Kenneth Herren

As an artist, I am challenged with communicating a visual narrative that speaks to the tension of two major forces that shaped the individual that I am today.  Born in the 1950’s and raised in a somewhat rural community and later becoming enlightened in urbania, I am primarily focused on bringing those two worlds together in my art.

I mainly use abstraction as the tool to accomplish this task.  A simple landscape collides with the energy of the city.  Using composition, color and texture, I hope to convey a sense of the pastoral and inevitable disrepair.

In expressing my life experience through painting, I see the undercoat painting as a reflection of the things in the past.  At times these details are hidden and at times can be seen by those we meet.  As such, the colors that emerge from below reflect the true self or soul of the work

Where it Comes From…

When I was a kid, living in a dusty farm town in California, I watched a tractor-trailer carrying hundreds of 5 gallon paint cans lose its load right in front of my house. A million gushing containers of paint exploded before my eyes. The cracked and traffic worn pavement became an abstract painting that continues to influence my work to this day. As the little town grew up around “my painting”, I sadly watched the decay that suburbia and ‘progress’ imposed on it, swearing that someday I would recreate the wonderment of that day it rained paint on my street!