Passage V

The Dancing Pears

The morning sun shines through wind-whipped branches creates an odd effect in the artist's studio. In the flickering light, three golden pears on a shelf appear to be dancing. Capturing moments such as this in a watercolor still life has become the lifework of artist Karen Horn.

As a child at a tender age, Horn was captivated by the visual arts. In college, she explored and refined this fascination, however, her personal life would not sit still for her art. She married and moved to a farm in northern California, where her daughter was born. (64)

The rigors of parenting and a simple, back-to-basics lifestyle have teached Horn much about time. In order that making money is the main goal, the clock has the power to rule, allowing no time to wait, to wonder, to dance with pears. But Horn calls time her secret ally.

She chooses simple subjects for her watercolors; flowers and fruit from her garden, a neighbor's hand-carved wooden bowl, a treasured seashell, her grandmother's tablecloth. (68) Her personal connections contribute to the sense to these objects of intimacy in her paintings.

Going to the shelf to switch the fattest dancing pear with one of its partners, the artist says that she is often struck by the seeming contradiction that a spontaneous moment can involve something unexpected and delightful. It takes years for a pear tree to grow large enough to yield fruit, months for the fruit to reach its prime, hours of waiting for the perfect light that makes the fruit seem to dance, and many more hours of painting as if the moment crystallizes into an image on paper. (72) And only when someone sees the painting and catches his or her breath audibly with surprise and pleasure does a watercolor become truly magical.

Today, Karen Horn's watercolors are featured in galleries from coast to coast. Her works are often sold before a showing of her art opens, and pressure is mounting to produce more paintings more quickly. Horn pauses before moving the fattest pear again and then declares that she doesn't have the time to go faster.