My first days of painting when I was named Alyson Mulvany, happened in 1999 in an old church converted into a living space. I stayed there with my boyfriend (who is now my husband) and we painted into the early morning hours for months. These first paintings were drip style, layers and collage on boards and cardboard.
In 2000, the second stage for me was finding a bunch of thick broken shards of glass that came from a shattered pastry case from the dumpster out back of Lucia’s Casa de Café where I was working as a barista. I brought home the shards to my little art room and found a whole new world where I experimented with layers using spray paint, acrylic house paint, watercolors and a razor blade. I made about 20 pieces that I loved.
I exhibited these works at my new barista joint, the Bump & Grind Café, and I sold every single piece, for actually ridiculous amounts of money. I had no clue how to price my work or anything. I was elated to know that people actually liked what I did. I had no art background, only a pure love of painting and a knowing within about recognizing myself within my work.
Next I started painting on salvaged windows. Our neighbors, the owners of BANG Restaurant, brought me a ton of old windows from their home. My landlord at the time was so cool. I would spread out the window panes all over his yard and the hot beaming sun would shine through the glass panes and kill all his grass. I painted all summer. I had a show at Space Gallery when they were in their original location in Lodo. I exhibited my work in 2002 at BANG.
I had been using mainly acrylic paint and aerosol, but wanted to incorporate light into my works. I discovered a glass stain that I used for the Stage Art I created for the Rattlebrain Theater. The liquidy smooth paint allowed for a translucent finish without any brushstrokes.
Following the discovery of the translucent paint, I began building light boxes for all my salvaged window paintings. In 2004 I did my first show of all light boxes at Mario’s Double Daughter’s Salotto in LoDo. The show was very satisfying and successful. I went on to exhibit at Space Gallery, Spark Gallery, and The Denver Civic Theater–all located on Santa Fe, as well as many other galleries and venues all over Denver including Revoluciones, Arts on Vine, and The Parlour. I also completed a commission project for the upscale Vain Salon.
After creating nearly 200 paintings on glass and salvaged windows, I wanted to go another direction. It took me a long time to find a new way of expressing. I became very inspired by paper collage art. The clean lines, the sharp cuts, the flat, childlike quality opened me to another whole universe of things.
My newest collage style incorporates hand-painted papers and paper from vintage storybooks. You can read my Artist Statement to get more insight into my relationship to this new form of expression. I have exhibited these works at Café Karma and BANG Restaurant and have a show coming up at Vain Salon in February 2008. The next phase will be to work larger and larger.
-Alyson Khan
