Karen C. Kinoshita
Never Ending Story
2020
abaca, book board, cotton thread
12” x 8” x 1.5”
NFS
“I am a self-taught artist who grew up in a simple rural landscape on an archipelago of islands surrounded by water. I now dwell where pools of water are surrounded by land in Minnesota, which is a rapidly changing space, where much of nature and open air is being replaced by glass and concrete. At an early age I learned about color and design from the outdoors, where I would explore materials and creativity between school and reading.
I have continued to investigate and play with both ideas and materials. My fondness of ephemeral art leads me to expansive or intimate spaces that are starkly bare reflective places, which I do not see as empty. In the fleeting touch and movement of art places me within uncertainty and it fills me with endless discovery. I am at a loss to describe when someone asks me to explain—how can different worlds speak?
My Women’s Wordless Library series started with thoughts about the absence of language and utterance as a form of communication. Are books without words full or empty? Is it rational that books call to us? Some very strongly. This book appears delicate and fragile, even so, it has strength and wisdom in words unspoken, unwritten, and is open to musings and interpretation. The book is to be imagined, rather than described, with words.”
Remnant
2019–2020
quilt remnants, book board, and cloth
1.5” x 1.5” x 1”
NFS
“Zero Waste? Remnant started with scraps of quilts and ends of book board to create a cozy comfort tea party the next fine art of the book idea. I liked the idea of using the small remaining fabric pieces from the Quilt Not Quilt project (exhibited at MCBA in 2018) to make the miniature mugs and plates: for we are not a make-up of one story but of several stories. I worked informally with cartonnage, another paper hero in book arts, to make the display risers from upcycled scraps of book board and cloth.”