 13 of my painting students from Biola.
In this painting, some figurative arrangements are appropriated from Raphael’s “School of Athens” and others from May Stevens’ “Soho Women Artists.” I wanted to position this group of Post-Millenials in this genre of academic history painting — a sort of frieze of this particular group of students who, on one hand are ordinary college students, but on the other hand, are students who are extraordinary and living life to its fullness, who care about people and pursuing their calling.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I think artists have an important role in today’s culture–perhaps because we tend to be ok being in those liminal spaces between different groups of people and thus can actually speak honestly into both. I have found that some people respond to my work as a space of quiet amid a lot of noise, and others have communicated how my work is honest. We all know what it means to feel deeply and we all want to be heard. Maybe part of my role as a painter is to listen and make so others can learn more about themselves.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
People may check out my work on Instagram or my website.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.karidunham.com
- Instagram: @kari.dunham
Image Credit:
Portrait Photo Credit: Susan Springer Anderson (also pictured is painting by Kari Dunham & sculptural work by Melissa Beck). Photo Credit for gallery wall images & artwork documentation: Brad Hartman. All paintings pictured are by Kari Dunham. On the gallery wall images, sculptural works pictured are by Melissa Beck.
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