Aftermath by Linda Kunik
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Español
January 12, 2025
Linda Kunik
Linda Kunik was originally a plein-air watercolorist. Wanting to work more conceptually, she returned to school, earning a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Informed by environmental and global issues, Kunik’s abstract paintings began referencing these same issues, prompting a four-year community gardening project, which also explored photography and perception. Thus began her investigation of process: combining photography and painting and a unique emulsion process for photographs. Her current work explores installation and larger than life photography.
Raw Beauty
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Kunik has been in more than 100 exhibitions in galleries and museums in California, New York and internationally, including Italy, Germany, Japan, Thailand and Peru. She recently received three Gold Awards and five Awards for Excellence for her work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. She has shown at Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, and Photo LA. Kunik was born in Chicago, Illinois, earning a BA degree from the University of Illinois and an MS from DePaul University. She moved to California in 1978, where she currently resides.
www.lindakunik.com
Karen Daly Swan
My work is based in an organic process of "experience art" because everything I create is unplanned and begins with a moment—a primal feeling that stirs something within me. From there, I follow those feelings wherever they lead. I'm especially drawn to raw, rough materials that seem to spring directly from the land.
I am an Insensera, a maker of incense, and I love incorporating resins, woods, herbs, and botanicals into my artwork. Using the gifts of the Earth adds a deeper dimension to my creations. Living in the Sequoia National Forest in California, I often find myself wandering the woods under the moonlight, searching for the perfect piece of tree resin. For example, the resin I discovered became the handle of the selenite staff in my Crone sculpture, Granite Woman. Moments like these elevate the mundane for me because, at my core, I'm a working woman.
My everyday living experiences have profoundly shaped my art. I've been a server, a factory worker on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska, and a Christmas tree wrangler for Boy Scouts in Virginia, where I transported trees from the Blue Ridge Mountains and taught kids how to arrange and sell them. I've worked in labs and in the cellars of California wineries, spending long harvest days in the spirit of camaraderie. These experiences, especially the physical labor and shared connection with others, have fueled my creative energy.
I'm entirely self-taught. Apart from half a semester of ceramics in 1995—which I couldn't finish because I lacked transportation—my journey has been hands-on. That half a semester I created a single primal piece on my own, and I've been exploring ever since.
I make oils, charms, rituals, balms, candles, soaps, and sometimes botanical inks and pigments. My soap, by the way, is the best!
Travel has also shaped my craft. While chaperoning students on a trip to Morocco, I connected with an apothecarist in the Atlas Mountains. We shared knowledge about argan oil, black nigella seeds, and roses, which inspired me to perfect my soap recipe. Somehow, I got it right on the very first try. This is how I approach life—through curiosity, experimentation, and a love for the process.
In 2021, the KNP Complex Fire burned much of my land, sparing only the cabins. Beneath the ashes, I discovered what felt like an archaeological dig—a glimpse into the lives of those who worked and lived in the mountains at a 1940s tree mill. That discovery deepened my connection to the land and inspired new creative possibilities.
My superpower is adaptability. Drop me anywhere in the world, and I'll start digging, exploring, and searching for botanicals and spiritual bits to use in my crafts.
I am an intuitive being. One thing I am drawn to is the bridge between old ways, that of the deep earth and ancient techniques, and what is here and to come in terms of technology and the future. That bridge is a part of my calling.
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