No place out of the wind continues Kenote’s exploration of shaped painting as both image and object. Inspired by visual motifs—such as interlocking geometries and natural forms—each canvas starts with a stretcher customized by the artist before it is stretched and layered with oil paint. The support beam becomes a primary compositional element of her paintings, creating complex forms that extend the work into space. Inspired by her upbringing in the Pacific Northwest, where she was exposed to craft traditions such as woodworking and quilting, plus her background in sculpture, Kenote approaches the canvas as a site of construction as much as surface.
Your work is so heavily inspired by nature and to me seems infused with color palettes and forms that specifically gesture to your upbringing in the Pacific Northwest. Now that you live and work in New York City, what do you do to get a “nature fix” and find new inspirations for creating works based on the natural world?
Nature is certainly a big influence for me. I grew up on a rural piece of land in Washington State, and my parents structured my education outside of the public system until around age 14. This meant that when most kids were in school, I was often outside exploring the dense Pacific Northwest landscape. This physical and imaginative play outdoors was formative to my approach to making today.
Even though I’ve lived in New York City for almost 13 years, I still go back to my hometown twice a year. I have a large immediate family and I am the only one who flew the coop. These trips have kept the landscape of my childhood alive in my imagination as an active source of inspiration. At the same time, I also try to go to the beach here and into the various upstate forests as much as I can. For the last five years I have also returned to the Saltonstall Foundation, outside of Ithaca, NY for a weeklong artist retreat. This annual tradition of hiking in the snowy woods between creative sessions has certainly impacted my work.
