We wrestled with the title for this new show. The Wrong Crowd. Bad Company. Caught in the Act. Many promising exhibition titles. We settled on “The Usual Suspects” because you will recognize these interesting characters, especially if you are a film buff.
This fall, you can enjoy the narrative realism—paintings that suggest a story without necessarily telling you, the viewer, exactly what happened – by Kim McLauglin, a visual artist who is interested in lost stories, fleeting moments, and people caught in a particular moment in time. You can read these paintings like you read a book: intrigue, detail, and so much expression.
During the pandemic, Kim began painting from found photographs, initially working in watercolor. More recently, she became deeply interested in Film Noir imagery and the visual language of noir. Now she works in oil on tinted paper to capture the mood, lighting, shadows, characters, and implied stories of the Film Noir that fascinates her.
What is noir anyway? “Noir” is the French word for “black,” but in English, it describes a dark, cynical style of crime fiction, film, or storytelling. The term comes from film noir (“dark film”), a style of 1940s and 1950s Hollywood crime dramas. Classic noir movies use stark black-and-white shadows, dim lighting, and rainy city streets. Stories often feature private detectives, corrupt officials, and dangerous femmes fatales (seductive women who lead characters into trouble). The core theme is usually moral ambiguity. Right and wrong are never clear, and good guys often make bad choices. Sometimes these characters feel trapped by a grim fate, often leading to tragic or unhappy endings.
Why is this such an appealing subject area for Kim? “I’m drawn to American Realism, the Golden Age of Illustration, pulp magazines, and Film Noir. Noir gives me an endless supply of people who look as though something has already gone wrong—or is just about to. I use screen grabs from vintage public domain films as source material and look for types and tropes rather than portraits of actors.”
Kim’s background is in graphic design, and that still influences the way she composes a painting.
She has a BFA in Graphic Design and studied at the Museum Art School (now PNCA) and attended Art Center College of Design.
Kim is exceedingly prolific. She says, “I think I’ve painted over 400 paintings in the last two years! Coming back to a fine art practice later in life has given me a real sense of urgency—not panic, but purpose. I’m a daily painter. I spent a long time not painting. Now that I’m painting again, I don’t want to take it for granted.”
Kim’s exciting noir paintings will be on display at the Tualatin Library in the Living Room Gallery through mid-January of next year. Come see these excellent works of art, and visit Kim’s website for more at KIMcLaughlin.com and on Instagram: @MinervaPDX.
This program is sponsored in part by the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee. If you would like to learn more about this program, contact Coordinator and Gallerist Angela Wrahtz at angela.wrahtz@comcast.net.
