ARTIST STATEMENT
MFA Exhibition: Capering
My most recent body of work, Capering, consists of large paintings that are 6’x8,’ small 5”x7” paintings, and folded sculptural paintings of varying sizes. Each of these paintings depict orbed forms inspired by my toes and my childhood experiences of dance. My feet are inherently unique due to genetics and dance training that impacted the way I move, not to mention all the physical places and other experiences through which my feet have walked. These paintings, with the exception of the sculptural paintings on paper, are on loose canvas using watercolor, acrylic paint, colored pencil, and oil pastel. As part of my process, I danced on my paintings using my feet as brushes in order to record large full body gestural movements. The brush work is mostly loose and gestural, and an occasional legible footprint can be seen amidst the other strokes. The full body marks can be seen in relationship to smaller marks made from my shoulder, elbow, and wrist. Throughout my process, I explored and experimented with a vast range of color palettes, compositions, and a variety of mark-making tools.
My artistic practice is a search for personal freedom and release. It is a way to disconnect from the world around me and to lose myself in a world of color, paint, dance, and music while recording that experience in the form of a painting. The bodily-engaged painting process provides me with the joy of creating, playing, and leaving my mark. While I personally enjoy the process involing a kind of physical dance on the canvas surface, my paintings are not performance pieces; there is a difference between why I make the work and what I want viewers to get out of my artwork. I want others to get lost in exploring the formal aspects such as colors, marks, lines, and various details.
As I was creating this series of paintings, I became interested in the idea of vessels holding and constraining something. I created wearable vessels, a ring and locket, which would contain tiny versions of my sculpturally folded paintings. These paintings fit inside the openings of each vessel and could be folded and squished in order to close the vessel but could also be freed and unfold with the opening of these vessels. As I made these, I thought about and imagined the paintings as my toes being folded to fit inside these vessels in the same way my toes and feet fit inside my pointe shoes.
Meet Kayla
Kayla Nichol Olive
Kayla has lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, and now Alabama. She graduated from Carson-Newman University in 2016 with a BA in Art with a double emphasis in Graphic Design and Drawing & Painting with an Art History Minor. She recently graduated from the University of South Carolina in May 2020 with an MFA in Painting and minors in Drawing and Graphic Design. In her most recent body of paintings she used her childhood experiences of dance as inspiration for her large scale paintings. She enjoys making artwork and teaching aspiring artists. In her free time Kayla enjoys reading, knitting, and running.
Current News
Kayla Olive recently graduated May 2020 with an MFA in Painting from the University of South Carolina and currently enjoys teaching Art Appreciation classes for Lawson State Community College and Art Foundations to grades 6th-12th at Restoration Academy.
Resume
Education:
2020 - MFA in Painting with a minor in Drawing. University of South Carolina (member, NASAD), Columbia, South Carolina.
2016 - BA in Art with a double emphasis in Drawing & Painting and Graphic Design with a minor in Art History (Summa Cum Laude). Carson-Newman University (member, NASAD), Jefferson City, Tennessee.
Professional Experience:
2021-22 - Art Instructor for grades 6th-12th (Fall 2021 - Present)
Restoration Academy, Fairfield, Alabama.
2020-22 - Adjunct Instructor (Fall 2020 - Present) ART 100 Art Appreciation (VIRTUAL) HUM 101 Introduction to Humanities and Fine Arts (VIRTUAL), Humanities and Fine Arts Department, Lawson State Community College, Birmingham, Alabama.
2020-21 - Level C Bench Jeweler
Signet Jewelers, Hoover, Alabama.
2020 - Art Instructor
Space One Eleven Art Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
2019-20 - Graduate Instructional Assistant (Fall 2019 - Spring 2020), Anna House‘s ARTH 321 History of Northern Renaissance, Art and ARTH 320 History of Italian Renaissance Art, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2018-20 - Graduate Teaching Assistant (Instructor of Record) (Spring 2018 - Spring 2020), ARTS 210 Introduction to Painting, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2018-20 - Gallery Manager (Spring 2018 - Spring 2020), Passage Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2019 - Artist in Residence (August 1 - 31), Stormwater Studios, Columbia, South Carolina.
Record of Exhibitions (*Solo Shows):
2020 - *Capering, Thesis Exhibition, McMaster Gallery (Virtual), University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2020 - 65th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Received 2nd Place Graduate Award, McMaster Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2019 - Fourth Annual Avant Grads Exhibition, Passage Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2019 - Avant Grads at Storm Water, Stormwater Studios, Columbia, South Carolina.
2019 - Dancing Toes Exhibition, Stormwater Studios, Columbia, South Carolina.
2019 - 64th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, McMaster Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2019 - Response to ‘Filling the Void,’ Passage Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2019 - Generations: A Faculty and Student Exhibition, The Upstairs Gallery, Koger Center for the Arts, Columbia, South Carolina.
2018 - Third Annual Avant Grad Show, Passage Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2017 - Second Annual Avant Grad Show, Passage Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2017 - First Year Grad Show, Passage Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
2016 - *The Body Farm, Brainerd Gallery, Bluefield Arts and Culture Center, Bluefield, West Virginia.
2016 - *The Body Farm Senior Thesis Exhibit, Omega Gallery, Carson-Newman University, Jefferson City, Tennessee.
2012-2016 - (approximately 20 juried group exhibitions) Student Gallery, Carson Newman University, Jefferson City, Tennessee.
Last updated: December 2022
Complete C/V available upon request.