"Philately Meets Portraiture" by John Kaul

JOHN KAUL PHILATELY MEETS PORTRAITURE

January 27 - March 2, 2024

JOHN KAUL

John Kaul has been a lifelong artist, creating kinetic sculpture, documentary films, photography, and painting, while also working as a lobbyist. An avid gardener, his massive garden has been featured in two garden magazines. His kinetic sculptures were displayed at the Lesch Gallery in Butler Square in 1977. He has had multiple exhibitions of photography, including a recent one at Norway House in 2020 which resulted in his appearance on Twin Cities Television’s (TPT) Almanac program. Afton Press has approached him to make a book out of his traveling exhibition of portraits of “Indigenous Woman Water Protectors.” He has worked on three documentaries in partnership with TPT. Of the three, Kaul produced two: “Rebirth” and “The Wild and Scenic St. Croix.” They can be found on the TPT website and are regularly re-aired.

ARTIST STATEMENT I cannot remember a time I was not pursuing some creative outlet. As a child I was rarely without a pencil or a crayon in hand. In school, instead of listening to the teacher I would doodle. I have experimented with many mediums including drawing, oil painting, kinetic sculpture, photography, filmmaking and now gouache painting on envelopes.

The envelope project allowed me to combine several passions. First, there is that neural itch that pushes me to create, and there is my love of history, especially biography. Then there is my collection of 10,000 quotes acquired mostly from my readings and organized in a database. Couple that with a large international postage stamp collection and you have the components of an original artistic enterprise.

The envelope painting started with my decision to make my correspondence with friends more interesting using stamps. I would decorate the exterior of the envelope with elaborate and colorful themes. This was done mostly with stamps from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. It takes a lot of 3 and 4 cent stamps to reach the cost for a first-class letter sent today, so I had a lot of options to play with. The envelopes were covered with eye catching combinations including historical figures, literary giants, war heroes, statesmen and stateswomen and much more. At one point, I decided to up my game and started painting portraits that related to the stamps on the envelope. The first two featured George Gershwin and Sergi Rachmaninov. I began to add quotations made by the subject on the envelope. Pretty soon I had turned out fifty of these envelopes and sent them to friends.

There are subtle and not so subtle messages on most of the envelopes. I have most often chosen subjects for the paintings who had something relevant to say about our challenging times. I confess that I have been having a grand time painting again and, in the process, making poignant and irreverent points with my art at the same time.

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John Kaul

Langston Hughes 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Carl Sagan 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Eleanor Roosevelt 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Betty Friedan 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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John Lewis 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Willa Cather 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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David Lloyd George 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Andre Malraux 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Georgia O'Keeffe 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Paul Newman 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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John Singer Sargent 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Ludwig Van Beethoven 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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William Butler Yeats 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Mary Cassatt 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Reinhold Neibuhr 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Michael Fanone 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Viktor Frankl 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Bertolt Brecht 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Adele Bloch-Bauer 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Charles DeGaulle 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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Robert Oppenheimer 2023 | gouache on envelope| $700. image: 9 x 11.5" | frame: 13 x 15.5"

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Sylvia Kristel 2023 | gouache on envelope| $700. image: 9 x 11.5" | frame: 13 x 15.5"

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Elie Wiesel 2023 | gouache on envelope| $700. image: 9 x 11.5" | frame: 13 x 15.5"

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Jane Goodall 2023 | gouache on envelope| $700. image: 9 x 11.5" | frame: 13 x 15.5"

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Anne Frank 2023 | gouache on envelope| $500. image: 5.5 x 8.5" | frame: 9.75 x 12.75"

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25 Groveland Terrace, Minneapolis, MN 55403 | www.grovelandgallery.com

To purchase artwork please contact: info@grovelandgallery.com or 612-377-7800