Priscilla Steele's review

Thank you Priscilla for this review! http://www.campbellsteele.com/blog/
See more of my shikishi boards at http://www.karenkurkajensen.com/shikishi_board_tiles.html

Karen Kurka Jensen / Shikishi boards
Written by Priscilla June 30, 2009, 6:10 pm

Shikishi board #1 / 9.5″ x 10.5″ / $150 (framed) / Karen Kurka Jensen

“Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; … refusing to be disheartened… this is what we call the floating world…”Description of the images created by Japanese (ukiyo-e) wood-cut artists Hokusai Katsushika’s Kanagawa Great Wave.

For me, the miraculous abstraction of Karen Kurka Jensen’s “shikishi boards” is a 21st century parallel to the decorative beauty of the wood-cuts of the Japanese ukiyo-e artists. Washes of metallic pigments collapse the illusion of deep space, and, like Hokusai Katsushika’s iconic, “Kanagawa Great Wave”, create a dramatic interplay of convoluted form, line and color. Their visual impact is cosmic and oceanic in nature. This has been the foundation for my on-going affection for these small sumi-e paintings.