Kim Carlino Likes Playing Around With Paint

Kim Carlino admits to being color-obsessed. Indeed, scrolling through her Instagram page, her love of color is evident. But then, so is her love for geometric shapes, textures, and patterns. Her work playfully employs shifts of scale, opticality illusion of space, and a nonlinear construction of time in hopes of finding equanimity in disparate elements. But finding equanimity is easier said than done.

View this post on Instagram

Studio playing around🙌

A post shared by Kim Carlino (@kimcarlinoart) on

Carlino finds its easiest to describe her work as a sort of arena in which pattern and form engage and accentuate the contradictions, opposites, and contrasts that exist in the world. But “arena” might be too heavy of a term to describe what takes place. Rather, her art is a playful experimentation with color, texture, and form.

“I am interested in materials that have different surface qualities from matte or glossy to metallic or somewhere in between,” shared Carlino in an interview with Jung Katz. “I work on nontraditional, paper-like surfaces such as yupo, duralar, acetate, and tyvek.”

These surfaces allow her to further experiment with color, employing water-based media that has high-flow capability such as watercolors, inks, and high-flow acrylics. But Carlino can also be found using oil-based markers, graphite, sharpies, and even spray paint and stencils. “My best friend is my compass and ruler collection,” she jokes.

The end result might just inspire you to play around with paint and get a little messy.

View this post on Instagram

Weekend studio play! #studiowall #smallworks

A post shared by Kim Carlino (@kimcarlinoart) on