K A T H L E E N M U R P H Y W I L L E R
A C R Y L I C P A I N T I N G S
My paintings are inspired by the awkward freedom of children’s drawings. Sometimes I derive my main image from a drawing that I’ve been given by a child, although lately I’ve taken to drawing images myself (see below). I am also inspired by my own emotions as well as the work of the many 20th century artists who used, or were themselves inspired by, children’s drawings in their artwork.
I have found that I can achieve the uninhibited lines of a child’s drawing by making the initial sketches for a painting with my left hand and drawing the images upside down. The more I do this, the better I’ve become at making the drawings look “too good” (dang art degree!) so recently, I’ve also been closing my eyes while I draw. My desired end result of a child-like, not childish, painting is harder to do than you might think, and I continually strive to express on canvas exactly the visual image and emotion of the painting already existing in my head before I even set pencil to paper or paint to canvas.
My technique involves smooth areas as well as more textured areas where I’ve applied layers of paint, all interrupted by graffiti-like pencil scratchings and drawings of faces (emotions) and, sometimes, words. Background paint is applied using brush, fingertip and, more recently, my entire hand. A very recent development involves pouring paint onto the canvas while it is on the floor, outlining with a raised texture, my main, child-like drawing, so it remains apparent while I work the background layers over it.
I hope my paintings grab your attention with an initial, bold image, then draw you in where many details and emotions can be seen. (Just as we experience with real people - we get an initial impression of someone but when we get closer (know someone better) we can see all of their emotions, complexities, and know details about them.) My work, at its simplest, represents different emotions. I don’t try to inject a deep meaning into my paintings, but rather strive to pull an initial, undeniable reaction from the viewer. I find that people either instantly like my work, or they don’t like it at all, which informs me that I’ve achieved my objective. - Kathleen
Kathleen Murphy Willer, Artist, Menomonee Falls, WI
My work space in my studio. After 14 years of painting in my basement, I moved to my new studio in 2008. The building is more than 100 years old and it is ON the Menomonee River. Very inspring!
Here is a photo of my smaller works in our art gallery in
Menomonee Falls. Stop in and see my work in person!
(see link to gallery above)
