Julie Karabenick

Composition 102
acrylic on canvas
40 x 38 in.

I find the expressive power of geometric shapes compelling. Across time and place, humans have used these simple forms to assert their most profound beliefs—about the nature of their everyday worlds and what may lie beyond, about their personal, social and spiritual identities, and about the rhythms and cycles of life. I was drawn to the geometric markings that our early ancestors made on rocks, cave walls, and their bodies and to the geometric patterns found in nature from microcosm to macrocosm long before I came to admire the use of geometric form and structure in modern art.

I strive for compositions that are active, dynamically balanced. Though I begin with geometric shapes and an underlying structure whose hallmarks are symmetry and stability, I work intuitively with contrasts of color, shape and size to develop varying degrees of asymmetry and visual tension. I want networks of color and form relations to appear and subside in the visual field, and the viewer’s eye to constantly move and discover.

I develop compositional ideas on the computer where I can freely explore with great ease and efficiency. I take advantage of this technology, and use it to my own ends. The computer facilitates both wide-ranging and highly refined experimentation, and supports both analytic and intuitive modes of inquiry.

© Julie Karabenick