“Pattern, repetition, hierarchy and non-hierarchy are themes prevalent in my work, which spans multiple media including oil, gouache, oil pastel, ink, tea, wax, metal leaf and found objects such as stones, dried citrus and duck eggs. My mode of making is methodical and persistent. With the found objects I find ways to consider them and re-present them without compromising their natural state. This could involve “dipping” eggs in gold, carving the skin of citrus or suspending stones in slings.The objects are presented in multiples, forming their own organic pattern. With the paintings and drawings, I like to straddle the pictorial nature of these containers with their objecthood. Hence, many of my paintings on linen comprise two connected surfaces, bringing to front of mind the structures on which the images are painted. The patterns I paint are frankly frontal, creating shallow space and pressure which arguably exalt the flat nature of the work. My drawings are constructed explicitly from cuts, hole punches and taped edges as the mark makers, with the added benefit of the force of these actions speaking to the physicality of the medium. In my most recent paintings and drawings, The use of pattern in these two-dimensional pieces results in a contemplative experience of making and viewing the work. It is not unlike taking in the New Mexico landscape, with its yawning horizons and unexpected color. The classic Navajo eye-dazzler weavings are apt witness to the New Mexico swath of light and land, with nary a focal point, experienced more as an immersion. I hope to give my work that sense of surroundings. I work in the abstract because I wish to speak in the pure language of shape, color, form, and material. I want to search for words to describe them. The result is visceral, not verbal.”

Kristin Bortles is an artist who has lived and worked in New Mexico for 24 years. She holds a Master’s of Fine Art from American University in D.C. Bortles spent her formative years in the land of her matriarchal line of ancestors, Hawaii. In heart and mind, Bortles has never left her homeland. With vistas comparable in grandeur to those of her childhood, New Mexico’s landscapes have continued to feed her artistically. Bortles has worked as a decorative painter, muralist and designer for years. The commercial work has influenced her studio work, and she has often deployed decorative pattern as a point of departure.