Featured Artist: Keri Mortimer
Jump to: Statement | Bio | Exhibitions
| Related Experience
An
endless succession of vacated spaces, a present without color, the creation
of fear, implied revelations--the viewer tells the story with the simple icons
put forth.
"Factory"
Year: 2003
Size: 32"x20"
Acrylic on Canvas
Price: $1,200
"Goodbye"
Year: 2003
Size: 45"x60"
Acrylic on Canvas
Price: $2,000
"Home"
Year: 2001
Size: 32"x20"
Acrylic on Canvas
Price: $1,200
"Oil"
Year: 2002
Size: 20"x16"
Acrylic on Canvas
Not for Sale
Statement
I rarely paint people, but you get a sense that they aren't far away. Here is
a table with no one sitting at it. There is a house with no signs of life. Taken
as a whole, my paintings seem to be an endless succession of recently vacated
spaces. This effect is further magnified by the lines that often break the canvas
into units of time. There is a past here, but more important is the present.
The "present" in my paintings is sometimes (but not always) nearly devoid of color. The color is there, but it's soft or sometimes hidden under a layer of white. It's like a whisper that compels you to enter the painting in order to hear it. You are drawn into the empty room, the darkened house, the barren field. The space is then inhabited by you and the things that fill your head when you find yourself alone. Sometimes these are the things you fear the most.
Growing up in the comfortable Midwest, my subconscious had to go out of its way to find things to be afraid of. I have a fear of flying and car accidents. These completely reasonable fears live beside my fear of expired food or of birds flying through the open window of my car. Reasonable or not, each of these fears has found its way into my paintings in one form or another, either literally or in more abstract ways that represent my vague lack of personal security. I paint these fears as a way of legitimizing them (for many of them are unfounded), while at the same time stealing some of their power.
Along with this implied revelation, each of my paintings contains (in essence) a simple story. These stories are told by the viewer to themselves using the simple icons on the canvas. The house you see is your house. The swing set is from your childhood. The isolation you feel is your own.
Bio
Keri Mortimer was born in 1975 in Saginaw, Michigan. She remained there for
her entire childhood with her older sister and their parents; Christine (a public
school teacher) and Ronald (a factory worker with some education in commercial
art).
As a young child, Keri showed no more interest in art than any other child, preferring, instead to obsessively collect, document and hide jars of pennies. Neither did a clear interest emerge as she became a young adult. She bounced from one community college to another, studying a wide range of topics. Bit by bit, she found herself moving toward a strictly artistic education. With a clearer goal, she moved to Detroit and enrolled at the Center for Creative Studies / College of Art and Design (now the College for Creative Studies). It was there that she studied Fine Art Painting under such distinguished instructors as Gilda Snowden, Joseph Wesner and Joseph Bernard.
Keri filled her canvases with her insecurity, made manifest in her fear of flying, of stoves left burning, of anything out of her control. Around her were works concerned with the pressing issues of the day while she obsessed about health and home.
After earning a bachelor's degree in 1999, Keri moved to Cleveland, Ohio with her husband, Kevin Skinner. She remains there today where she continues to produce new work in her home studio.
Education: Center for Creative Studies/College of Art and Design Detroit, MI;
BFA, Fine Art, 1999
Exhibitions & Honors
1995/96/97 * CCS/CAD Merit Scholarship * Detroit, MI
5/98 * Annual Michigan Artists Show * Paint Creek Center for the Arts * Rochester,
MI
6/98 * U245 Gallery * Milk and Cookies * Two Person Show * Detroit, MI
4/01 * Spaces Gallery * Annual Roundup Show * Cleveland, OH
5/02 * American Greetings Annual Spring Fine Art Show * Cleveland,OH * Jurors
Award Recipient
12/02 * Thirteen Hundred Gallery * The Toy Show * Group Show * Cleveland, OH
4/03 * Thirteen Hundred Gallery * Small Doses * Group Show * Cleveland, OH
9/03 * Art-O-Mat Project * Contributing Artist * Winston-Salem, NC
* Numerous Private Collections
6/97-8/97 and 6/98-8/98 * Art on the Move Program * Detroit Institute of the
Arts * Art teacher (Grades 9-12) * Detroit, MI
6/97-8/97 and 6/98-8/98 * JCC Summer Camp * Art Teacher (Grades K-5) * Oak Park,
MI
7/01-6/02 * American Greetings WHQ * Product Planning, Design, Illustration
* Cleveland, OH
Visit Opensewer.com to see all the works in Keri's online gallery. We
feature new artists from time to time, so be sure to check back regularly.
<< Back to Main | Top
Copyright 2003, Keri Mortimer, Opensewer.com.