All her life, Kimberly Furnell has felt a connection to something greater than herself, and it’s that connection that she draws on and hints at in her work.
“This whole idea of God or the divine and the universal consciousness has always been omnipresent in my life…” the Nanaimo painter said. “I think I’d always been trying to pull that into my art.”
In Furnell’s case, channeling the “ineffable” comes out in the form of intuitive abstract expressionism, painting with a kind of unselfconscious freedom that she wants others to have.
In her backyard studio, Furnell is surrounded by canvases of all sizes depicting a splattered array of neon bubbles. She said her process and her paintings makes sense to her in a way that cannot be described in words.
“I can’t express it but I can sort of gesture towards it and from those gestures you can see the thing itself,” she said. “I assume everybody wants to have these experiences, these magical, divine, infinite, spiritual experiences, yet you can’t take that in a box and give it to someone.”
On Thursday, Oct. 18 Furnell is presenting her new collection of works at John Harris Gallery. The pieces will be on display until Nov. 3. She calls the exhibition Awake in the Infinite. Furnell said she’s trying to convey the “presence of the universe in us.”
“I’m just gesturing at that ultimate external reality that none of us can really see but we can all feel,” Furnell said. “We feel it in moments [like] that perfect sunrise or you feel it when you see your child for the first time, those beautiful golden moments and we feel this divine spark and so that’s not something that necessarily I can say to you just with words, but I can say it through art.”
By communicating concepts through art, Furnell said there’s less of a risk of misinterpretation than there is when using words.
She said when people comment that her work makes them feel happy or comforted, “that’s not the feeling I’m giving them, I’m waking them up to that feeling in themselves.”
“Basically what I’m trying to do as an artist is bring some of what is real and magic and beautiful into this world because I think that we need more of that,” Furnell said.
“So through my art I hope people come in and when they see it … that will just remind them that there’s more to being a human than just going to work and making money and surviving. And so that’s how you wake up to that there’s more to life and to that infinite connection that’s between us and between us and more than us, whatever that is.”
WHAT’S ON … Opening reception for Kimberly Furnell’s painting exhibition Awake in the Infinite takes place at John Harris Gallery, 115 Haliburton St., on Thursday, Oct. 18 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Show continues until Nov. 3 by appointment, 250-591-2445.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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