JIM KALNIN: TEN THOUSAND THINGS - INTRODUCTION

Jim Kalnin’s artwork is both thought-provoking and visually captivating. He is using his artistic talent to convey important messages about the environment and humanity’s impact on it. By incorporating surrealist settings and other elements, he adds a layer of depth to his work. The works encourages the viewer to consider not only the physical world, but also the spiritual, metaphysical and philosophical implications of our and planet Earth’ existence.

Kalnin’s exhibition is grounded in a keen observation of reality, highlighting the disproportion between humanity and the world we inhabit. He is drawing attention to the pressing issues of climate change, deforestation, water pollution, and the extinction of species. By juxtaposing images of animals, fish, and humans in surreal places, he creates a vivid and compelling narrative that invites the viewer to contemplate the interconnectedness of all things.

The fluid and animated nature of his images suggests movement and change, echoing the dynamic nature of the environment and the urgent need for action. The suggested houselike structures that are often in motion may represent the fragility of our own homes and habitats and the need to protect them.

Jim Kalnin’s artwork is both aesthetically stunning and deeply meaningful, urging us to consider our place in the world and our responsibility to preserve and protect it.

Lubos Culen Curator Vernon Public Art Gallery

Jim Kalnin Bio

Jim Kalnin was born in Pine Falls Manitoba in 1942, and spent his early years on a small farm near Lac du Bonnet, followed by several years in a company town (Point de Bois) on the Winnipeg River. The next stop was the end of a three day train ride in Victoria BC where his grade eight classroom held as many people as the town he and his family had just left.

Once the agony of high school passed, Jim enrolled in the Vancouver School of Art (later to become Emily Carr College of Art and Design.) His five years of art school opened many creative doors including film animation — mostly on inventive projects sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada. These led to teaching animation at the Vancouver School of Art and at Kingait, a.k.a. Cape Dorset NWT.

Travelling to new places soon became an addiction, with extended low-budget expeditions across Canada, to Central and South America and to Southeast Asia.

Wind blown, he settled first in his old haunt near Nanaimo and then in the Okanagan Valley. After living for several years in a tiny community above Okanagan Lake, Jim went back to teaching art at Okanagan College which ultimately turned into a full time position at UBCO.

His bachelorhood also changed into the joys of family life when he met Lois Huey-Heck and her son Bryan. They became a family and settled in Oyama in 1990.

Only after retiring from teaching did Jim’s ‘travel bug’ come back to life. He and Lois kicked off a freer and easier life with an extended tour of southern Mexico (which they laughingly referred to as their first ‘geezers with back packs adventure’). That led to a number of winter sojourns, mostly staying in the same 500 year old Casa in the same town, Patzcuaro in the highlands of Michoacan. These sojourns gave them both the opportunity to focus on their art for extended periods most years from 2010-2020.

TEN THOUSAND THINGS - ARTIST STATEMENT

The paintings in this exhibition have all been made in the past three months. A phone call from Lubos Culen at that time, changed my life quite drastically.

The call came shortly after I had looked at my empty painting station and wondered if I was actually done as an artist. It turned out that I was not! Moments of worry, times of exhaustion swept by, as my physical and mental ‘painting gears’ got into shape again.

“I’m exhausted,” I would complain to my wife, Lois.

“You are more alive now than I’ve seen you in years,” she would answer.

And so I continued.

The title is borrowed from Chuang Tzu’s ancient Chinese description of the physical world. It was a useful metaphor long ago and can still apply today, despite the fact that we have managed to inflate the place of the human in the world out of all proportion.

This body of work is mainly based on various personal responses to the present state of the world. Losing much of the world’s forests, its fresh water, their inhabitant species, war, disparity, peace, tranquillity and other aspects of life, these things are in my mind daily. So they are also in my art. Yet despite the concerns I have for the world, these are also joyful paintings.

That’s because, in spite of it all, the world is still joyful for me.

The ten thousand joys and the ten thousand sorrows dance around each other.

Jim Kalnin Oyama, 1 May 2023