Gabel Karsten
Region: West
I think of my sink paintings both as portraits and as still lifes.  
Nearly all the sinks belong in some way to people I know.  With color, painting style, and consideration of the objects that adorn the sinks' edges, I try to create a portrait that reveals a feeling I have about each sink's owner. Bathroom sinks are especially revealing. They exist within an intimate and personal space, one in which we are often alone and completely ourselves. Like a mirror, I imagine these sinks to reflect some of their owner's inner workings. Other, unknown sinks are ones I have come across in my travels.  In painting these sinks I try to capture a mood I experienced at that particular place or my state of mind at the time of painting. 
As still lifes, I want my work to draw attention to the beauty I see in these familiar objects that we encounter daily - the way the light falls into the basin, the shapes of the faucets and the shadows they cast, the folds of a towel,  a crumpled toothpaste tube.  
I use photographs I take as reference.  It is important to me to capture images exactly as I find them.  To disturb them would be to alter the story. 


 
     
		