The first time artist Kathleen Kane-Murrell went to a museum, she got in trouble. She was 16 or 17 years old and not well-versed in museum etiquette, so when she saw a painting on the wall of the San Diego Museum of Art that moved her, she felt compelled to reach out and touch it.
Oops.
"I just went right up and put my hand on it," Kane-Murrell said. "And this sweet old docent came up to me and said, 'Oh my dear, you can't touch that.' I had never been to a museum before, and I didn't have any guidance. I just didn't know."
Kane-Murrell doesn't remember the name of the painting or the artist, but she has never forgotten the way this piece of art moved her to act. A few decades later, it inspired her to create paintings that help viewers get in touch with themselves.
"I hope when people come here that they feel the images are approachable," Kane-Murrell said during an interview at Sophie's Kensington Gallery, where her new one-woman show is on exhibit through Jan. 25. "I really don't care if people know what they're about. I just hope the paintings bring up memories of their own life experiences and speak to them about being human."
The show is called "Addressing Her Story," and it is all about exploring one dress and a whole bunch of feelings. Its 16 paintings offer 16 variations on the same elegant dress. And with each dress comes a story. Or multiple stories, if the artist has her way.
The deep-blue dress featured in "Into the Woods" has graffiti-like scribbles at its hem and ominous animal-like scratches on the bodice. Maybe they are a reference to the sexual harassment she faced as a young woman working in the retail industry. Maybe you will see something else. The pink, gold and orange pattern covering the dress in "Memory" could be Champagne bubbles. They could also be chains. The words "wishing, waiting, wanting" scrolling in the background could be the hopes of a girl heading for the prom. They could be the internal monologue of someone wondering when their life is going to start.
"The contour of the dress really speaks to me. It's something I can use to express what I want to express about memory, place and experience," the 66-year-old Bay Park artist said.
"I think a lot of women have a special relationship to clothing, but we tend to act like it isn't important. To me, this image feels like it has strength. When you see that form, you know it's a woman. Deciding to use this as a template for paintings was a real 'Aha!' moment. I thought, 'I can do this. This image works.' "
When she was growing up, Kane-Murrell did not think art was something she could do. As the second-oldest of six children growing up in a blue-collar family, Kane-Murrell said the big messages she got from her parents were (1) Don't get pregnant; and (2) Plan on supporting yourself. With the idea of making art so far off the table it wasn't even in the room, Kane-Murrell expressed herself by sewing her own clothes. And when she went to San Diego State, she majored in marketing.
After graduating in 1976, Kane-Murrell worked for the Gap and then for a local retail company. It was at the latter job that she had a #MeToo sexual-harassment moment that caused her to pack up her desk and leave. She remembers feeling worthless for a long time. After that, she dedicated herself to starting and raising a family with her husband, Tom. They had two boys, and when the boys went to school, Kane-Murrell offered to help amp up the art program.
That project turned into Fine Artists, an art-education program that trains adult volunteer docents to teach Kane-Murrell's curriculum in elementary schools. Kane-Murrell has since been an "Outstanding Educator" by the San Diego County Office of Education, and her students' works have appeared in many local art shows, including the San Diego Museum of Art's Young Art Show.
And while she was teaching Kane-Murrell was also learning. She studied with Heather Pieters at the San Diego Museum of Art and with the late Reed Cardwell, who encouraged her to do work that explored the human condition. She had her first group show in 2007. Many group and solo shows followed, including "Prom Dress: Seventeen on Being 17" at the William D. Cannon Art Gallery in Carlsbad, the 2018 group show the inspired the works that appear in "Addressing Her Story."
One of those works is "She Swims Ahead," a shimmering blue dress shot through with the gold and orange flashes of koi fish, including one that looks ready to swim right off the canvas. The painting is a tribute to the famous pond at the Nanzenji temple in Kyoto. It is also a gift from the artist Kane-Murrell is now to the art-loving girl she used to be. The one who couldn't keep her passions to herself.
"For me, this painting captures the moment where I looked down and saw this one fish leading all of the other fish. She was way out in front, and when I looked at her, I was just sure it was a girl," Kane-Murrell said. "This is what art means to me. It is not about getting into shows. It's about making a painting and having that pure joy of loving how the paint looks on the canvas. That feeling of saying, 'Oh my gosh, this is amazing.' "
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IF YOU GO
Kathleen Kane-Murrell's "Addressing Her Story" When: Through Jan. 25
Where: Sophie's Kensington Gallery, 4186 Adams Ave., San Diego
Online: stmsc.org
