Bio
Based in South Carolina, Kalah Maree is an artist at Winthrop University and is a BFA candidate
planning to graduate in December of 2021. Maree uses both traditional painting and digital
painting to plan color schemes and map out the direction in which she wants to take a work.
She also uses fluorescent paint and lighting in order to make her pieces immerse the viewer.
Her work has been featured in South Pointe High School’s imPulse Literary Magazine and she
has exhibited in Winthrop University’s CVPA Gala Exhibition in 2020.
Artist Statement
Through my work, I am interested in creating surreal landscapes. I am interested in animation
and SFX. There is something exciting about creating a completely new atmosphere out of
nothing. I create work that makes people yearn or wish to be in it. I give the same feeling I used
to have when watching animation with beautiful and ethereal environments. Max Ernst’s and
Vladimir Kush’s abstract and surreal landscape paintings are a significant inspiration for me
because they are traditional painters who use similar subject matter. I realized soon after that
what I truly wanted to create was concept art but in a much more traditional way. My process is
also something I genuinely rely on when creating my work. Digital art is something I often utilize
in my art when I don’t know what direction I want to take a piece or for basic color palette
choices. I rely on digital art as an efficient way of testing out my ideas. By taking my sketches
and digitally mocking them up, I am able to discover what color schemes or palette would fit the
composition best.
My current work revolves around inspiration from watching not just Western animation but also
looking further east with much more graphic loud animation from Japan and Korea. I find it is
helpful to broaden my horizons, to not just look at what is around me, but to try and see what
isn’t there. I use my art as an escape. In the process of making a piece, I am transported to the
place I am discovering and creating. Through my work, I make that escape available for others
to experience as well. By taking inspiration from animation and concept art, I create surreal
landscapes that range from abstracted rainforests to dystopian landscapes. These
environments create mysterious narratives that are left up for my viewers to explore themselves.
I immerse and transport my viewers into these imaginative, dream-like, or “make-believe” worlds
by experimenting with fluorescent paint and strategic lighting. Like myself, everyone needs a
place to unwind. With my work, people are able to disassociate and transport themselves into
these worlds.