Artist-in-Residence: Karen Geiger
July & August 2008

Karen Geiger takes on Vincent Van Gogh, bookmaking, and the meaning of art itself in her July & August 2008 residency at Kasini House. Working in a distinctive style that blends collage and painting, Geiger is remaking Harry N. Abrams 1952 book: Great Art of the Ages: Vincent Van Gogh. The results of her residency will be published as a book by Kasini House in late 2008.

RESIDENCY STATEMENT
I started working on these pieces during a time period when I was particularly interested in two ideas; the art book, and non-traditional art. I had run across a book about Vincent Van Gogh that had the most beautiful color reproduction of his work. It’s an older book, and the images are actual prints pasted onto the pages of the book. I started thinking about art books, and who makes them, and why. The idea that we reproduce these images for people to see, and that other artists make real books that are in and of themselves pieces of art. Somehow, those two kept beating a drum in my head.

During this same time period, I was also trying to think about new ways of working. I have always loved mixing media, and am aware of the fact that sometimes collage is viewed as not being “high art”. Yet, we have artists such as Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Renée Stout working this way all the time. I wanted to see what would happen if I created a book that was originally dedicated to high art, and change that by using a technique that is used by high-school students the world over. Does having a higher “intention” change the basic reality of the technique I’m using? Dadaism used collage from the start, am I simply reinventing the wheel? I never even considered that to be the case, but I suppose that, based upon the viewers knowledge or life experience they will bring all of these questions into view the work.

Further thinking on this subject also made me realize that part of what drew me to altering the book in the first place was the fact that it was about Van Gogh. When we first discover art, Van Gogh is one of the initial artists we are exposed to, and is held up as one of the greatest creators ever to have touched paint to canvas. I wanted to react to and interact with his work, and I wanted to call attention to the fact that there are no women artists who come close to his reputation, in terms of fame, not in terms of ability. I’m no Van Gogh, no Louise Bourgeois, nor am I an Ida Applebroog, Nan Goldin, Betye Saar, or a Nancy Spero. But without all of these artists, both men and women, I would have never thought about what it means to make art, and how all of the art created before me, and all that is created after, will continue to shape and change the world around me. My hope with this project is to have others think about what art truly means, how we are influenced by it, and why we have been creating it since the days we placed vibrant red handprints on umber-colored cave walls.

ARTIST BIO
Karen M. Geiger lives and works in Burlington, Vermont. She holds a B.A. in Studio Art with a minor in Art History from the University of Vermont. Past groups shows in Burlington include the 2007 First Fifty, the Kasini House “10x10” (2007), the Community College of Vermont Instructor/Student Show at the Firehouse Gallery (2006), Senior Seminar & Critique at the Firehouse Gallery (2005), Benefit for the Women’s Rape Crisis Center (Juried) at Wine Works (2005), and “The Best of the Hill” at the Fletcher Free Library (2004), The South End Art Hop (2003, 2004, and 2007) and the Rose Street Gallery (2002). Solo shows in Burlington include The Daily Planet and Uncommon Grounds in 2003 and Wine Works in 2006. Her first solo gallery show, “Stills, an exploration of women in film”, was at Studio STK in April 2007.

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