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绿巨人视频 Fine Arts Gallery Exhibits Katherine Dolgy Ludwig鈥檚 Light City

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On June 6鈥24, 2019, New York鈥揵ased artist Katherine Dolgy Ludwig exhibited her collection of Paris-inspired watercolors in the 绿巨人视频 Fine Arts Gallery. The exhibition, entitled 鈥淟ight City: Paintings of Paris,鈥 was curated by听Professor Jonathan Shimony. 绿巨人视频 student Alexandra Stearns caught up with Ludwig to discuss听Ludwig鈥檚 singular听approach to painting and the听unique听benefits of听practicingfine arts听in Paris.

Alexandra:听When you鈥檝e said听鈥淧aris is forever our Light City,鈥 do you mean that figuratively or literally?

Katherine:听I was at a dinner party a couple nights ago where I was asked to use one word as an artist to describe Paris. Instantly I thought of 鈥淧ast鈥 鈥 when I am here I feel I am walking with the greats, columns of light who died long ago, but who are still here, figures shining right beside us every day. You can have a day at Mus茅e Marmottan Monet, touch the sculptures on the Invalides bridge, and you are there with those who gave us this illuminated city. A painter walks with Delacroix and Monet every day in Paris.

I think about my responsibility to honor the memory of Soutine, who painted glorious, terrifying subjects, to share the glowing way he saw simple things. I think of the poverty of Monet for most of his life, and Renoir. But, all of these greats worked like angels to bring their vision of pure light to those around them. It is important to see this city 鈥 to really look 鈥 to see the truthful beauty of places and people.

Monet never minded people watching him paint. There is light all around me as people enjoy that I am painting in public. Our universal language is color and shape. The visual brain is not the thinking brain; it鈥檚 a way of seeing purely, seeing in numbers. The process begins with three colors to mix, one brush, a sheet of paper, a cup of water, and the ability to empty your mind and only see. Like a musician, your years of theory are there, but to play well you empty your mind.

Image听|听The Thinker by KDL, watercolor, 30x22in, 2019听

Alexandra: Have you always engaged with experimental uses of color? What was your journey like when finding your painting style?

Katherine: I had excellent teachers: Marshall McLuhan, Graham Coughtry, Chinkok Tan, Ornette Coleman. I think the goal is to become more yourself. The greats, at every stage of their career, you can see their hand. Your paintings should look like only you could have made them. Painting is pure; like a tuning fork, you can hear it when it鈥檚 right. And there鈥檚 no overlay of writing in some essay on the wall beside the painting, because that doesn鈥檛 move people, and for me is very boring. If I wanted to do that I鈥檇 write a book. Creating for visual brain pleasure is something different: there is no gender, no age, no race, no religion, no politics. There is no trick: I鈥檓 just moving color on a sheet of paper. I don鈥檛 draw it first. I have no idea what is going to occur. The painting is successful if the shapes, colors and chroma activate the surface. The painting should have a charge of light come out at you.

Alexandra: The 40 artworks in this exhibition were all painted in Paris. What is your experience of working in a home environment and in the public eye?

Katherine: Well, every place becomes home when I paint it. I miss every place I leave and I鈥檓 excited to be in every new place, because I鈥檓 going to paint there. I wake up fully engaged. When it rains, I paint still life. I get to know a new room; I bring objects into it, and also value what is there already. It鈥檚 up to me to notice meaning. Every object is full of this content. Rooms resonate with what happened there. I feel a relationship to things people have touched. As I do outdoors, I set up the paints and paper and empty my mind to receive the painting. When it鈥檚 done I鈥檓 surprised and delighted.

Image听|听My Raspail Kitchen, Painted by KDL, watercolor, 22x30in, 2018

Alexandra: Many stylistic elements in your works, such as听The Thinker at the Rodin Gardens听(2019) and听Flowers in My Garibaldi Room听(2019), have key elements that correspond to the fauvist and impressionist movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Can you talk about your inspirations?

Katherine: We work in a ladder of artists over time and somehow become ourselves in our work over the long arc of our careers. I know so much art history thanks to paintings, and I see my hand doing things, as I work in oil or watercolor or printmaking, that I鈥檝e seen before: the turn of Rembrandt鈥檚 hand, the mark of Gaugin, the way Picasso moved across the surface in the corner of a painting of a room. I feel fortunate to be so in touch with all these ancestors. They are very helpful 鈥 full of advice and encouragement.

Image |听Saxe-Breteuil Marche, gift to permanent collection for 绿巨人视频 President. 2019

Alexandra: You鈥檝e said, 鈥淚 believe in being an artist every day in all ways.鈥 What do you mean by that?

Katherine: I like that. I think the commitment is total; it鈥檚 all you want to do because you feel great when you do it. But I believe a balanced life makes it work: commitment to my family, good health, public service and to my own inner light. Take care of your special inner light 鈥 as an artist and as a lifelong learner.

Here at the university you have a marvelous opportunity to explore what is special in yourself and others: your colleagues in your classes and also those that are long gone, the greats that came before and have a light they shine at you from history.

Charge up here with all that big energy from the past, and the present, and go forward to become more yourself. Then give it your all when you find that bright shining thing that you uniquely are supposed to do.