Auto-Biography
My work is about reflective expressionism, and a desire to create paintings from absolute creativity. I desire to
communicate a feeling as opposed to a statement. The feeling may be essential to the space, or consistent with a
human emotion that allows people to be. I may attempt to communicate something specific in a painting, but that is
irrelevant. What the viewer feels is relevant. The viewer’s experiences and life evolution will dictate the emotion felt
from the depth, rhythm, coordination and eye transference of the piece. The emotion may be a simple noun, but it
could also be as deep as giving meaning to life. There is so much noise in our culture that keeps people from
having sensitivity. I wish to eliminate noise from minds viewing my work so that they may be free to feel what is truly
inside them at that time and place. The purpose of my work is to provide sensitivity, not something to identify.
I was born in Dearborn, Michigan, on December 10, 1964, and I lived in a typical middle-class Midwestern United
States home. I never felt comfortable there, and as a result I spent very little time at home as kid. People with
similar experiences can attest to being confined by norms, standards, and beliefs that are based on simplicity and
tradition. However, I did what intelligent middle-class people are supposed to do, and I went to a fine college and
got my business degree so that I could improve my economic well-being. Never mind that I never had the resources
to really delve into who I was or I what I enjoyed doing. It was purely economic decision-making. I had a
professional business career until I was in my late twenties. I was the father of two daughters, and at that point my
life truly began. Being born is one thing; starting to live is another.
I quit work and stayed with my daughters when doing such brought upon the stigma of laziness, weirdness,
inquisitiveness, and just plain unaccepted(ness). On the most basic level, the situation provided me with backbone,
which frankly I did not need until then. Oh, I would say that I was an investor, or a substitute teacher, or this or that,
but what I was really doing was being a parent, and evolving as an artist. I always created, drew, examined,
explored things; and I always painted. Inquirers would want a title so I made something up in the creative sense
because being a parent was not a good enough title for a man. They needed something concrete, something to
comprehend. However, it is through this maze in my life that my absolute creativity became the core for how I lived.
There was no book, manual, or counselors available for me to learn from during this time. My own consciousness
prevailed.
My painting evolved mostly during this period. My Mom died from a brutal and sudden fight with pancreatic cancer
when I was in my early thirties. Witnessing a human being shriveled to nothing by disease was strange, and being
that it was Mom made it painful. I got my creative sense from her. I have always moved fast, but from that point
forward life became a sprint. Life seemed short, and sprinting was the only way to live. I never do things the
conventional way, and for me I did not want academic instruction for creating art. Art instruction is an oxymoron term
for me because art is created internally for those who naturally think in terms of creative embodiment. So, I became
a life-drawing model, and I took courses on teaching, and specifically how minds learn in different ways.
Now is a good time to add that I was diagnosed with ADHD in the fall of 2005. Everything made sense to me about
my past, and how scattered I was mentally. I was a licensed CPA one day (which I was), and an abstract
expressionist the next. Everything made sense after learning this about me, and it helped me focus on streamlining
my daily activity to the purpose of being a visual artist. Being a model is the absolute best situation for an ADHD
person to learn because hyper-stillness is something that came naturally for me, and settled my mind during these
sessions. I also realized that after just listening in uninstructed and instructed classes that only a few instructed
classes really had value for me. Sure, I would learn a little trick here and there, but the mostly idle opinions of “that’s
good”, or “you should do this” were prevalent. My ADHD mind enabled me to visualize valuable tools in my own
work, and filter out the tools that had little value. I listened to over 100 different art instructors, some of whom are
nationally recognized, and I can say that maybe 5 had significant impact on truly enhancing creative sensitivity. This
is not to say that most are poor instructors, but rather most are technical advisors. I think this is the true nature of
our society so it makes sense that art would be taught with similar methods to other technical careers; like a how-to
manual.
My paintings and drawings were mostly in human form in my early development.
However, I never was comfortable with the idea of copying an image and putting it into painting. Even then I was
trying to capture the feeling or emotion in the person on canvas or newsprint. People would evaluate on whether
the image came out with the same likeness of my model, and it would drive me nuts. I wanted to capture adjectives
and adverbs like confident, sincere, perplexed, skeptical, uncomfortable, or worn down, and people were evaluating
based on how well I copied. My common phrase became, “this is the 21st century, and I have a camera that can do
that”. Most of my paintings of human form became evolutions of character, while the model could go from being an
African-American to an Asian-looking person in final form. However, the emotion was captured, and that is what I
was after in my work.
This was my creative self evolving, but I also realized that people really did not want pictures of other people on their
walls. I painted some landscapes, but got so bored with that concept that I just about quit, and went back into a
banking business. It was about that time I met an interior designer who kept showing me works of art that her clients
wanted, but she could not find. She would show me something in a magazine, and she was right about this type of
art being difficult to find. We had conversations where she talked about depth, rhythm, flow, color coordination, and
how an art piece should be the center piece of a good design. I realized that she was referring to the feeling of
space, rather than an identity of an object. In short, she was referring to art that loosened inhibitions and enhanced
feelings described with adjectives and adverbs; not subjects. In essence, she was referring to what I tried to capture
in human form without the human subject. She was talking about the hyper-focus into a clenched jaw, a tense
shoulder, a confident cheek structure. She was referring to the visual qualities that make up form without having to
copy a form. She wanted the elements of form without the form, and what is commonly known as abstract.
She nailed it. Reflective expressionism is a painting that has emotional content. Many people think of abstract
expressionism as paint splattered on canvas; an artistic fraud, if you will. However, a true abstract expressionist is
capturing real images in real time. The eye does not see snapshots most often. The eye sees blurred images in
motion, arbitrary patterns of color, prisms of light changed by shadow, and complexity of color variations that most
people document and decode into one color. However, my mind works and memorizes visually. I do not work in
sequential numerical technical steps. I work in random thoughts that over time come together, and make absolute
sense in my wholistic thinking. Color, which coordinated with rhythm and flow, enhance human comfort. Artistic
value creating shadow in pieces that create dimension that provides the illusion of larger space. Elements that
define space used to encourage masculinity or femininity. Unidentifiable forms that are subconsciously soothing
microcosms because they are reminders of what is seen most often in life. Most visual images are abstract like a
rusty piece of steel, or the reflection of light on glass. Our culture promotes the idea that identification of subject is
reality, and that which is not identifiable is not real. Credibility and merit is most often determined by this “reality”. I
wish to bring forth the idea that reality also includes the world of the unknown and accepts the notion that most
occurrences in life are random.
Hence, the genre of Reflective Expressionism. You may read my blogs on this form of expression to learn more.
This has been my comfort zone my entire life without fully comprehending what it meant. The essence of a free
mind allowing one to be absolutely lost in anything where his or her mind may find meaning in something that did not
exist before now. It is the essence of exploration. It promotes the idea that subject is made up of an endless sphere
of abstract thoughts and comprehensions. It is the visualization of what people talk about as character in human
beings. In the past, it was the idle thought of a few people or maybe one person that creatively thought of how
people could fly. Today, it might be the solution for getting all the cultures connected by flight to find commonality.
Obviously, a painting is just a tool to promote a feeling, an idea, a method that only each person can explore on his
or her own. It does not require a painting to daydream; to find comfort in a certain space. It is just my way of
promoting a culture that allows creative thought, expression, and individual determination without sporadic final
judgments being interjected just a fraction into the creative process. A culture that can get beyond promoting
dreams and aspirations for exclusiveness to a society that aspires to inclusiveness. I think sensitive visual
stimulations are essential for comforting the human mind enough to find understanding of self and beyond.
To read more, go to: kennethmartinstudios.com and click on the blog button.
(c) kenneth martin
My work is about reflective expressionism, and a desire to create paintings from absolute creativity. I desire to
communicate a feeling as opposed to a statement. The feeling may be essential to the space, or consistent with a
human emotion that allows people to be. I may attempt to communicate something specific in a painting, but that is
irrelevant. What the viewer feels is relevant. The viewer’s experiences and life evolution will dictate the emotion felt
from the depth, rhythm, coordination and eye transference of the piece. The emotion may be a simple noun, but it
could also be as deep as giving meaning to life. There is so much noise in our culture that keeps people from
having sensitivity. I wish to eliminate noise from minds viewing my work so that they may be free to feel what is truly
inside them at that time and place. The purpose of my work is to provide sensitivity, not something to identify.
I was born in Dearborn, Michigan, on December 10, 1964, and I lived in a typical middle-class Midwestern United
States home. I never felt comfortable there, and as a result I spent very little time at home as kid. People with
similar experiences can attest to being confined by norms, standards, and beliefs that are based on simplicity and
tradition. However, I did what intelligent middle-class people are supposed to do, and I went to a fine college and
got my business degree so that I could improve my economic well-being. Never mind that I never had the resources
to really delve into who I was or I what I enjoyed doing. It was purely economic decision-making. I had a
professional business career until I was in my late twenties. I was the father of two daughters, and at that point my
life truly began. Being born is one thing; starting to live is another.
I quit work and stayed with my daughters when doing such brought upon the stigma of laziness, weirdness,
inquisitiveness, and just plain unaccepted(ness). On the most basic level, the situation provided me with backbone,
which frankly I did not need until then. Oh, I would say that I was an investor, or a substitute teacher, or this or that,
but what I was really doing was being a parent, and evolving as an artist. I always created, drew, examined,
explored things; and I always painted. Inquirers would want a title so I made something up in the creative sense
because being a parent was not a good enough title for a man. They needed something concrete, something to
comprehend. However, it is through this maze in my life that my absolute creativity became the core for how I lived.
There was no book, manual, or counselors available for me to learn from during this time. My own consciousness
prevailed.
My painting evolved mostly during this period. My Mom died from a brutal and sudden fight with pancreatic cancer
when I was in my early thirties. Witnessing a human being shriveled to nothing by disease was strange, and being
that it was Mom made it painful. I got my creative sense from her. I have always moved fast, but from that point
forward life became a sprint. Life seemed short, and sprinting was the only way to live. I never do things the
conventional way, and for me I did not want academic instruction for creating art. Art instruction is an oxymoron term
for me because art is created internally for those who naturally think in terms of creative embodiment. So, I became
a life-drawing model, and I took courses on teaching, and specifically how minds learn in different ways.
Now is a good time to add that I was diagnosed with ADHD in the fall of 2005. Everything made sense to me about
my past, and how scattered I was mentally. I was a licensed CPA one day (which I was), and an abstract
expressionist the next. Everything made sense after learning this about me, and it helped me focus on streamlining
my daily activity to the purpose of being a visual artist. Being a model is the absolute best situation for an ADHD
person to learn because hyper-stillness is something that came naturally for me, and settled my mind during these
sessions. I also realized that after just listening in uninstructed and instructed classes that only a few instructed
classes really had value for me. Sure, I would learn a little trick here and there, but the mostly idle opinions of “that’s
good”, or “you should do this” were prevalent. My ADHD mind enabled me to visualize valuable tools in my own
work, and filter out the tools that had little value. I listened to over 100 different art instructors, some of whom are
nationally recognized, and I can say that maybe 5 had significant impact on truly enhancing creative sensitivity. This
is not to say that most are poor instructors, but rather most are technical advisors. I think this is the true nature of
our society so it makes sense that art would be taught with similar methods to other technical careers; like a how-to
manual.
My paintings and drawings were mostly in human form in my early development.
However, I never was comfortable with the idea of copying an image and putting it into painting. Even then I was
trying to capture the feeling or emotion in the person on canvas or newsprint. People would evaluate on whether
the image came out with the same likeness of my model, and it would drive me nuts. I wanted to capture adjectives
and adverbs like confident, sincere, perplexed, skeptical, uncomfortable, or worn down, and people were evaluating
based on how well I copied. My common phrase became, “this is the 21st century, and I have a camera that can do
that”. Most of my paintings of human form became evolutions of character, while the model could go from being an
African-American to an Asian-looking person in final form. However, the emotion was captured, and that is what I
was after in my work.
This was my creative self evolving, but I also realized that people really did not want pictures of other people on their
walls. I painted some landscapes, but got so bored with that concept that I just about quit, and went back into a
banking business. It was about that time I met an interior designer who kept showing me works of art that her clients
wanted, but she could not find. She would show me something in a magazine, and she was right about this type of
art being difficult to find. We had conversations where she talked about depth, rhythm, flow, color coordination, and
how an art piece should be the center piece of a good design. I realized that she was referring to the feeling of
space, rather than an identity of an object. In short, she was referring to art that loosened inhibitions and enhanced
feelings described with adjectives and adverbs; not subjects. In essence, she was referring to what I tried to capture
in human form without the human subject. She was talking about the hyper-focus into a clenched jaw, a tense
shoulder, a confident cheek structure. She was referring to the visual qualities that make up form without having to
copy a form. She wanted the elements of form without the form, and what is commonly known as abstract.
She nailed it. Reflective expressionism is a painting that has emotional content. Many people think of abstract
expressionism as paint splattered on canvas; an artistic fraud, if you will. However, a true abstract expressionist is
capturing real images in real time. The eye does not see snapshots most often. The eye sees blurred images in
motion, arbitrary patterns of color, prisms of light changed by shadow, and complexity of color variations that most
people document and decode into one color. However, my mind works and memorizes visually. I do not work in
sequential numerical technical steps. I work in random thoughts that over time come together, and make absolute
sense in my wholistic thinking. Color, which coordinated with rhythm and flow, enhance human comfort. Artistic
value creating shadow in pieces that create dimension that provides the illusion of larger space. Elements that
define space used to encourage masculinity or femininity. Unidentifiable forms that are subconsciously soothing
microcosms because they are reminders of what is seen most often in life. Most visual images are abstract like a
rusty piece of steel, or the reflection of light on glass. Our culture promotes the idea that identification of subject is
reality, and that which is not identifiable is not real. Credibility and merit is most often determined by this “reality”. I
wish to bring forth the idea that reality also includes the world of the unknown and accepts the notion that most
occurrences in life are random.
Hence, the genre of Reflective Expressionism. You may read my blogs on this form of expression to learn more.
This has been my comfort zone my entire life without fully comprehending what it meant. The essence of a free
mind allowing one to be absolutely lost in anything where his or her mind may find meaning in something that did not
exist before now. It is the essence of exploration. It promotes the idea that subject is made up of an endless sphere
of abstract thoughts and comprehensions. It is the visualization of what people talk about as character in human
beings. In the past, it was the idle thought of a few people or maybe one person that creatively thought of how
people could fly. Today, it might be the solution for getting all the cultures connected by flight to find commonality.
Obviously, a painting is just a tool to promote a feeling, an idea, a method that only each person can explore on his
or her own. It does not require a painting to daydream; to find comfort in a certain space. It is just my way of
promoting a culture that allows creative thought, expression, and individual determination without sporadic final
judgments being interjected just a fraction into the creative process. A culture that can get beyond promoting
dreams and aspirations for exclusiveness to a society that aspires to inclusiveness. I think sensitive visual
stimulations are essential for comforting the human mind enough to find understanding of self and beyond.
To read more, go to: kennethmartinstudios.com and click on the blog button.
(c) kenneth martin
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