PaintingsDIRECT:
Beauty, joy and tranquility are clearly evident in your artworks. How are other emotions evidenced in your work?
Karen Langbauer:
Sometimes I do paint when I feel a rage. I fling paint at the paper. Sometimes I fling paint when I am jubilant. But however I feel, I see things or feel feelings in the brushstrokes and I get excited about the painting. My best example about this is from our old friend Mr. Rogers. I watched him on TV one day when he was going to paint. He said, "I feel angry!! I am going to take this blue paint and paint something angry!" Then he painted a brushstroke and looked at what he had done and marveled at the beauty of the stroke and his anger was gone and he proceeded to paint a rainbow. That is how it is with me. I painted "Searching for the North Star" while missing my Dad, who was my best friend. I was very sad when I painted the painting, then I became happy when I looked at the painting because it was so nice. Most of the time I am in wonder at the paint on the paper. I feel a real high when I paint.
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Time and Tide (Wait for No One) (2006)
Karen Langbauer
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Cherished Lily II (1996)
Karen Langbauer
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PaintingsDIRECT:
Much of your work on the site are watercolors. What does this medium afford that others don’t?
Karen Langbauer:
In the beginning watercolors afforded the biggest challenge because it is a very difficult medium. On the other hand, I love the purity of the white watercolor paper in contrast to the pure colors of the watercolor paint. Watercolors also allow spontaneity. I tried my style with canvas and it just did not work for me. When I was a new mother with insomnia I had an art piece that wasn’t working. I went to a therapist who changed my life. Most of all he encouraged me to be a good mother and said that I needed to express my feelings in painting. He gave me some rules. Don’t mix colors, use paint straight from the tube, never correct anything. If it doesn’t work, throw it away. Never paint when frustrated with the painting. Give the painting your freshest energy. I started painting tiny watercolors, maybe spending five minutes on a painting while my son napped. I felt great after a few brush strokes on the nice paper and ready to be a good mother. I have painted like this ever since and this is how I found my voice. I use Japanese and Chinese sumi brushes and the best watercolor paper and paint available. The last rule the doctor gave me was to not show for ten years to solidify my style. I did not crack an art book for ten years. My only source of inspiration besides my feelings was the Asian Art Collection at the Seattle Art Museum. After this, my style in watercolors became my own. I would say that my paintings in these years were a kind of colored calligraphy in my own style.
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PaintingsDIRECT:
You are a well-traveled person. How have other cultures influenced your art?
Karen Langbauer:
My parents are from Norway. I grew up with beautiful Norwegian weavings and lovely paintings and crafts from Norway. Scandinavian design shows a great love for simplicity and the Norwegians show a great love for good design in most aspects of their life. After graduating from college in 1968 I spent a fall and winter in Paris. I wandered through all the museums in great awe. I discovered in a back gallery of the Louvre an exhibit of Jean DuBuffet’s paintings called ‘L’Art Brut’. These paintings were similar to my much maligned paintings from my senior year in college, and I felt vindicated. I had so enjoyed painting those paintings.
In 1973 I stayed in Kyoto, Japan for a summer. I studied Japanese art and fell in love with Zen temples and Zen calligraphy and Buddhist artwork in general. Also, I was humbled by discussions with Buddhist priests and artists. My Japanese girlfriend arranged an interview with a potter who was designated as a National Living Treasure by the Japanese government. He told me that if I really was an artist I should go home and paint and not sit there staring at him. Ouch! I did go home and painted for a very long time.
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The Mountain (2003)
Karen Langbauer
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Zen Symbols (1989)
Karen Langbauer
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PaintingsDIRECT:
Some people may presume that a minimalist approach to painting is ‘simple’. What do you have to answer to that?
Karen Langbauer:
Regarding minimalism I feel there is a paring down to something’s essence. Also, there is a lot of restraint in minimalist work. I want to tell you a little about my exposure to some types of minimalism. The first work I saw was Brancusi’s sculpture, “Bird in Flight”. I thought it was magnificent. Later in Paris I saw most of Brancusi’s work and also his studio. It made a deep impression on me. In college I was introduced to Frank Stella’s work in my design class. His work seemed so pure and clean. Purity and cleanliness of a sort and clarity is what I came to want in my work. I was also introduced to hard edge painting at that time where the colors were also clear and pure. I discovered much later that with a couple of brushstrokes on infinitely beautiful watercolor paper I could achieve that similar felling of power, clarity and purity. This is also how Zen Buddhists paint.
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PaintingsDIRECT:
Tell us about your artistic process, from the idea to the finished work.
Karen Langbauer:
My painting process is first conceptual. I have a feeling or I have an idea or I actually see the painting in my mind. I will tell you about how I painted during a particular period and you will get an idea of my process in painting. I worked at a college an hour away from my home. It was a long commute but I used the time to formulate a painting in my mind. All week I would work through the painting in my mind until by Friday it was complete in my head. Then on Saturday morning I would paint. In the quiet of the morning I lay a piece of watercolor paper on the floor. I would stop and meditate a little, calm myself, get focused and then I create a painting. It would not take very long. It was a wonderful time. My son and his friends would comment on my paintings - they were my judge and jury during those years when I did not show. I paint in much the same way now.
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Red Sea Square (1992)
Karen Langbauer
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View more artwork by Karen Langbauer
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