Artists premiere ‘Kindred Spirits II’

Karen Mortensen and Ethel Mann premiered their second joint exhibition — “Kindred Spirits II” — at an opening reception last Friday at the Hawaii Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Hilo.

In spite of their different approaches to art, they achieved a synchronous experience in this diverse and entertaining collection on display throughout August.

For the first time, Mann and Mortensen offer museum posters and selected giclee prints from their current show and DVDs from “Kindred Spirits I,” their first show two years ago.

While the first show featured works from before the artists met, and afterward, this show promises new expressions of the environment they inhabit plus some older work never shown before.

“Their innovative creative processes, though different, found support and inspiration in the friendship that has developed between the two artists. They both employ unexpected and unique materials to create their evocative pieces. The source of inspiration for both is still firmly rooted in the lush environment of lower Puna and other iconic places around the islands,” said gallery coordinators.

Mortensen is an award-winning painter and sculptor. She has garnered awards from shows in Hawaii and the mainland. Mortensen said she receives her inspiration from “absorbing the environment.” To manifest her vision, she uses pigment, metal, wood and sometimes stone. The majority of her sculptures begin as bronze mesh which is formed and then painted to create realistic and fanciful portraits and abstracts. She developed this process through years of creating her work.

Mortensen will exhibit pieces that have never been shown on this island before. Mortensen’s natural exuberance and affection for daily routines, which include not only her work as an artist but also her work tending to her garden and ponds, animals (wild and domestic), and friends, manages to find its way into all of her work.

Mann characterizes her work as an “exploration of possibilities.” A piece of her art can be finished in 15 minutes or might require many years. The award-winning artist says the image itself asks her to continue engaging with it, or might arrive immediately. Necessity dictates her choice of materials. Her husband, Raymond Todd, as a painting contractor, provided economical access to deep-tone acrylic house paints, pressed-fiber wallpaper underlays, stucco patch and caulking, some of the materials used in her work.

Mann is exhibiting another of her monumental-scale paintings, “Marriage,” created on a canvas drop cloth, in addition to other large-scale paintings. Mann’s new work also includes many smaller pieces painted on Kauai and the Kona side of Hawaii. Mann’s energetic, explorer spirit is evident in her use of color, brush techniques, combinations of media, and monumental scale, variously employed in her paintings.