6 minute read
Tamar Kander
~story and photos by Chrissy Alspaugh
The paintings that emerge from Tamar Kander’s tools are as much a reflection of her life’s journey as they are the result of the decades she’s spent honing a unique approach to art.
With her mixed-media, impressionist work gracing galleries around the globe, Kander’s art transcends boundaries, both in geography and imagination. But despite her work’s reach and early years living abroad, Kander has made her home in Brown County, where the serene landscape soaks into the fabric of her work.
Art was natural in Kander’s heart and mind from a young age, growing up in Israel. “I was always drawing,” she remembers, warmly. When faced with limitations—like the lack of paper—”I started drawing on the walls!” she said, laughing. Family support kept Kander’s passion aflame. Recognizing her desire to create murals, her mother replaced her crayons with water paints. “To my family, whatever I did was just fine,” Kander said.
Kander moved to South Africa before her 10th birthday. She earned a bachelor’s in fine arts in Johannesburg before earning a master’s in fine arts in London. Further studying painting and printmaking, Kander moved to New York City in the mid 1980s, before what she thought would be a short visit to Bloomington. “I realized how tired I was from all of my energy just going toward living in New York,” she said. “Here, I had so much more of myself to put into my paintings.”
Today, her downstairs home studio is a place of quiet focus, away from the distractions of daily life. “Once I’m downstairs in front of a canvas or sorting things out, I really am in the present, and everything feels very clear,” she said. It’s in this space, surrounded by nature and removed from external noise, that Kander’s intuitive conversations with her paintings begin. “When I have a painting in mind—an idea, size, colors I want to use, or a vague idea of the composition—I never know how it’s going to end.”
Before paint ever comes out, Kander breathes life onto a canvas with deeply textured, layered fabric, scraps of special letters or tissue paper from friends, drywall compound, gel medium, sand from recent travels, and even the humble sweepings from her studio floor. The result gives each piece depth and a tangible, multifaceted look and feel.
For Kander, art is both a job and a personal expression. She maintains a structured weekly work schedule, setting aside specific times to be in her studio. “If I waited until I was inspired, there would be periods when art wouldn’t happen. Sometimes I just need to get to work,” she said. “Once I’m there, I might stretch a canvas, prepare a canvas to work on, or sketch. Before I know it, time flows easily, and I get into the zone.” While she said many assume that her work life is one driven solely by inspiration, Kander values the routine of consistent studio hours. “The discipline informs my creativity,” she said. Her commitment to the process yields carefully-sorted stacks of paintings tucked all throughout her space, some just begun, some close to complete but awaiting her final judgment, some ready to be photographed for a gallery, and those awaiting shipment.
Kander explained that while artists can sell their work in a myriad of ways, she has always chosen to be represented by galleries. They keep her work in inventory, feature her pieces in shows, and promote, sell, and advertise on her behalf. Throughout her career, Kander said she has been lucky to have worked with galleries that have helped place her paintings with collectors, in museums, and with corporate collections, some of which include the Indiana State Museum, New York University’s Gallatin Dean’s Office, and many other companies, private businesses, and area hospitals.
Moving to Brown County helped her reconnect to a natural world that has undeniably made its way into her work. While living in urban environments, she said her compositions were notably vertical, reflecting the cityscape around her. The move to the Midwest slowly shifted her work more horizontally, a change Kander described as reminiscent of the work she produced while surrounded by open spaces in South Africa.
Her art today is an evolution of the landscape-inspired abstracts she reflects on, and she said she sees recurring themes: bodies of water, bridges, and snowy white expanses. Kander said those themes are subconsciously influenced by the community around her, as well as her travels for work or to visit family. A hike around the lake on her property, a swim at the YMCA, or driving past a pairing of beautifully-colored parked cars all have equal chances of weaving their way onto her canvas.
Kander and her husband, ceramicist Jamas Brooke, usually swim daily at the Y or in the lake at their cabin, when weather permits. Also in her free time, she volunteers at My Sister’s Closet of Monroe County and is a member of the Friends of Brown County Public Library Board. The reading enthusiast said she often settles into bed around 10 p.m. and spends the next three-or-so hours immersed in historical writings, novels, or The New Yorker
Kander described Brown County as her “grounding place” in between travels for exhibitions and installations in Indianapolis, New Mexico, Michigan, Chicago, and beyond.
Yet, she said this is a slower season of life than ones of her past. She said her care-giving schedule became very empty when her mother passed away in October. “I’m getting used to a new pace,” Kander said. And over is her era of mass painting production. “I’m much more present now…. I’ve grown beyond worrying about results.”
While her work continues to evolve, Kander is content with her new current creative rhythm.
She’s enjoying the process of continuing to discover new parts of Brown County, and the sense of connection she feels here to both the land and its people. Kander’s connection to the natural world continues to infuse her work—and her life—with a sense of stillness and presence.
“There’s always so much more to explore, and always so much more to know.”
For more, www.tamarkander.com .
