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Kevin McCaffrey (Dvora Art House 610)
Kevin McCaffrey (Dvora Art House 610)
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Kevin McCaffrey Bio & Statement
Kevin McCaffrey was born and raised in Weehawken, N.J. His educational background includes studies in English literature, library science, philosophy, and theology. After working as a reference librarian at the New York Public Library, he followed a calling to the Roman Catholic priesthood, during which he lived in Cincinnati, Washington D.C., and Jerusalem, where he worked for nine years as librarian at a French-founded biblical and archaeological research institute, the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem. This position enabled him to enjoy extensive travel and extended stays in Paris and Rome. While living in Jerusalem as a member of the Dominican order, he found a renewed passion for art, and so left behind the religious life to pursue his artistic calling. Moving back to the States, he studied drawing and painting at the Art Students League of New York for six years. He currently lives in Weehawken and has recently earned an MFA in studio practice at Montclair State University.
Statement:
My abstract paintings grow out of a desire to incorporate qualities I’ve developed in my drawing (line) into my efforts with paint (color). Certain painting is, in many instances, a kind of drawing. The differences between the two, however, posed a challenge to me.
My drawing consists of the amassing of minute lines into spontaneous forms that are improvisational, yet rooted in the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Painting, at least in my understanding of it, is much more premeditated, form conscious, made of fields and areas rather than lines, and more opaque to the original, underlying creative processes that produce art. In my explorations of this
question, I came upon materials and techniques that, at least for now, I find a satisfying beginning to the journey of bringing the “personality” of my drawing (including its subconscious) to my painting. The linear and spontaneous elements are preserved, while allowing for the evocative and emotionally rich nature of color. But to what end?
My most poignant and enduring memories are of landscapes. A distant line of white cliffs on a sunny summer day, a cluster of trees on a hilltop dark and slender against the setting sun, an Irish valley descending to Galway Bay and the mountains of Connemara in the hazy distance—they and others are the most beautiful memories I have. Thus, as an artist, I’m drawn to expressing this beautiful and nostalgic power of landscape.
Statement:
My abstract paintings grow out of a desire to incorporate qualities I’ve developed in my drawing (line) into my efforts with paint (color). Certain painting is, in many instances, a kind of drawing. The differences between the two, however, posed a challenge to me.
My drawing consists of the amassing of minute lines into spontaneous forms that are improvisational, yet rooted in the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Painting, at least in my understanding of it, is much more premeditated, form conscious, made of fields and areas rather than lines, and more opaque to the original, underlying creative processes that produce art. In my explorations of this
question, I came upon materials and techniques that, at least for now, I find a satisfying beginning to the journey of bringing the “personality” of my drawing (including its subconscious) to my painting. The linear and spontaneous elements are preserved, while allowing for the evocative and emotionally rich nature of color. But to what end?
My most poignant and enduring memories are of landscapes. A distant line of white cliffs on a sunny summer day, a cluster of trees on a hilltop dark and slender against the setting sun, an Irish valley descending to Galway Bay and the mountains of Connemara in the hazy distance—they and others are the most beautiful memories I have. Thus, as an artist, I’m drawn to expressing this beautiful and nostalgic power of landscape.
