Art in the Time of Pandemic: Paper and Steel

Art in the Time of Pandemic: Paper and Steel

I looked at my calendar  and saw that tonight was supposed to have been the opening reception for a three person exhibition I had organized for the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center.  My friend would fly out from Portland for the event.  We would talk about our art and have travel adventures. There was to be an ekphrastic poetry reading by Mind Gravy Poetry the following week.
Seeing the event penned in on my calendar gave me a little pang of regret for all the work that went into this exhibition and to have it all now in a state of frozen stasis. No event, no party, no poetry!
It is possible that the show may go on, but who knows when?  Such is the life of an artist in the time of Pandemic.
Would that the show could be up now!  Here is a virtual tour of what one might see on the wall text, wall art, and the sculptures on pedestals.  We organized the exhibition so that it would be a Dance of Life.

This exhibition features works on paper by Una Kim and Janet Kozachek and the welded steel sculptures of Glenn Saborosch.  The exhibition is
predominately in black and white.

Taking a virtual tour, you would see the following signage:

 In eastern aesthetic, color was thought to appeal to the emotions but black and white was considered the art of the intellect.  An art of the intellect, comprised of stark forms in black and white, stands as a bold counter point to a current mass media culture that seeks to continuously elicit emotional responses, generally  for political and commercial gain.   It is no coincidence, for instance, on social media platforms like Facebook that our choices of automatic response are emoticons.  With its quiet economy of form, Paper and Steel invites the viewer to reflect, rather than to react.

An art exhibition for the contemplative, Paper and Steel seeks to engage, rather than enrage, question rather than proclaim, and celebrate rather than condemn.  The use of steel, ink and charcoal does this by means of techniques and materials that span thousands of years, making the exhibition a living extension of a natural and ancient history.

Artist Statements

Janet Kozachek

My  works on paper are analyses of figures both static and engaged in motion through the gestural capabilities of specialized inks and brushes.  These ink drawings are processed further with charcoals, chalks and pastels to create a rich, sculptural finish.  My educational background is in both western and eastern art, and much of my work reflects that.   The zen like austerity of form in my work judiciously arranges dark angles that enclose well defined negative space yet also includes western perspective and embellishment of surfaces.

The subject of my drawings predominantly addresses cycles of life and death, presenting humanity as a continuum within nature.  Many of my dancers, for instance, appear to grow out of and coalesce with their immediate environments.  This depiction of the human form is derived both from the figure and environment relationships established in western art history, in particular the cinquecento, as well as the eastern spiritual resonance between people and the world in which they inhabit.


Glenn Saborosch

In my figurative pieces, I work in an impressionistic manner, not looking for great detail  but for a feeling of movement. I accomplish this with lines that represent muscle and  bone against negative space to create tension that suggests movement.

In my non-objective pieces, my focus is the same; the interest in the quality of line. It is   lines and the spaces between them that appeal to me. My non-objective work is made  from cast-off parts of machinery, mostly agricultural ones. This series of work is titled  "Home Grown" and they are numbered in order of completion. These sculptures do not  refer to anything in the real world or the job the part or parts formerly performed. 

After being introduced to welded steel sculpture in high school, I rarely looked back.  Steel is my medium and part of my message. My avocations also involve steel--old  trucks, old tractors and parts of things that work or do not.

Una Kim:

Art in the Time of Pandemic: What's On and What's Off

Art in the Age of Pandemic: What’s On What’s Off

It has been a very long time since I have updated this blog.  This is due to so much rapid change at present  and uncertainties for the future.  I have been working through these trying times but mostly adjusting to cascading dominoes of change. So my next few blog posts will be about what is on and what is off, at least to the best of my knowledge. For Today: 

What’s off:
In person meeting of hearts, souls, and minds at the annual learning consortium in Westminster, known to beloved teachers and students as Common Ground on the Hill.

What’s on:
Online version of Common Ground on the Hill. This poses new and interesting challenges for visual artists such as myself.  The material costs will go up due to shipping of supplies and students having to buy their own supplies from the manufacturers instead of in-person division of bulk materials.  However, this will be greatly offset by reduced costs from students not needing to rent rooms or pay for out of town meals.

The silk is cut and ready for distribution for my GOTH course this summer, Ink, Silk, Pencil, Paper.  While cutting the silk, I made a small but significant discovery.  A wayward caterpillar had entered the silk roll and make tiny holes at well defined but problematic intervals.  No worries.  I could cut around it.  But this left odd sizes of extra silk that will be added to the purchased 8" x 10" pieces at no extra cost.  Good for extra practice pieces!


The Imperial Method, or Gong Bi, painting is traditionally executed on sized silk or papers with carefully drawn fine calligraphic lines, then filled in with inks and pigments.  The washes of inks and pigments are applied with two brushes: one filled with water and the other with pigment or ink.  Switching back and forth between ink and water creates an airbrush effect.   It is tricky but you’ll have fun learning how to do this.  I learned the technique from Master Jin, at the Beijing Central Art Academy many years ago.  He was a mountain of a man with a delicate, sweet soul, who told marvelous tales which you will learn too.


Below are some examples of antique Chinese silk painting.  Look closely at the marvelous brush work.  After learning how to make these exquisite lines your line drawing will improve and you’ll be able to apply some of these techniques to western drawing on paper.

Here is an example of one of my illustrations in pencil that makes use of the gong bi line and wash techniques, only using pencil and stumps.  You’ll learn this too!