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Kathleen Murphy Willer

Artist Statement

“It’s For Grown-Ups, Mostly”

My paintings are inspired by the awkward freedom of children’s drawings. In the past, I’ve derived my main image from a drawing that I’ve been given by a child, but for the past year or so, I’ve been drawing the images myself (see below). My own emotions and random thoughts as well as the work of the many 20th century artists who were inspired by children’s drawings also inspire me.

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 using “sgraffito," where I’ve applied layers of paint, scratching off the top layer to reveal the underpainting. Graffiti-like scratchings and drawings of faces (emotions) and words, and other things that comes to me randomly, fill the background of my work.

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.) 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 to me means success.

Kathleen Murphy Willer