COMBINING TWO ART WORKS INTO ONE
“Introspection” by Billy Gray and "Dama de Elche” by Kathleen Gray
In a village on the second floor. A narrow tiled staircase brought us to the tiny apartment which was adequate. But, it was the large balcony that overlooked the rolling fertile hills of southern Spain and the Mediterranean Sea that made this place a home. On that sunny balcony we painted even during the winter months. We were in our element, beginning each day by painting for four hours. We walked the fields, swam in the Mediterranean and cooked wholesome food. And it was in this little village that KGBGArt was conceived. I thought, why not superimpose our art over one another’s and create a third image. We experimented with this, printing little cuadernos (booklets) with our own separate images into one combined image. It was fun watching our art transform into another creature altogether. Fast forward to 2016 when Billy and I settled in Ashland, Oregon. We began combining our work on a larger scale. We printed the fused images on fabric and paper working them into various crafts, such as tote bags, pillows, scarves, and eye cushions.
The painting you see here is one such inspiration that stemmed from our initial idea in Spain. Billy’s piece is “Introspection” and mine is “The Dama de Elche”. “Introspection” is a labyrinth of lines, forms and shapes that weave in and out of each other with finesse and poetry, drawing the viewer deeper within. Billy said that the title “Introspection” came as a result of deeply seeking a harmonious solution to the contrasting elements in the painting.
Billy painted “Introspection” in our little flat in India where we spent six months on one of our many trips. The “Dama de Elche” was inspired by the famous Phoenician statue in the Archaeological Museum in Madrid, Spain, a must visit if you are in Madrid! The statue may be a funerary urn discovered by a farmer in the late 1800’s in Elche, Spain, near Valencia. I painted “The Dama" in Spain where we visited the Archaeological Museum several times. Caves, archaeological sites, prehistoric paintings, rusted and decaying forms have long been a fascination of mine.
When I first began painting The Dama in 2011, I thought about her so much that a small coincidence or synchronicity occurred. Billy and I were hiking in the foothills behind Maro, Spain. We sat down on some rocks to enjoy the view of the pines in the foreground and the Mediterranean in the distance. Just as we were ready to leave, I looked on the ground for foot placement and beside my left foot, partially buried in the ground was a tangled bracelet. I picked it up to examine it and discovered a shape like the Dama’s earrings attached to a charm bracelet!
We share this composite piece here today as an insight into the creative process that sometimes spans over decades. With this in mind, patience and vision allow each one of us to adhere to a regimen of art whose byproducts are slow in maturing and ever so fruitful when they’re ripe!