Blueberry Hills Art
A Refuge of Tranquility
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
-Pablo Picasso
Our lives are continually accelerating. Technology gives us power unheard of throughout eons of humanity; we can travel thousands of miles in a few hours, communicate across continents in the blink of an eye and have access to countless stimuli. Though for all the good our modern world brings, being constantly sped up and plugged in to cyberspace depletes from us the natural energy of just being. There is tremendous value to slowing down, to sitting quietly in nature and being present to our true needs.
Welcome to Blueberry Hills, where through art you are invited to slow down. Art cultivates the deep soil of your mind, encouraging new and healthy seeds to sprout.
About the Artist
Kathy Malony is a printmaker, painter and gardener based in South Jersey. Her art emphasizes a sustainable lifestyle and living in balance with the natural world that has been often pushed aside for the hyper-fast culture of thrill and consumption.
In her youth, Kathy traveled to Norway to stay with family after hard times. Amidst the darkness shrouding those years, she and her aunt would climb a nearby hill brimming with blueberry bushes. Together they would slowly, calmly pick the berries. There was no rush to complete the task, no dire compulsion - simply just to be present as nature offered a gift.
Years later, Kathy and her family regularly visited Acadia National Park, in Maine. Near the town of Bar Harbor they discovered another hill of blueberries, and she rediscovered that slow, tranquil commune with nature. It is this quality Kathy hopes to share with others through her art - an alleviation to the hyper-speed of our contemporary world. When you slow down, nature reveals untold wonders to you.
Through her oil paintings and woodcut prints Kathy explores the quiet moments in nature that inspire her spirit and engage her mind. She enjoys working in series that lead her to explore a subject thoroughly (which really means it’s never ending!). She creates collections that become the stepping stones of creative energy.
In her “Echoes of the Sea” paintings she explores the minute fantastical patterns found in a single shell and discovers new worlds of colors, shapes, and textures. Embracing a healthy lifestyle, Kathy hopes to encourage others as well in her “Eat Your Veggies” woodcut prints. A new “Feathered Friends” print series celebrates the many birds who inhabit her backyard gardens. And, of course, she loves to capture the spirit of beloved pets in both oil paintings and woodcut prints. Whenever possible she works from direct observation and her own resource photos.
Kathy has always challenged herself to continue growing as an artist. Since 1998 she has been a student in the Continuing Education program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia. After studying drawing and painting for numerous years she stepped through the doors of the PAFA Print Shop in 2011 and hasn’t left yet. The acts of carving an image into a piece of soft pine, listening to the whisper of the wood grain add its voice to the image, developing the palette, and then inking and hand printing the blocks have captivated her creative spirit. She now maintains a home print shop in her basement along with a painting studio upstairs.
When not in her studios or at the PAFA Print Shop Kathy and her husband, Steve, tend to their backyard gardens. They enjoy a quiet life with their 16 year old cat, Attie, in a small south Jersey town nicknamed “the most patriotic small town in America.” Their two adult children, Sean and Beth, have flown the nest and created their own lives in other states but maintain close family connections across the miles. Of all her creative endeavors, she considers them her most cherished ones.
For project inquiries or just to say hello, please reach out to blueberryhillsart@gmail.com
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