Manny Martins-Karman’s current work focuses on connectedness. Using bold, intensely colored shapes and flowing lines, her abstract paintings convey the sense of a much larger picture. Visit her website to see more.
One of my fondest childhood memories is receiving beautifully illustrated cards from my uncle Joe, who was an artist in France. I anticipated those cards with every special occasion. Each time we received one, I was awestruck and handled them like precious jewels. This experience was the initial spark that, while I didn’t quite know it yet, eventually fueled my fire to become an artist myself.
As a daughter of an immigrant family, I knew attending art school was not in the plan, but even still, I practiced my art daily and kept at it knowing one day I would make my living at it. Today I am living the artist’s dream.
My goal is to live in a permanent state of creativity and contentment. I don’t just want to satisfy my creativity, I want to connect with the world to express my voice and make meaningful art that people can connect with. I want to spend the rest of my life collaborating with forces that I can neither see, understand, or command. I want to make a living with my art practice by growing my visual artist career.
My work is often inspired by current events. Especially now, in the wake of the world’s unsteady political climate, I find myself trying to make sense of things through my art.
I came to Canada as an immigrant, and have always been grateful to be part of a welcoming and nurturing community. Too frequently, we think of ourselves only as individuals, but we are all connected. Our actions have a ripple effect that runs through all of humanity.
This notion has themed my current body of work. The pieces in this series explore the idea of “connectedness” and are an abstract representation of how we as humans are often connected to others by the simple action of recognizing our individualities.
Shapes talking to each other–defining themselves by their slight differences. The simplest forms of visual language – color, line and shape – converge to depict the main idea. The whole is greater than its parts; there is a oneness to humanity. You are not just presented with one thing, one shape, or one color. You are encouraged to look and become a part of a bigger picture.
We live in an interconnected world and nothing happens in isolation. An event in one place cannot be contained by borders; it spills around mountains and across oceans. It sends humans fleeing in search of places to breathe, live and just be.
My work is raw, visceral, and immediate. It’s personal. Some of the paintings are voluptuous and lush while others are dark and penetrating. There is freedom in obscurity. I’m free to paint my experiences, feelings and thoughts. I focus on gestures, connecting color and form through relentless mark making. Abstraction occurs in a well-articulated composition that requires no explanation.
While I work primarily in acrylic, I love to change things up with watercolor, mixed media, and drawing. I am an active artist, with original paintings held in private and corporate collections in Canada and internationally. In addition to being an artist, I am a wife, a mother. I enjoy my wine after 5pm and a Scotch before bed. I love cuddling with my golden retriever and believe leopard print is a neutral!
Artist Manny Martins-Karman invites you to follow her on Instagram.
Congrats Manny. Awesome!