What About the Woman: Work by Kim Klabe

• Friday, May 9, 2025 through Sunday, June 8, 2025
• Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach, DE
• 302-227-8408

“My evolution as an artist has taken me through many mediums and styles over the course of my life. As a child, you would find me drawing constantly, many times on surfaces I should not be drawing on, which would invite judgement/correctional measures to stop me from doing so. As I funneled my creativity into more acceptable surfaces such as paper and canvas, the artistic expression remained without finding myself in deep water with teachers or parents.

As I struggled to find my place as an artist, I worked with charcoal, pastel, watercolor, ink, oils, markers and even wine and beer. For a long period of time, I felt that being a representational artist was the only way to be truly accepted in the art world. An ocean must look like an ocean, a tree must look like a tree. I unfortunately believed that it was important to create something that could hang over a couch or fireplace in order to be a legitimate artist.

With age and experience, that belief fell away, and a desire and willingness to take risks became the new understanding.

My current body of work explores the expression, beauty, and challenges of women, both in today’s world and in our history. This work is a mixed media collection that utilizes wood panels, heavy watercolor paper, rice paper, smudgy charcoal, pastel pencils, house paint, liquid watercolor and cut paper. Don’t hold me to just those, as the collection of tools and mediums grows with each day. Many layers are built up, reduced, and built up again. These images invite the viewer to “feel” the challenges these women have experienced, some of those challenges being suggested with the title, the blurry words behind their faces or the expressions on their faces. Sometimes, all the above. This work has a depth and richness and is rough and dirty – a contrast to the beauty of the faces looking out at you. This is about freedom of expression, working through pain and grief, and the strength that comes from the experience of being broken and rebuilt.” -Kim Klabe

Kim Klabe is an artist from Rehoboth Beach Delaware who works in mixed media. She has shown her work as a solo artist as well as within group shows and has been the recipient of awards within the United States and Canada for her artwork. Kim is a graduate of the Antonelli Institute of Art and Photography in York, PA and the University of Delaware, with a B.A. in painting. She invites you to visit her website at kimklabe.com.

Exhibitions Galleries Free Visual Arts Southern Delaware

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