Carol Kleinman: An Interview

Window Dancing on the Rue de Rivoli 
Archival Digital Image on Canvas 40 x 60" 
Carol Kleinman 

With bold, unmanipulated single exposures printed on canvas, Carol Kleinman presents Paris through a series of complex reflections on windows.

Where did you grow up? Do you feel that environment has had an effect on your artwork?

 Hawaii is my place of birth and where I spent my formative years. The Islands had a profound effect on me. Growing up I remember mystical, visual stories of the past layered with the reality of the present. In my work, I look for layers of reality through reflections on windows. I combine what is inside with what appears outside in an attempt to challenge the viewer to look at mysterious layers that float just below the surface of life. To give that moment a sense of immediacy, I do not manipulate these images. What you see is what I saw.......a fleeting moment....a place in time.

Can you teach somebody to be an artist or is it an innate ability?

 I do believe art can and should be taught. I also believe people who become artists are born with an unstoppable need to create art. For us it is more then "should" I create art - it is what, when, how, where, now! We need to do this.

Tour de Eiffel Bus Window
Archival Digital Image on Canvas 54 x 36"
Carol Kleinman 

 Why art? Why not writing or theatre?

I was very active in theater in high school as well as art. In collage and graduate school I concentrated on art as my medium for expression. I have worked with many art mediums and have a teaching credential in ceramics. I came upon photography in the last 10 years when I realized I could capture wonderful, complex images using windows and reflections on glass. These reflections constantly surprise me. I feel the more I do this work the more complex the images become. With this latest work the images go from the strange layering of "Window Dancing on the Rue de Rivoli" to the almost minimal "Tour de Eiffel Bus Window". Both of these images magically appeared in my camera.


Are there any artists, historical or contemporary, that you feel have been an influence for you?

 Art History is one of my passions. I've learned from artists past and present. I'm particularly interested in photographers who have worked with reflections since that is the scope of the work I have chosen.

 


Does your own life experience play a role in your imagery?

 I love being an emotional, intuitive, feminine human being. My work is an extension of that. I offer my complex multi layered images to viewers as a metaphor for the human condition. Being human is complex, layered and even mysterious. With my work I try to bring all of this to the viewer......plus some joy, fun and,

 Carol Kleinman photographing window
reflections in Paris.

of course, a touch of humor.

Carol Kleinman's exhibition opens June 22.