10 Questions with Kiki Klimt

Ph.D. Kiki Klimt has researched and created a visual language for more than 30 years.
She graduated from painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. Three years later, she finished her master's degree in sculpture, and in 2009 got a doctorate in art. For years she lectured at the Faculty of Design, and she is still lecturing at Arthouse Ljubljana. She has also lectured abroad in Istanbul, Lisbon, Sofia, etc., and attended many conferences and symposiums. Since 1994 she has participated in several joint exhibitions at home and abroad. Her works were showcased in galleries in New York, Berlin, Zagreb, Ljubljana, etc.

She experimented on conceptual art, photography, performance, installation, illustration, and design. In the last years, she is returning to the tradition of painting. For the last seven years, she has been developing a unique way of painting based on ancient knowledge, contemporary science, and her own study and experience. Painting with light combines the physical, emotional, and rational aspects of painting.

klimt.si | @klimtkiki

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Lately, I have been focusing on three projects. I am developing “Painting with light”, creating the Arkanum series of seven graphic short stories about Love, and I am writing a book about sacred geometry. Above all, I am trying to understand what life is, what art is, and what this is all about. Art and transcendence are just two different sides of the same coin. Creating is but a meditation technique if we know how to perform it correctly. Humans are both physical and spiritual beings. If we are what we are by nature, then meditation is the only possible natural state. In ancient times, the purpose of art was to help people experience themselves in their reality. To help them relive and understand, for at least one brief moment, the state of perfection, so they can know what they are looking for.

It is the reason I came to discover “Painting with light“. Light is everywhere. “Painting with light“ is a special technique that makes the matter in the paintings radiate light. The light is inside every atom, you just have to see it. It is as if someone in a dark room would turn on a light for you - suddenly the fear, dilemmas, ignorance, and all the thoughts disappear. Only the Beauty remains. The way of painting I have developed is unique in the world. I have been developing it for over 25 years.

I have researched the technique of sfumato painting when I started my study in 1994. Even then, I was trying to understand the hidden world around us. Leonardo da Vinci said that nature was his greatest teacher, and he spent most of his time observing nature and the natural phenomena. He studied the flight of birds and observed the extremes in nature and man. He observed clouds, nebulae, and reflections of light, researched painting techniques, and tried to understand the appearance of the world and what is hidden in it. He wrote: “It is not enough to believe what you see. You also have to understand what you see.” - Kiki Klimt

INTERVIEW

First of all, tell us a little more about your background, and how did you begin making Art?

I came from a family of artists. My great-grandfather had one of the first photo ateliers in Ljubljana. His nephews were famous Slovenian painters Jurij and Janez Šubic, so my great-great-grandmother's portrait can be seen in the Slovenian National Gallery. My mother and father are scientists by education, but they love Art. Later in their life, my mother was making ceramics, and my father sculpted stone. My sister is an artist as well. 
I was curious all the time, that is something my father gave me as a gift, and I am grateful for that. He is a poet and a dreamer, and my mother was a great researcher and inventor. So I brought together both of them and became a researcher of dreams and poetic Beauty. I always had a feeling that love for life is crucial, and I always tried to understand all of its facets. That was the reason I was experimenting on every technique I could - trying to understand the base of visual language, techniques, and the source of inspiration, visions, and creativity. I experimented with scenography for movies, graphic design, web design, and net Art 20 years ago, and also performance, installation, interior design, sculpturing, cosmography and cosmology, printing, painting, illustration, and comics.
It took me quite a while to find out that Love and Beauty are everywhere. 
Now I try to give everybody a little of that experience through light, colors, and geometry. 

You recently returned to a more traditional painting. Why did you choose this path?

When I finished my postgraduate study, I knew I could not understand what painting is or how to do it. I didn't understand the language I wanted to speak, and I didn't know what Art is, how to express myself or how to speak. I realized I hadn't learned a thing in the previous ten years of formal study. Profound realization and understanding were born in me; I knew nothing despite all the knowledge I gained during my studies and later from various theories. It was a shock. So I didn't paint for many years.

And then a dear friend of mine, a man who devoted his life to understanding it, asked me: "What is color?" All I could answer were the pieces of information I got from books and other people. Useless information. That was the moment I got my wish to paint back. So my journey began.
I had to redefine my beliefs about everything - what is color? What is visual language? I have realized I have to master painting techniques and materials and develop the sensation of my body and hand to create images I saw in the visions. 

To be able to paint as I wished, I had to develop specific skills. So I began - with constant conscious observing, drawing, and painting every day and most of all from experimenting and searching in all different fields of Art and science. I soon realized that I have to develop my tool; I have experimented with my body and developed the skill of my hand, I have observed to understand my emotions and to put my senses in a higher state, and I am working all the time on understanding how my brain is working to be able to use thinking for creativity and not for useless loop thinking.

I have studied ancient pictures, sculptures, architecture, scripts, myths and legends, books about secret knowledge written by wise men, mystics, prophets, and saints. I have been searching for illuminations and long-forgotten symbols in secret books and texts. Why?
I realized I love painting. I feel alive when I create.
Today I paint in the manner of the old masters who called themselves 'illuminators', as they illuminated reality and wanted to bring light to people through a visual language. Clarity and light lead me in the path of understanding painting and, consequently, all other media, as well as life itself. Painting for me is not just the application of color on surfaces but the research of a deeper understanding of life itself. 

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What aspect of your job do you pay particular attention to?

The geometry of colour and sound. Some call this the matrix of life, a combination of different feelings. Touch is not separate from sound; the sound is not separated from the image, the image is not separated from the touch. For many years I assumed that all people see the same as I do - until I discovered that this is not the case and that people like me are called synergetics. Two percent of people in this world see and at the same time hear, or see and at the same time smell. In short, those for whom this world is one sensually inseparable wholeness. I realized that this is a great gift, and I began to explore how I could convey this Beauty - the connection of everything to other people's art. 

Because in everything, there is certain geometry, the primary pattern of the world. Many elements need to be considered to be able to convey this to the viewer, all of which are equally important. Geometry, counting values, color, and quality of dyes, gestalt psychology, the laws of human perception, what you paint with, how you paint. 

Everything is essential for an image to have an objective impact on anyone willing to look at it - mind, sense, body, and spirit. In fact, the painter transfers his condition into the painting. As a result, the content of the image is genuinely wholly irrelevant. The real content is hidden in the composition, technique, and skills of the painter's body to convey what he wanted to communicate. 

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

My main source of inspiration is living in the moment. For me, Art and transcendence are just two different sides of the same coin. Creating is a meditation technique if we know how to perform it correctly. Humans are both physical and spiritual beings. If we are what we are by nature, then meditation is the only possible natural state. In ancient times, the purpose of Art was to help people experience themselves in their reality. To help them relive and understand the state of perfection for at least one brief moment, so they can know what they are looking for.

Is there a piece you consider a "breakthrough" in your career?

I studied the sfumato technique while I was a student, from 1994 to 2000, at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana (ALUO). Even then, I was trying to understand the hidden world around us. Then I had 12 years of no-painting because I didn't know how to paint life. I didn't understand it.

I started to paint again in 2012. A good friend and an extraordinary man asked me to paint an opposite "Mona Lisa ". So I painted "Contemporary Mona Lisa". With this picture, my journey to the unknown dimensions of the discovery and rendering of reality began. Finally, after seven years of intense work, observing nature and Leonardo's paintings, and reading his notes to understand what he did and how, I was able to paint with such liveliness, softness, and grace as Leonardo. I dare to say that I not only fully understand his process but have also upgraded it. 

Do you have a role model that you've drawn inspiration from when creating your Art?

The base of my painting technique is Leonardo's way of painting, sfumato (Italian for smoke, veil). It is a technique of applying thin layers of paint. This way, the color's materiality is completely lost, and the vividness of the image comes to the foreground. It's an indefinable depth that draws the viewer into the inner world of the painting. 

The same knowledge is found in the Vedic records and alchemist books and was passed on by Pythagoras, Goethe, Tesla, and many others. I realized that the reality is entirely different from what I was convinced of. The study, observation, and conscious presence slowly but surely led me to true understanding. Now I can play with the essence - light and darkness and all that exists between them. Instead of applying lighter or darker shades of color created by an external light source, I lure the inner light. I paint by removing materiality from matter and replacing it with light hiding inside an atom. This is possible due to understanding the higher level of manifestation of matter and the vibration of color. Colour as matter does not exist at a certain level of living. So I paint to lure the purest - the original vibration in an image. 

The works and notes of the great master da Vinci have always opened the door to new worlds and tell me the story behind them. So I followed his way of exploring life – I began to look for the essence, the cause of the phenomenon, in every way. In each of my actions, I tried to understand the hidden cause that creates the world around us as it is.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

Lately, I have been focusing on three projects. I am developing "Painting with light", creating the Arcanum series of seven graphic short stories about love, and writing a book about sacred geometry. But, above all, I am trying to understand what life is, what Art is and what this is all about.

Have you ever thought about turning to NFTs? What are your thoughts on this new trend in contemporary Art?

NFTs sound interesting, but I do not know enough to speak about them. 
We need to go back to redefine ART. Today so-called "art "is therapy for personal problems, journalism, a place for confession, and a shoulder to cry on … It lost its beauty and purpose. It happened a long time ago, so long ago we do not remember, but there are still remains of OBJECTIVE Art. 
Art is not a trend or a subject of individual likeness. I think Art does not exist today. We have trends, fashions, marketing, and selling products. We do not have ART.

What do you wish to accomplish this year, both in terms of career goals and personal life?

I just do not have such goals. It is much more simple… 

Finally, share something you would like the world to know about you?

My latest serial of paintings is "The Beauty of the human race ".

The Beauty of man is in ecstasy. One feels most alive in the ecstasy of life. It doesn't matter how one got to it, what was the path walked to get to the point where life flows through one. Beauty is in one's insides, in experiencing life in all its fullness. This is the only perfection that man can experience. "The Beauty of the human race "celebrates ecstasy and is painted in the manner of Dionysian Art, defined by Friedrich Nietzsche as the Art that comes from music. Today poeticism is eliminated from our lives. Ecstasy is equated with sin. But the truth could not be more opposed. Ecstasy is the opposite of greed or sin. For when the desire for material wealth and experience disappears, ecstasy ensues. All that remains is the Beauty of life. 

People today have almost forgotten the spiritual aspect of our existence. This is dangerous. I wish to give back the spiritual aspect of Art and Spirit, what every single man yearn for.