Article by CJ in Star and Tribune

Live from Loring Park: Pamela

Sukhum adds new dimension to

painting

By C.J., Star Tribune

Last update: June 3, 2009 – 5:37 PM

Amazing. A perfectly good adjective that’s become verbal filler, the new “uh,” for a generation that can’t find a thesaurus on Google.com.

Instead, let’s use astonishing to describe the piece of art that Pamela Sukhum produced last week before a paying crowd of about 100 invited to her Infinite Vision Art Studio in Loring Park. The painting performance was part of a Minneapolis Institute of Arts “Circle” event. Wish I could show you the entire 14 minutes and 7 seconds of Sukhum’s performance. At startribune.com/video you will, however, see enough of Sukhum’s wondrous and staggering painting to make your jaw drop.

Sukhum has created a difficult-to-replicate technique of painting.

“I do several different styles of painting, definitely the thought crossed my mind [that she was revealing too much technique]. A lot of the techniques that I have are unique and I have developed over years through trial and error,” said Sukhum, who has a degree in biology.

Those who might attempt her style “are never going to capture the spirit of the artist who began that,” she said. “More than anything what I wanted to do with the performance is create an environment that mimics the environment I feel before starting a piece. That’s why we black out the space. There’s a lot of mystery. It’s almost like going into a void. [Guests were] ushered into complete darkness; they don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the creative process. You don’t know what’s going to come out next.”

The painting will go through weeks of additional artistic embellishments before it’s completed. “We might have a reunion with the piece with the MIA,” she said.