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ECO-SYSTEM PAINTER
KC-K
THE NEW YORK TIMES (2011)
- “Multiple Oneness,” is an intriguing performance-art piece
by the oboist Matt Sullivan and the painter Ken Cro-Ken."
SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE, FLORIDA; (2012) "Cro-Ken offers a ...new twist on old 20th-century techniques."
"DEEP BLUE ST. PETE." KC-K 2006
The concept of earthwork art summons images of soil, wood, water, rock formations and other tangible materials. The greater focus within my art experience is nature's process and the invisible forces at work on our planet. Nature is my collaborator and as such, makes its every influence known. I am an ecosystem artist developing each 2D and 3D painting in seasonal conditions of high heat and extreme cold, at various levels of humidity, to experience the power of natural elements in response to the materials I lay upon the canvas and elsewhere.
Working paint like soil, my process is a physical investigation using paint. I navigate and negotiate paint like a river; yet, I know its source. I define my activated palette as "Speed Elements", and reflect deeply on the relationship between the act of painting and the art of nature. By mixing paints and catalysts, paintings are set in motion to recreate the push-pull forces that shape and mold all visible things and respond to distinctive environmental influences as further inspiration toward the completion of each canvas. I am an outburst of nature. Nature doesn’t just influence me, it leads me on a journey. As I cooperate with nature, she rewards me greatly. As a partner, nature is generous and I inherit all that she has to offer. Simply put, I ride nature's coat tails. As a result, I create microscopic, as well as, satellite views of the earth and places scattered throughout the universe.
While working with this "activated" palette, there is a need to become more sensitive to things occurring around me. I endeavor to strike a balance between my inner and outer self. If I fail to maintain this equilibrium, I can become an intruder to my own painting and can potentially scare a paint experiment; much like what often occurs when man finds himself at odds with nature.
"A Brief Moment in Time" (detail), 48" 36" 2001
* My art often reveals visions of the universe that are beyond my imagination
but not beyond my abilities nor efforts to peer into the vastness and mysteries of the universe.
My "reactive improvisations" with paint and nature allow me to observe
how the universe appears but more importantly, how it moves.
Just as a planet's surface is a visual record of past events,
my paint experiments come to apparent rest and could be more accurately be called "painteds".
It is the video that captured images that eluded capture by the canvas that could more appropriately be called the "painting".
This is a physical investigation of our planet using paint as a vehicle
to learn about paint and nature, simultaneously.
NATURE REFUSES TO BE MISMANAGED.
- RALPH WALDO EMERSON -
Simply put, I manipulate space, time and matter... and the matter in not just paint.
Personally, I prefer summer but professionally I love winter.
In this case, ice and snow. (10 cards per sheet)
The two sides are eventually glued together back to back.
Like snow flakes, no two business cards can be alike.
................................................................................................
THE CONDUCT OF PAINT by, Ken Cro-Ken;
celebrating Ralph Waldo Emerson's 150th + Anniversary of "THE CONDUCT OF LIFE".
(BOOK RELEASE DATE: JUNE 2013)
"Nature has her own best way of doing each thing
and has told us plainly along the way
and if we decide to choose our own way as opposed to nature's
nature will not be slow in undeceiving us.
- EMERSON -
* Edited with a wonderfully talented writer, Catherine McWeeney.
TO HEAR MORE IDEAS FROM THE UP COMING BOOK
CLICK ON TAB - "THE CONDUCT OF PAINT".
MULTIPLE ONENESS - TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCES
MATT SULLIVAN, electro/acoustic oboe & KEN CRO-KEN
Setting paint and music into motion.
PHOTO: Ari Mintz for The New York Times CLICK ON ARROWS IN RIGHT CORNER TO ENLARGE VIDEO SCREEN
MULTIPLE ONENESS - TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCES
SETTING PAINT AND MUSIC IN MOTION.
- THE NEW YORK TIMES -
The most unusual work I encountered was “Multiple Oneness,” an intriguing performance-art piece by the oboist
Matt Sullivan and the painter Ken Cro-Ken. While Mr. Sullivan played a melancholy lament over recorded sounds,
Mr. Cro-Ken poured liquids onto a canvas projected onto a video screen. The colorful liquids flowed through
the painting’s raised surfaces like yellow lava, swirling in strange tandem with the oboe’s melancholy tunes.
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Published: February 22, 2011
COMPILATION OF MULTIPLE ONENESS, TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCES
VOLUME ONE 1999 - 2004
CLICK ON ARROWS IN RIGHT CORNER TO ENLARGE VIDEO SCREEN
SARASOTA TRIBUNE JANUARY 2012
LIVE TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCE
MULTIPLE ONENESS
* CLICK ON ANY OF THE SMALLER PICTURES BELOW TO ENLARGE PAINTING SLIDE SHOW *
