A selection of paintings by American artist Debbi Kenote. Currently
based in Brooklyn, Kenote grew up on a rural farm in the Pacific Northwest.
Both of her grandmothers were seamstresses and many of the men in her
family were woodworkers. She spent many formative years wearing
handsewn garments and sitting down at handmade tables eating from
lathed vessels. Kenote’s fiber art can be seen as a direct reference to both
practices and their influence on her process. The shapes of Kenote’s
stretchers, for example, are derived from quilt block patterns while the
resulting forms are intentionally void of gendering.
“My painting imagery is abstract, with references to the body and
landscape. I often think back to early memories of hand drawn films
depicting natural worlds anthropomorphically. I use color and form in a
way that is meant to mimic body language. I find breath in empty spaces,
where I allow my painted surfaces to expose hidden layers of dye. I think
of dyed regions in my work as references to deep space and the unknown.
Each work is a poetic amalgamation of fragmented memories, movement
and imaginary destinations.”
