Goddess Art by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

I paint and sculpt female fantasy art and map faery tale adventures, testing erotica . I dream of beautiful women on canvas and art of exotic voices to haunt me. Yes i admit to that.

Magic coaxed me...
I was so tempted
felt emotions that hummed.
I wanted to taste the moment
smell the scent
smother the lion in all who pursued me.

I touched the moon,
and then I slept there.
I thought I heard you singing.
It was way past midnight,
but I still decided to wait,
grant you entrance into my images of rain
and memories of  storms.

I searched for a compass held inside my pocket,
that's where I keep my treasures.
I pulled out reams of paper first
poetry carefully written
and there
 between the folds
tightly clad
my compass
my moral measuring tool.
I held it to the light
yet
could not decipher the rainbows
nor the thunder.

Tiny angels sing
I heard them in the colors
I held one in my hand as she was weeping.

I am that golden child she breathed
I am the smoke beyond the river
I am the token of the dragon
the dew
and the lace
that lines the trees
I am the unspoken poem.

Grace
I hold its measures
set music to my dancing
I am the figure that makes a shadow
behind a blinded curtain.

Beyond this day
and far off into the distance
I think I see her treasure.
I released her
set her on her way to finding answers
and moons to sleep on.

I thought all
wrote about it
then picked up my pencils and left.

I cradled me and looked after my being
remembered Bible stories
Jesus healing sick souls
once mine.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

copyright 2009

TH IMAGE is a 24x48 oil on canvas that is part of my "Passion Series" Sorry.. I need to look up the title on this piece.. there are about 30 pc to this series so I forget.. lol

Happy day to you,

Kathy

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MUSIC IS MY MUSE.. TURN ON THE MUSIC AS YOU ENJOY MY LENS.

This is my favorite Celine Dion of all time!

WONDERFUL!!

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Enigma

• I have illustrated for Hay House Inc.,
• Giclee canvas art work, greeting cards and posters are available for sale on my website:
• Sign up for my mailing list for FREE ART GIFTS: Drawings of whimsical angel pictures, legends of mermaids and fairies in art and
• Represented by Monkdogz Urban Art,, Inc.,547 West 27th Street, 5th floor,New York, NY 1000

"He Kissed My Eyes"

I must fly! I said

I want to!

I want to put my fingers around Saturn.

I want to spin and hear a whiz

around my ears and head

I want to charm it like a serpent.

Teach me how I said.

Let me know the wind and all its power.

I want to know it like my dreams describe.

You leaned forward

and kissed my eyes

put your hands behind my ears

told me to listen well

your smile covered my fears

bringing me the sound of rainbows.

Give me flowers I said.

There are a million colors to be had.

You pointed toward a unicorn

ready for my adventure

and gave me a map that led to fields of them.

Let me know the fragrance of love

let me understand its caring

I will live there.

You brought flowers from the meadow

laid them at a rainbows feet

while the unicorn listened for my footsteps.

You did all that for me.

I am not blind

but perhaps I am not seeing.

I am not selfish

yet perhaps I have not seen your tears at times

the wetness late at night that speaks alone

ones that only I could cause to flow so freely.

I spent so much time measuring your worth

I failed to see it filled the skyline.

I ran to you

fell to the ground

pleading for forgiveness.

These photographs are only of me I cried.

You held them gently and said,

I wonder if you think of me

as often as I think of you.

I only had my love to give.

I wonder if you wonder

where I am and what I do.

I melted in my own coldness

crying out again,

I meant to bring you treasures

I meant to be more caring.

I meant to be more like you.

And then he turned and walked away.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

02 August 2007

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MUSIC I LOVE

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I paint a lot to the music of Enigma

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Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2009

The Maui Arts & Cultural Center is pleased to present the Schaefer Portrait

Challenge 2009 (SPC‘09), a statewide juried exhibition, opening January 4, 2009

on Maui. First held in 2003 and again in 2006, SPC‘09 continues to encourage

Hawai‘i’s artists to chronicle the changing face of our community through

explorations in portraiture.

To further promote the individual talents of each artist and to extend the depth of

our commitment, a select portion of the exhibition will travel to the East Hawai‘i

Cultural Center in Hilo, and to The Contemporary Museum, First Hawaiian Center

in Honolulu.

Awards

The Challenge is pleased to offer the following awards:

The Jurors’ Choice Award for $15,000, graciously sponsored by Jack & Carolyn

Schaefer Gray, will be chosen by an expanded jury committee.

The Marian Freeman People’s Choice Award for $5000, sponsored by Gage

Schubert, will be awarded to the artist who receives the most votes by gallery

visitors during the exhibition period at MACC

"Mr. Magnusen", 30x40x2 oil on canvas, by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

Artist's Statement:

Mr. Magnusen, the subject of my painting, shares many of my same memories. We grew up not far from one another In S. California and later attended the same high school. It was in high school that I fell in love with Dennis G Magnusen. That love storywas put on hold for some 30 years.

In 1967 Dennis was drafted by the US Army, and subsequently went to Vietnam in 1968. Circumstances and follies of youth would cause us to follow separate paths.

While in Vietnam Dennis was strongly affected by the children he saw there. "Children were never meant to experience war", he told me years later. He decided that he wanted to do his part to change the world. "Real change in any society begins with the children," was Dennis' mantra, so he became a teacher. He worked with gang zone high school kids in the evenings and intermediate students in the afternoon. Grades of F's and D's were bought up to A's and B's. Mr. Magnusen reached beyond his own expectations, leading kids to an understanding of their own worth, thus opening doors to their potential futures. He created a surf club and got the community to help. He was often featured on local TV and newspapers as someone who was making a difference in children's lives. Dennis also became a Mentor teacher, lending help to other educators. Being somewhat of a rebel he advised fellow teaches of ideas that reached beyond standard textbook techniques.

Sadly the ghost of Vietnam took away Mr. Magnusen's strength in the form of Peripheral Neuropathy, caused by Agent Orange. By 1990he was too ill to continue his beloved teaching career. It broke his heart. Seeking rest, relief from stress, needing a special place to deal with the physical pain that comes with Small Nerve Fiber Neuropathy, he relocated to Hawaii. Hawaii has been his solace and a cool breeze when memories of who he once was for kids becomes faint.

About three months ago "Mr. Magnusen" was contacted by a former student. Amy had been looking for him for eighteen years. She had heard he had died from Agent Orange complications, but still hoped that she would find him. You see, Amy became a teacher and she wanted to find Mr. Magnusen to tell him how much he had affected her life.While working on her Masters in Literature, Amy wrote a paper describing the most influential person in her life. That person was Mr. Magnusen.Amy called to tell Mr. Magnusen that she wanted to make a difference in this world too.For a teacher there can be no greater reward.

As for me? I found Dennis once again after 30 years, through a miracle of circumstance, but that I guess is another story.

What is most compelling about the third Schaefer Portrait Challenge is the variety of approaches to the subject by many of the artists. For example, Madeleine Soder burnt holes in silk organza with incense sticks. Her self-portrait appears as a shadow on the wall. Karen Mortensen sculpted a politician in mourning from wire mesh and then painted on it. Hyperrealism was Robert Glick’s choice, and Patrick Daniel Sarsfield opted for abstract expressionism.

Then there is the abstract ceramic sculpture by Stephen Freedman inspired by Auguste Rodin. Finally, a “conflation” of tapestry, photography, pencil drawing and scanning comprise Jay Wilson’s self-portrait. It’s as if the jurors, Maile Andrade, David Behlke, Kimberlin Blackburn and Wayne Miyamoto were bent on delivering a smorgasbord of portrait possibilities.

Looking at paintings such as Doc by John Woodruff, Mr. Magnusen by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen and A Noble Simulacrum by Noble Richardson, one feels there’s a powerful story behind each.

In a deep narrative accompanying his work, Richardson talks about Jean Baudrillard’s philosophy of simulacrum. According to Baudrillard’s book, Simulacra and Simulation, “The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media that create the perceived reality; Baudrillard believed that society has become so reliant on simulacra that it has lost contact with the real world on which the simulacra are based.”

Richardson’s portrait does not just reflect himself, but it is also a “perversion” of the artist. He views the portrait as hope for the denizens of Happy Valley. The subject, dressed in the vernacular of a gang banger, holds three spikes which the artist says are symbolic of the tribute to the cross on Kapilau Ridge. He compares the crippling “ice monsoon” gripping the valley to the ninth and final circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

This is heady stuff, and the portrait is a powerful image of a thoughtful young man trapped in an urban media-defined image that is the antithesis of the Pacific Island he knows as his home. Richardson is yet another in a distinguished line of Jan Sato Baldwin High School alums who have become exceptional artists.

The story of Mr. Magnusen is compelling for a different reason. In this, the subject was moved by the horrors he saw during the Vietnam War to dedicate himself to a life of teaching in the inner city. He was on a mission to save these children. The portrait shows not only the ravages of Agent Orange that forced him to retire from teaching in 1990, but the clear gaze of a man who has seen too much.

John Woodruff’s portrait of Doc is reminiscent of Van Gogh’s work. Maybe it’s the piercing blue eyes or the gaunt face; perhaps it’s the impasto pointillist background. But if one has ever seen the self-portrait of Van Gogh after he cut off his ear, one will know to what I refer.

There are some interesting juxtapositions in the show. Across the gallery on the opposite wall from Karen Mortensen’s portrait of Big Island County Council Member Emily Naeole is Sarsfield’s portrait of Mortensen, who he feels is “one of our finest artists on Hawai‘i Island.” This portrait by Sarsfield, Karen in her Waterfall Garden, is one of the most adventurous and vibrant in the entire show.

The winner of the 2006 portrait challenge, Kirk Kurokawa, another of Jan Sato’s protgs, continues to grow. His painting, All Star, is an in-your-face look at his father. The artist doesn’t just pay tribute to his dad with this painting—he is literally looking up to him. The perspective in the painting is as if the artist were at his father’s feet.

The look on his father’s face, the cigar in his mouth and his crossed arms all say, “Don’t mess with me.” Even the small dog with the cross around his neck looks more like a wolf than a household pet. The vastness of the sky is a very different palette for Kurokawa, who has been exploring gray scale painting for a while.

The Juror’s Choice Award and the $15,000 prize went to Maui artist Rich Hevner’s Marriage on Paper, Looking for a Sonnet. Hevner reveals the human drama of his marriage. In it, one sees the artist in the background with a pointed party hat and Elizabethan-style clown collar. His wife is in the foreground. She faces away from him, unamused, with her hair covered by what could be a nun’s habit or a peasant cap. Her eyes are closed; his stare intently at the viewer. The work conveys both isolation and adulation.

Darrell Orwig, Neida Bangerter and Ditmar Hoerl deserve the credit for hanging another great show. The Schaefer International Gallery is a gem of a building, but like diamond cutters, these three people create the facets that allow the beauty to shine through.

Most of the 56 works by 52 artists on display in this show range from very good to exceptional. This is a show where one is guaranteed to find many delights for the eye as well as for the mind. It’s a great place for a family outing or to bring visiting guests. The show continues Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Feb. 22, and is also open before Castle Theater performances and during intermissions.

January 22, 2009

Paul Janes-Brown

"Tamils Woman Photos Line My Closet- They Haunt Me- Yet I Am a Demanding Lilith"

Tamils woman photos

line the closet of my mind.

They haunt me

and I pray they will continue to.

Fill my heart with their suffering

I need to remember

and hold a wake.

I am an undone story

I try to see others

stand firm within boundaries

flowers on bricks

sad tale always catches up with me.

I try, I do.

Yet I see an

immortal technique

and dance with the devil.

Help me?

Cradle me

I want to feel protected.

Teach me

I want to know the world.

Encourage me?

Fill my longings with wonderful outcomes

despite my selfish ways.

Envelope me.

Crave me.

Know me.

Wrap your arms around me.

And yet

the paradox?

Don't know me

when I say I am suffocating.

Let me sing a song only to myself

and walk a path alone if I need to.

Oh yes

an immortal technique

dance with the devil

fill my cup

it can flow over.

No!

toss it far from me!

Be patient?

Be patient.

I guess I am a pretty demanding Lilith.

Ohh... I am a demanding Lilith.

Met by her charm

one that is often my own

not to be stumbled on either

right?

Always there, the struggle

the pain that lends to pleasure

immortal techniques

dancing with the devil.

Tamils women photos line closets of the mind

I find reproach in my own self

compare and recognize more.

Who am I to be a Lilith?

Yet don't I deserve to feel worth?

Who am I at all?

What defines my measures?

Forever tangled

I comb my struggle

pulling at the ropes

I tie ribbons to their continence.

Who will come to rescue me if not my own self?

Balance it all as well

Don't I also have worth?

Tamils woman photos

line the closet of my mind.

Spirituality Information? Celtic Design Tattoos are Planted on my Shoulder

Spirituality information?

The rune tips my scale.

I had always counted on it tiles

placed in a cross

to unfold me

lead me to celtic dreams

celtic design tattoos on my shoulder.

I feel so sad I swear I'm breathing tears.

I write

I paint

I sculpt the skyline

pouring out my heart

and then delete them all.

I feel invisible

even to myself.

No graduation songs today.

I know I will feel better tomorrow

but for now?

I am amazed by this walk

the water touches my toes

and it is stinging.

I feel it and am surprised

the moon is breathing

awakened to reality.

I think I may have crowded out the angles

they got tired of my complaints.

Yet, where were they

when the blossoms did not open?

Maybe on a shelf somewhere.

I sit in solitude

with these notebooks of mine

filled to the brim with quotes

cues for self worth

climbing to the top and feeling safe

finding those achievements

binding up complaints

mine

tossing them in the fire

watching them rise within the sparks

becoming ashes.

Ahh these notebooks

I tie them up

setting them aside.

No matter they are gone

I still remember their spirit.

It gets old you know?

Complaints to worthy kings.

They sit so honorably in their spaces

I watch them caressing their own breasts.

I see them through a peep hole in their closet

they cannot fool me.

Who cares really?

I guess I am the only one still listening.

Yet

I have a celtic design tattoo still singing

and resting on my shoulder.

I don't expect to be heard though

why would I?

I have no reason to expect it.

It is all just like a fish inside a glass jar.

I think I will go out walking none the less

decide, no make myself decide.

Spirituality information

I guess it is still breathing inside my head.

I am like a highlight on a leaf

I glisten still

spirituality information

graduation songs

those walks

are indeed healing avenues to take.

I have done it before

no reason to think I can't again.

Besides I have celtic design tattoos

that moved from my shoulder

and are now

pinned inside my chest.

2 August 2007

Mauai News

ARTISTS FACE OFF

Portrait challenge uncovers the islands' identity

POSTED: January 11, 2009

Faces. You see them every day - brushing your teeth in the morning, passing neighbors on the street, doing business with a coworker. But the face is taking on a unique look thanks to the Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2009, a new exhibit at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

"What we have is something that is very common in a relatively uncommon place," says Schaefer International Gallery Director Darrell Orwig.

The still eyes beaming back at you look so familiar. It may be tough to connect the faces with the names, but you swear you've seen these people before. It's that tiny hula dancer prepping for Merrie Monarch, the respected Filipino elder flashing her infectious smile, a child unleashing his art with a stick of chalk and the community "uncle" jamming on his ukulele.

"It's a good way for us to sort of reflect back to the community what it looks like," Orwig says of the portrait challenge. "To see it though the eyes of a variety of artists in so many different ways, I think, makes us better people. It makes us better human beings because that's what the portraiture tends to be in a general sense - is that deep sense of humanity."

First held in 2003, this triennial exhibition was inspired by the acclaimed Archibald Prize portrait competition held in Australia. But like many things that make their way to the islands, this adaptation has taken on a unique local flavor, and is exclusive to local artists who must depict subjects living in Hawaii. The statewide juried competition includes 56 pieces by 53 Hawaii artists, representing Maui, Oahu, Big Island, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai. The artists range from established figures in the art community to promising college-aged participants, all vying for one of the biggest art competition payouts in Hawaii, including the $15,000 Jurors' Choice Award. Another prize, the $5,000 People's Choice Award, will be selected by gallery visitors who cast their ballots by Feb. 13.

For the first time in its history, portions of the exhibit will travel beyond Maui shores, showing at The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center in Honolulu from May 29 to Sept. 8.

The collection is more than a bunch of pretty faces - each work displays the essence of a person captured in a single expression. Those subtle moments can be seen in the confident glare of a young skateboarder in Kelly Bandalos' "Julian at the Legal Wall," the strength of character in a husband's stare in Anita Bisquera's "William" or the fearless defiance of a friend battling cancer in John Woodruff's "Doc."

Organizers were thrilled to see several artists pushing the boundaries of traditional portraiture by creating stylized images or utilizing untraditional materials like ceramic, a wooden surfboard, silk and other mixed-media.

"Conceptually and technically this show has more variety in terms of what form portraiture might take," Orwig says.

Exhibit Programs Manager Neida Bangerter agrees.

"I think the stretch that some of the artists took, that's really going beyond what we know portraiture to be, and that's where the word 'challenge' comes in," she says.

Criteria for the previous portrait challenges said that the subject must be a prominent figure the community. But organizers opted for a change this year, hoping to encourage a more personal relationship between the artist and subject. Both participants were also required to have at least one live sitting.

"With that change there was an opportunity for people to really delve into a subject that they know well," Orwig explains.

Turns out, that's exactly what happened.

"The stories behind these pieces are much more engaging than they have been in the past," he continues. "That's not to say there haven't been some great stories, but this year we see much more personal accounts with more emotion."

Orwig pauses before mentioning Kathy Ostman-Magnusen's portrait of her husband titled "Mr. Magnusen."

"I can't even talk about that one without choking up," he whispers.

The power of this image lies beyond the weary eyes of Dennis Magnusen - a Vietnam veteran who was inspired to become a teacher after seeing children affected by war, only to be forced to abandon his calling because of poor health caused by Agent Orange exposure.

"There's almost a book there, there's so much substance to it," Orwig says.

"And you can see the story was so well portrayed in the sadness of his face and the colors used and the textures of the brush strokes," adds Bangerter. "It's an emotional piece to look at - it's heart-wrenching. When a piece is really done from the heart, you can sense that.

Maui artist Kirk Kurokawa chose to portray his dad, Reggie, because like his painting, he is larger-than-life. The 65-by-36-inch oil painting towers over the viewer, like a watchful parent observing his kid's every move.

"My dad kind of comes across as a gruff guy with this tough-guy image, but he's really just one of the softest, most kindhearted people I know," explains Kurokawa. "So the idea behind it was to have that kind of attitude where he's starting down at you, but he also has a dog that's all soft and cuddly."

"And that's actually his dog," he adds with a laugh.

Kurokawa, 34, is a veteran when it comes to the Schaefer Portrait Challenge. His work has been accepted into all three shows, and his "The Real McCoy" portrait of Tadashi Sato earned him the $15,000 Jurors' Choice Award in 2006.

"This show is a great because it really brings a different look to what Hawaii is all about," says Kurokawa. "And over the past few years it has definitely grown and a lot of artists are really stepping up to the plate, so it's been exciting to watch."

This year's coveted Jurors' Choice Award went to another Maui artist, Rich Hevner, 46, for his "Marriage on Paper, Looking For A Sonnet" portrait of himself and his wife, Lauren.

"Marriage is a pretty dynamic sort of institution and it plays a big role in my life," explains Hevner. "So when I'm in the studio, my relationship is always attached to me, even creatively."

While other artists chose to focus on a single subject, Hevner's piece dives into the multifaceted bond of marriage, and is the only portrait in this year's show that depicts the relationship between two people.

"She's had a huge influence on me, both as a person and as an artist," Hevner says of his wife of 10 years, Lauren. "This was an opportunity for me to really explore that relationship."

For Noble Richardson, 24, life's ugly moments sparked his stunning self-portrait. Finding inspiration in the ugly reality of drugs and corruption that pervades Maui's idyllic vistas, Richardson's piece exposes the dark shadows that form just behind the swaying palm trees.

"It becomes a portrait of hope for victims of hard times, and justice that turns its cheek to the frost that blights the valley of Wailuku known as 'Happy.' " he writes in his artist's statement.

"I felt like a lot of the art around here is all happy stuff. You go to Lahaina and see dolphins, nice sunsets and still lifes of fruits and flowers, but people need to see the other side of Hawaii," Richardson says. "In any place there's two worlds - the good and the bad - and I think people should be aware of that."

Whether the subject was a friend, family member, prominent figure or even the artists themselves, there's a story behind each face. Now it's up to the viewer to pick up that dialogue where the artist left off.

"It's an opportunity to see not just a picture on a wall, a label with a name on it and a description of the medium," says Orwig. "It's a chance to find out something about the person and the story behind it."

Lehia Apana can be reached at lehia@mauinews.com.

Thank you for stopping by! Don't forget to leave you "Aloha" and message to me OK?

Aloha to YOU!

Kathy