Personal Visions: Works by Carl Jennings, Elisabeth Knoke-Dieckvoss, Birgitta Leitner and Helene Wilder
February 14 - May 13, 2003

Carl Jennings
Carl Jenningsâ recent paintings grew out of explorations and accidents involving the computer and digital images of his work. As a traditional painter, he has always been skeptical of the computerâs role in art; however, he has recently developed an interest in the possibilities of the computer as a generative tool for visual ideas, increasingly viewing it as an extension to the sketchbook or studio.

Using features of the human face on an enlarged scale to provide a kind of landscape or ground, Jennings superimposes layers of disparate elements, such as patterns and toys. He is interested in creating spaces within which "to imagine the body, childhood, nostalgia [and] the future." Through the layering of images that go against viewersâ expectations, Jennings hopes to "re-imagine the ordinary as extraordinary, and ultimately, to arrive at a sense of what I call an Îalienâ beauty."

Born in Liverpool, England, Jennings received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from San Francisco State University in 1986 and a Master of Fine Arts from Falmouth College of Arts, U.K. in 1998. Jennings moved to HawaiÎi in 2000 and currently teaches art and design at Kapiolani Community College, Honolulu. He has exhibited extensively in the U.K.; Honolulu; Como, Italy; and Colioure, France.

Elisabeth Knoke-Dieckvoss
The paintings of Elisabeth Knoke-Dieckvoss are largely autobiographical and reflect aspects of her past and present. One source of inspiration is the artistâs grandfather, who left Northern Germany in 1903 and traveled to Paris, where he eventually became a recognized portrait and landscape painter. Although she was discouraged from pursuing an artistic career as a youth, she eventually followed her grandfatherâs path and continues to be inspired by his sketchbooks.

The artistâs work often investigates personal experiences, such as her motherâs death, illness, travel, as well as fantasy and dreams. Her love of Argentinean tango dancing is featured prominently in her new body of work. During months of listening repeatedly to tango music, Knoke-Dieckvoss began expressing and mirroring the moods of the songs in her paintings. It is said about the tango: "El Tango no est‡ en los pies, est‡ en el coraz—n (The feet might follow the steps, but only the soul feels the dance)."

In the 1960s Elisabeth Knoke-Dieckvoss left her childhood home in Germany and, after travelling extensively, settled in HawaiÎi in 1981. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Chaminade University in 1990 and has studied painting at the Santa Fe Art Institute and the University of HawaiÎi at Manoa. Her work has been exhibited in Artists of HawaiÎi at The Honolulu Academy of Arts and at the Japanese Chamber of Commerce annual exhibition in Honolulu. She has received an AMI National Convention Juried Art Competition Award as well as awards from the Association of HawaiÎi Artists.

Birgitta Leitner
Birgitta Leitner uses nature, specifically seed-pod forms, as a source for her work. In creating careful compositional relationships between the pods, she establishes a sense of narrative in her paintings. Leitner states: "The image becomes a metaphor, an expressive vehicle for death and decay and for giving and creating new life."

Leitner employs an elaborate layering process in her work, incorporating oil stick, rhoplex, charcoal and ink. After preparing her paper with gesso and acrylic paint, she draws forms with charcoal and oil stick, then dips the paper into an ink bath. The oil stick repels the ink, while the charcoal attracts it. She then lets the piece dry in the sunlight before proceeding. Leitner restricts her use of color, keeping the works almost monochromatic while emphasizing the abstract qualities of the imagery. The natural forms exist in an altered environment; no longer depicted merely as plant forms, they become symbolic of physical, psychological and spiritual evolution.

Birgitta Leitner received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1983 and her Master of Fine Arts in 1987 from the University of HawaiÎi at Manoa. She is currently a lecturer in Elementary Art Education at Chaminade University, Honolulu. Her work has been exhibited at Koa Gallery, Honolulu, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and HawaiÎi Loa College, KaneÎohe.

Helene Wilder
Helene Wilderâs recent paintings spring from her long fascination with the culture of Japanese geisha. Interested in what lies beneath the "mask" of the geisha, Wilder seemingly asks: "Do they yearn to be another person? Do they interpret themselves through their lovely puritan appearance, not a blemish on their faces, not a flaw in their dress?" The face of the geisha may seem devoid of emotion, but clues to the womanâs inner being are apparent in her hands and eyes. Her figures are isolated in surrounding darkness, which may connote either an infinite wasteland or infinite freedom. Wilder wishes her figures to float in a place beyond time and space, where they become simply "their own substance."

Wilder received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington in 1979 and her Master of Fine Arts in 1989 from the University of Washington in Seattle. She also has studied at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wilder has exhibited both nationally and internationally in Honolulu; Seattle, Washington; New-castle, Australia; and Sapporo, Japan.