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03/20/2024 08:30 AMBranford artist Kate Galambos enjoys exploring color, line, and shape using acrylic mixed media, and that joy certainly stands out in her 35 works currently on display in the Blackstone Library Artists Circle. Kate’s exhibit, “Imagination Made Real,” is on view as a public gallery during March and April in the upper rotunda at the James Blackstone Memorial Library.
Kate says that she feels grateful for the opportunity to fill one of Branford’s most architecturally noted and interesting spaces with her so many of her works.
“This is the first time that I’ve been able to put so many paintings out for folks to see,” says Kate. “It took about two hours to hang, with the help of two friends. When we stepped back, it was amazing. I have to thank the library for the opportunity to hang my paintings in that beautiful rotunda space.”
While many in Branford know and appreciate the Blackstone building, members of Kate’s online art community have been bowled over by the photos she’s shared of her works hanging in the rotunda gallery.
“People have just been awestruck by the incredible venue,” says Kate, who has been taking online courses since 2020 to deepen her understanding of what abstract art can be.
Many of Kate’s expressive art pieces on display have been built in layers of color, lines, and shapes that play off one another and converge to deliver the completed image. Earlier works, done in and around 2021, are more subtle in color.
“I tried to present this exhibit in chronological order, starting with my earliest pieces of art and bringing it forward,” Kate explains. “Recently, I’ve been making more paper collages, and so those appear toward the end of the exhibit.”
Kate’s exploration of non-objective form is on view among her displayed paintings of various sizes, formats, and themes, all created within her goal to “...make imagination real.” One of the larger paintings in the exhibit, Tundra, illustrates Kate’s imagination emerging into reality
“I see it as a wolf. Some people see it as a coyote or a dog. I had covered it with several layers of paint of various dark shades, and then I started to rub the paint off, and the wolf emerged as I was doing that. So, I just let him come out,” says Kate. “I tried to give him some shading and some contrast, so that his face would really come out of the canvas.”
Kate paints in her home studio. She and her husband David are Branford residents of 19 years and share their home with Queen Jasmine of Texas, a rescue pup. Now 12 years old, Queen Jasmine came to town by way of the epic floods in Houston in 2017.
“She was in foster care in Houston and, when they had the floods, they sent all dogs in foster care north, so they could make room for the new dogs that would be abandoned in the floods,” says Kate. “She ended up at the Cosgrove Animal Shelter, and we found her. Her name was Jasmine. I just added a few more details to it.”
In addition to residing in Branford’s great coastal location, Kate also loves the area’s scene of vibrant artists.
“I was so happy to see the BACA [Branford Arts and Cultural Alliance] gallery open up in Branford. It’s an incredible resource,” says Kate. “There’s also the Guilford Art Center, and there’s always something going on in New Haven, with so many interesting artists to take advantage of.”
Kate picked up her artist’s brush in earnest after retiring from her career as a registered nurse.
“I did a lot of different kinds of nursing. It’s a fantastic profession that I’m very grateful to have had,” she says.
Kate has studied with area artists in order to strengthen her artistic knowledge and broaden her skills.
“I worked with local artist Marc Massaro, with oils. He’s a fabulous portrait artist and representational realistic artist, and I also worked with another fabulous local artist, Maureen Wilkinson, with watercolors, doing landscapes and still lifes,” says Kate.
As the pandemic surged, Kate found joy—and wanted to share it with others—in abstract expression as she began working with colorful acrylics.
“I used to do more representational art and, in 2020-ish, I just began to try the abstract approach, and it just grabbed me. I knew immediately that was what I wanted to do—to make abstract images rather than representational,” Kate says. “And because I am Christian, and I’ve found hope and joy through my Christian community, that’s what I try to express in my art. Because I know for myself that it was important for me to be able to understand feelings of hope and joy, and I think that other people are looking for that, as well. So, I wanted to bring that through my art to communicate to other people.”
In addition to her strong Christian faith, Kate is also supportive of the Rights of Nature. As a global alliance and legal instrument, the Rights of Nature advocates that the natural world (such as ecosystems or species) has inherent rights deserving of the same protection as people and corporations to exist, thrive, and regenerate.
Kate has previously exhibited pieces at the Spectrum Gallery in Centerbrook, Firehouse Gallery in Milford, and the Agency on Aging in North Haven. The Blackstone Artists Circle is Kate’s largest exhibit venue to date.
Kate says that having so many of her pieces on display is a new and exciting experience.
“It’s a new experience for sure because painting is a very solitary endeavor. I spend many hours alone, with the radio playing my favorite music on WPKN or listening to podcasts,” she says.
Kate helped to open the exhibit with an artist’s reception at Blackstone on March 9.
“I’ve wanted to bring my works out for folks to see, and this was such a great opportunity,” Kate says. “The library has been so supportive. It’s been a lot of fun for me.”
Paintings in the “Imagination Made Real” exhibit by Kate Galambos are available to purchase. A price list is available at the library reference desk at the James Blackstone Memorial Library located at 758 Main Street in Branford.