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Marks of Time

A Little Off

Light and Shadow

Unexpected

Echo

Connections

Downtown

Three-In-One

Kay Vinson


Kay Vinson grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Almost as soon as she learned to read and write she started making plans to leave home in search of adventure. When she turned twenty-one she set those plans in motion by going to work for Trans World Airlines. For the next twenty-seven years Kay lived in California and traveled extensively. She also earned a degree in liberal arts from California State University in San Jose with a minor in art. And, of course, she made art at every opportunity. Kay started out working mostly in clay because of its marvelously sensuous tactile properties and its versatile, pliable, forgiving nature. She began to focus more on painting after two years of studying with the inimitable Michele Cassou in San Francisco.

After an eye opening experience with a life-threatening illness, Kay realized that it was time to make a serious commitment to her art. She moved back to Birmingham where she set up a studio and began to work there full time. Since making this committment she has been in solo and group shows across the US and Canada, including a successful 2010 solo exhibition in Montreal. Kay has no biological children so it is gratifying for her to feel that she's creating an artistic legacy that may bring joy and satisfaction to others for a long time to come.

Artist Statement

When I travel I take photos of graffiti, derelict buildings, piles of rubble, crumbling walls and rusty objects--the kind of urban artifacts that most of us normally ignore or try to avoid. I turn these photos into transparencies which then typically become the backbone of my work. I think of this as a kind of visual alchemy.

Most of my mixed media paintings are a combination of random markings, like paint splashes or spotches or squiggles, with the addition of thoughtfully placed elements such as photo transparencies and symbolic details. I am constantly seeking a satisfying balance between spontaneity and control; chaos and order; yin and yang.