The Painter’s Room presents “Somewhere I Have Never Travelled”,

Somewhere I have Never Traveled
Katelynn Mills + Child Workshop

April 6th- May 18th
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 6th 6-9pm
Artist Talk and Art Workshop to be announced

The Painter’s Room is proud to present “Somewhere I Have Never Travelled”, an exhibition of
paintings and drawings by Katelynn Mills + Child Workshop. Engaging with a highly generative
mode of creating, Katelynn Mills has applied her systems theory, The Cybernetics of Painting, to
her studio practice and approach to education. For this show, Somewhere I Have Never
Traveled,” she takes images from the history of painting, and runs it through a system of
organization in which the picture is divided into ~50 to 70 cells. That system is then run through
a second ‘system’: children. Children contribute a strong element of indeterminacy and chance
due to their wildly different interpretations of color and scale as they work on their respective
cells. The final paintings, which take 1-3 months to complete by a workshop of 5-13 year-olds,
are then assembled after many hours of mystery and happy confusion. Adding a sort of
feedback loop to this exhibition, Mills will also be showing select closely observed drawings of
her kindergartner’s paintings as well as other works made outside the workshop which have
influenced, and been influenced, by the workshop pieces.

​Though the theory behind this project takes on a hard, critical edge, the viewer may not readily
perceive it upon first viewing. It is through the poetic nature and “serious play” of the process of
making these paintings that the ‘child-magic’ within each of us may be activated. Further, this
project speaks to the significance of trusting in the unpredictability of the creative process. It
requires an abundance of Good Faith for such young students to blindly follow the Teacher’s
instruction: work very hard and accurately on a strange, abstract composition for months on end
without any real perception of what all that focus will amount to. Similarly, it takes a great leap of
faith for an instructor to lead a group of over 100 children in such a state of organized chaos.
This project reveals the joy and beauty of traveling beyond the pre-determined.

​Santora Arts Building Basement 207 N Broadway Santa Ana CA 92701
The Painter's Room is run by IPA DTSA | IG: @thepaintersroom