The question why paint a picture never used to be a question, but in the age of easy digital reproduction it has become one. Why paint birch trees in moonlight, a martini glass filled with liquor and olives, bright red poppies, a rainbow of empty wine bottles, a moose dark against the lively sunset? Why spend the time to carefully study and depict them when a point and shoot camera can do the work in a few seconds? Kris Borth has made each of these items the subject of a lively acrylic canvas, and what unites them also gives answer to the question of why she might have gone through all the trouble of painting them. Certainly they have no obvious categorical connection, but then rarely do the things that give most of us pleasure. These are some of hers, that’s reason enough. Though what seems to offer the greatest enjoyment of all is the one other element that brings these disparate studies together: namely, the very act of registering them with acrylic and brush on canvas. Painting itself can be a pleasure.
—Lori Waxman 5/31/13 3:00 PM
