FEBRUARY 2022
GroundTRUTH | Klara Maisch
Klara is an artist living and working in Alaska. She seasonally instructs for Inspiring Girls Expeditions and guides for Arctic Wild. Klara is passionate about transdisciplinary thinking that involves art, science, and the natural world. Her work has been featured in exhibits and commissions throughout Alaska, as well as Washington, California, and Hawaii.
Artist Statement
Over the past year I visited landscapes throughout Alaska to create large oil paintings on location. These place-based paintings highlight landscapes experiencing the effects of large-scale climate change, including glaciers, recent forest fires, and the northern edge of treeline. Sometimes the signs of change are subtle, such as the relatively simple shape of a tree consumed by a higher intensity fire. Often they are more dramatic, like a newly revealed system of ice tunnels at the toe of a melting glacier. Painting on-site is a way to be in direct conversation with these places.
I am fascinated by the processes that transform and shape an environment, and choose painting sites where I can study the patterns of these events. Each painting is constructed and deconstructed on location and anchored upright with lines or laid flat in the snow or tundra while I work. I apply oil paint in thin layers, so the painting is dry enough to roll up for transport in a few hours. I often add finishing details once I re-stretch the canvas back in the studio.
In science, "ground truth" refers to information collected via direct observation while on location. Although scientific research informs the art, the process of painting outside adds layers of awareness and connection. Traveling through a landscape requires focus and attention to detail, revealing subtleties in the surroundings that are unique to that position and instant in time. Painting outside pushes this immersion further, as I interpret the processes that shape a physical environment through the flow of lines and inferred energy in my work.
Landscapes are a window into vast timescales and complex systems of interaction. Creating this work allows me to contemplate: How do we pay attention to our surroundings? How do we respond to transformation and change? How are we impacting the future?
The exhibit is made possible by a Career Opportunity Grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The work is also supported in part by the Ma Johnson’s Historical Hotel, The Explorers Club, and Discovery.
To learn more about Klara and connect with her online, visit Klara’s website and follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
