Kari Lennartson earned her Master of Fine Arts in Painting at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. She completed her BA in Studio Arts from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where she also received a BA in Scandinavian Studies. Lennartson has traveled extensively in Scandinavia, and has studied Swedish Art History at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. In her artwork, Lennartson uses acrylic paints, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, cattle markers, graphite, and collage elements. Her highly abstracted paintings explore themes within Norse mythology. Surface texture and line play a significant role in guiding the artist’s process of intuiting the whimsical interplay of shape and pattern.

Kari Lennartson's exhibit marked the end of 2007 at the Raydiance Salon Gallery. The show featured framed paintings for sale. Kari's colorful, abstract art filled the gallery with a new life and inspired the clients and employees. Please don't hesitate to contact Kari with inquiries.

Artist Statement

“All tradition is change.”
-Barbro Klein & Mats Widbom

I am of the belief that the human mind is hardwired to create order out of disorder. I begin each work with a rhythmic web of marks, lines, and colors which stretch across the painting surface. It is important to integrate the unexpected into my work: with every misstep which occurs, there is an opportunity to take the image in new directions. As I am interested in creating a varied and complex surface, I work back and forth between the addition and subtraction of materials. I liken my subtractive process to the excavation of earth which an archeologist undergoes when searching for remnants of the past.

Thematically, my artwork echoes several motifs found within Old Norse folk art and literature, appeasing a deep yearning for other worlds, remembered and imagined; nostalgia is a potent force within modernism. Motifs utilized include valkyries, telemark skiing, viking longboats, and the spiritual in nature. Archeologist Marie Louise Stig Sørensen relates, “material culture is at the same time active and pliable, meaningful but not absolute.” The historical and mythological motifs explored within this body of work recognize the limitations and malleability of interpretation in regards to both Scandinavian historiography and contemporary art. The imagery which emerges from my artistic process owes its inspiration and existence to the initial marks, lines, and colors, and to all of the subsequent layers in between.

Related Links: www.klenna.com • www.sito.org • www.fineartamerica.com