Notes From the Edge of the World MP 1 by Ken Buhler

Ken Buhler

My relationship to abstraction has been changing in recent years. Sources in the physical world have become more prominent as catalysts in my process of painting and drawing… During a month I spent on an artist’s residency in Ireland, the impulse that connects my work to the physical world continued to evolve. In addition to the direct visual stimulation of the environment I encountered there, I was energized by the palpable presence of the ancient history that hovers at the surface – in the form of Neolithic tombs, ruins of castles and abbeys, abundant fossils, and a vivid geological history. I felt a strong sense of a time on earth when all was not charted and documented – when the ‘terra incognita’ of the world left mapmakers and scientists with only the option of imaginative and artistic speculation. The mystery of not knowing what lies over the horizon resonates with the sense I have of my own role as an artist a feeling that I am a chronicler of something important that has yet to be revealed. These impulses manifested in a series of drawings, Notes from the Edge of the World, that incorporate the imagery of rubber stamps, frequently of a botanical or decorative form, with that of the graphite line. The two prints that I have created with VanDeb editions are an extension and an expansion of the world I am exploring in this series.

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