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Kim E. Tester's works now on exhibit at the Good News Cafe Gallery display her skillful use of screenprint techniques to explore our conscious and subconscious realities. She has participated in more than 160 exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including showings in Massachusetts, Texas, California, Hawaii, Japan and Macedonia. Her prints and drawings are featured in public and private collections throughout the United States and in Japan.
Tester's prints explore the human psyche and levels of consciousness through metaphorical imagery. In her work, "Out Into View" (see left), for example, "the psychological interpretations of the thorn and the tree branch represent the 'prickly' connections between the subsconscious and the conscious world," she notes.
The artist on her artistic message
Tester observes that a common theme recurs in all of the prints in the current GNC Gallery exhibition:
"I believe that most of us lodge and care for our memories and experiences as precious artifacts or relics. The pieces in this exhibit focus on the reflection and transitions that occur with these experiences, each time we pull them for review.
"Very often the works are divided into three parts: the bottom layer representing the power that drives us; the middle layer, the reality we accept for the conscious world; and the upper level, the spiritual or subconscious reality that reminds us of its existence -- often on a daily basis. As I grow and learn to see minute subtleties in a message, I find an optimism worth saving and sharing."
Tester on the screenprint process
"The screenprint techniques that I use satisfy both the organized and spontaneous elements of my personality by incorporating the sequential and technical nature of the printing process with the spontaneous nature of making art through drawing on the screen.
"Screen prints are created using a frame with fabric stretched tightly across it. A stencil is applied to the screen and ink is then pressed through the fabric, taking on the shape or shapes of the stencil.
"Crayons are used as the stencil in the prints currently on exhibit. The crayons are applied in layers on a single screen, one layer after each color run. There are generally over 20 color runs per edition. The textures produced are a result of the way that wax adheres to the screen fabric, leaving an uneven pattern for the ink to pass through."
Copies of a number of prints in the current GNC Gallery exhibition are available in limited quantity. Each copy is hand-printed and editioned by the artist.
Biography and exhibitions
A graduate of Southern Connecticut State University and MFA degree recipient from Texas Tech University, Kim Tester now resides in Roxbury and has been teaching in Connecticut since 1983. She is currently chair of fine arts at Canterbury School, a private preparatory school in New Milford, and adjunct professor of art at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. She is a six-time recipient of the annual faculty recognition award for professional excellence in the arts at WCSU.
Kim has been a guest visiting artist at SCSU, Texas Tech, the University of Dallas, the University of Delaware and Indiana University (Southeast). She also presented workshops demonstrating "water-based reductive screenprinting" at the Southern Graphics Council National Conference in Tampa, Florida, and the Mid America Print Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kim has participated in more than 160 exhibitions at sites worldwide, among them: the University of Hawaii; the Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo, Japan; California State University; the Slater Museum in Norwich, Connecticut; the Duxbury Art Museum in Massachusetts; the International Triennial of Graphic Art in Macedonia; the Prefectural Gallery in Kanagawa, Japan; and the University of Texas at Tyler.
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