Statement Linda Kliewer uses swimming pools and the blue of the water both to deal with and to represent grief. Moving through a life filled with emotion and loss, she returns to the comfort and color in the water and the experience of suspension, surrounded by soft light and a quiet world of and reflections of light.
Motion and light reveal never-ending connections. These reflections of constant movement and energy, as from one person to another without arrested pattern, create visual space for reflection and introspection.
This work also reflects her desire to provide a similar experience for the viewer. My earlier, more activist queer-work asked the viewer simply to “look at this, see this, change what you think, change your point of view,” Her newer work invites the viewer to ”look at this, be here, join me in a place, a feeling.”
Bio As a queer artist, Linda has spent much of her life pushing against the current of misinformation to make herself and others visible. Sharing her own truths through images. Linda is an award-winning queer filmmaker and photographer who has been making film, video and still images for over 35 years. Her passions are social documentary and teaching. Her art centers on self-portraiture, social comment and most recently swimming pools. Linda is Director of BFA Thesis at Pacific NW College of Art in Portland, Or.