A Deep and Meaningful Exchange
by AwA
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of Art with Altitude.
Inspiration finds you and insists that you answer its call.” Artist Marion Kahn’s personal inspiration insists that she paints large paintings with impact and color as an authentic expression of her joy. Her strength as an artist is in creating bold ideas uniquely expressed. “Color is my art language and my primary means of communicating with viewers,” said Marion.
Much of her informal art education came from sitting with her mother while she painted and, decades later, from her daughter while she painted. “I remember watching in amazement as my late daughter worked on six-foot paintings. I asked her, ‘How do you do that?’ It was a mystery to me. She looked at me like I was from Mars and said, ‘Mom, you just do it.’” Marion, in her own way, has just done it—shaped the world around her into a new language that others want to learn.
Beyond family, Marion has studied with gifted, professional artists, including the renowned photorealist painter Robert Cottingham, abstract painters Sammy Peters and Lauren Mantecon, American Impressionists Kim English and Barry Thomas, abstract colorist Casey Klahn, and plein air painters Jean Perry and Joan Hoffmann. Her work has paid off. One of her paintings was selected to hang in the Colorado State Capitol and two paintings were exhibited on Times Square jumbotrons. Her work also hangs in cancer treatment centers and private collections nationwide. While all artists love the validation of outside recognition, Marion’s mark of success is when she is satisfied with her own work. “I think one of the longest distances in the world is between the brain and the end of the paintbrush.”
Once one work is complete, she searches for the next idea. “For each artist, there is an inner truth that guides creation. Of course, you have to listen to it. But it feels risky!”
As someone who revels in the outdoors, Marion has taken thousands of photographs to capture details, shapes, movement, unusual color pairings, harmony, contrast, light, shadow and the unexpected. “Just noticing how things happen in nature often gives birth to an idea,” said Marion. She carries a visual diary almost everywhere she goes, with watercolor pens and pencils to record places that have special meaning. “Steamboat sunsets are strikingly beautiful with color combinations I couldn’t invent,” she said. Forests offer another source of fascination and are the influence for an upcoming large exhibit concept.
“Frankly, I’m inspired when I step out the door. We are surrounded by beauty and mystery, but beauty alone doesn’t dictate the execution of the painting. Once I’ve done the underpainting, I try to let the painting tell me how it wants to be created. In that process, the painting that emerges may be representational, abstract, or a mix of the two.”
Beyond what she shares with the public, Marion has a private series of graffiti paintings in response to the world, usually statements of outrage about inhumane incidents. “Tragedy is a slow and painful process of acceptance. We can’t change the past, but we can decide how to live the future, one day at a time.”
Marion is blessed to have had three wonderful children, although one daughter died unexpectedly five years ago. A ‘death out of season.’ “My first work after my daughter died was pure anger about the injustice of losing a daughter, a mom, a sister, a friend, all roles which she held. Then, I wanted to connect with her and created a series called The Space in Between, reflecting my desire to reach from this realm to hers. Since then, I’ve focused on essences, often of unexpected beauty.” Strangely, Marion’s husband noticed that every painting of hers has one or more birds in it, and she never intentionally included a bird in a painting! Birds are thought to symbolize transcendence and transformation and have the ability to move between realms—through the space in between.
“Art does speak to people. Whether I know the viewer or not, I believe we’ve enjoyed an exchange and sometimes a very deep, meaningful exchange.”
Elevate the arts: Purchase Marion’s works at the Zandee Gallery in downtown Steamboat Springs. AwA
