Kim Keever’s Mesmerising Art Made by Squeezing Paint into Water.

There’s something almost mythical or ethereal about the New York artist Kim Keever’s work. It’s all the more surprising when you find out that the artist used to be a thermal engineer who worked at NASA.

Keever creates the images by squeezing paint out of bottles into 200 gallon tanks of water, which he then photographs. It’s an unusual career change from a full time engineer to an artist, but it hasn’t been in vain. Keever draws upon the fundamentals of his engineering background, retaining the scientific and investigative processes.

There’s a high degree of randomness to his abstract images. Using lights and colourful gels to achieve the end result, his images are something between flumes of smoke and billowing clouds. There’s no doubt about it, the energy and momentum in his art is arresting. Keever’s works are almost Biblical in their representation.

“Keever’s landscapes, that are at first glance redolent of the Hudson River School and the German Romantic painters, are actually detailed miniature scenes that he builds himself,” notes Waterhouse & Dodd, a New York Gallery. “The landscape and the abstract images all have paint dispersing through the water adding a certain character to the constructed landscape in the tank.”

Ken Keever’s Balloon Series is reminiscent of his NASA days when he was busy exploring the universe. Working with paint and balloons underwater he captures images that resemble planets and atoms. Worlds within worlds.

“On a three-dimensional scale, I think of these spaces as containing endless universes becoming smaller and smaller. The same is true in the opposite direction. Our universe is contained by other universes and those are contained by more universes ad infinitum,” explains Keever.

Whether its planets or stars or colourful vapour like smoke and gasses, every photograph is evocative and compelling. Just goes to show what’s possible when you combine a bit of science with a lot of imagination.

[Images courtesy of Kim Keever.]