Driven equally by his fascination with the materiality of oil paint and his interest in exploring his own life experiences, Kim Dorland creates both quietly reflective and boldly visceral sculptural paintings. Dorland builds up his images from multiple layers of thickly applied paint, sometimes adding mixed materials, like feathers, glass, string, and wood. “I draw my subject[s] from the experiences I have lived through and my impoverished upbringing,” he explains, referring to the images of wooded landscapes, trailers and low-income housing, open-air parties, fistfights, and Canadian flora and fauna that recur throughout his works.
