In 2015, at 41, a confluence of chemical imbalance and stress caused my mental health to become untethered. I woke up flooded by night sweats, tears, terrifying news, and noise.
HIGH WATER illustrates one woman’s vision of the changing shoreline as she becomes unmoored by internal tidal shifts. Looking for a place to land she scans the shore, finding a world both on fire and drowning beneath waves of social, political, and climate change.
To save herself she becomes a chimera—a fire-breathing monster with scales and wings—armored and able to swim and fly. The magic to transform herself comes from love.
In my crazy philosophy the power of transformation is the old magic that makes us human. Transformation can be as simple as turning apples into applesauce or as complex as facing the discord of anxiety and fear and retuning it to harmony and wellbeing.
When we add the power of imagination to this old magic we discover art, a power that makes anything possible.
From Timothy Holton:
Karima Cammell’s paintings are tremendously rewarding to frame. I’ve largely assumed that’s because of the way they’re painted—the particular way Karima uses line and form—as well as the architecture and other decorative arts that populate them and express a profound regard for all the arts and their unity. These aspects of her work welcome the art of the frame-maker and are completed by it.
But reading the artist’s statement for the show makes me realize that another reason framing her work is so rewarding may have to do with “the power of transformation,” she speaks of—“the age-old magic that makes us human”—to which she adds the power of imagination. For imagination, including a work of imagination like a painting, is transformative—it transforms reality. And for a work of imagination that is a painting, the first encounter with reality is the architectural setting, beginning with the frame.
So I wonder if, of all the traits that make Karima’s work so welcoming to the frame, it’s the evident plea of a human soul in a distressed world, a plea the frame-maker is in a unique position to heed, proving the painting’s efficacy—the imagination’s power to transform reality.
Please join us for the reception
HIGH WATER: Works by Karima Cammell
October 9th, 4–6 PM, 2021
The Holton Studio Gallery
2100 Fifth Street, Berkeley
Opening After Party at Zut! on Fourth!
After the reception we will stroll over to Fourth Street for wine and hors d'oeuvres in the parklet.
COVID Protocol:
The reception will be held outdoors.
Vaccinated guests only please.
Masks are required inside the gallery.
For all of our protection we will limit the number of people allowed in the gallery to 20 at any given time.
Please RSVP so that we can keep you updated if information changes.