Kiki Klimt is a researcher of life. She move mostly within art, but she often go someplace else. She has always been interested in many things and looked for answers everywhere - from mythology, ancient spiritual writings, modern physics and chemistry to cosmology, mathematics, history and philosophy. She has read more than 20,000 different books. For the same reason, She has read countless works of art. She loves customs and old knowledge and has found most of her answers in ancient knowledge and artefacts.
Besides that, she is an expert associate of the National Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Quality in Higher Education (SQAA), namely in the field of art schools. She is lecturing at Arthouse Slovenia and was guest professor at universities in Istanbul, Sofia and Lisbon and participated at many symposiums and conferences.
She create in a variety of media: conceptual art, performance, installations, photography, illustrations, painting and design. She has published 12 author's picture books, illustrated more than 30 books, had many solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions. She also create motorcycle paintings under the name IZANAGI and write articles.
She have been focusing on three projects lately. She is developing “Painting with light”, creating the Arkanum series of seven graphic short stories about Love, and writing a book about sacred geometry. Above all, she is trying to understand what life is, what art is, and what this is all about. Art and transcendence are just two different sides of the same coin. Creating is but a meditation technique if we know how to perform it correctly. Humans are both physical and spiritual beings. If we are what we are by nature, then meditation is the only possible natural state. In ancient times, the purpose of art was to help people experience themselves in their reality. To help them relive and understand, for at least one brief moment, the state of perfection, so they can know what they are looking for.
It is the reason she came to discover “Painting with light“. Light is everywhere. “Painting with light“ is a special technique that makes the matter in the paintings radiate light. The light is inside every atom, you just have to see it. It is as if someone in a dark room would turn on a light for you - suddenly the fear, dilemmas, ignorance, and all the thoughts disappear. Only the Beauty remains. The way of painting she has developed is unique in the world. She has been developing it for over 25 years.
She is researching the technique of sfumato painting from 1994. Even then, she was trying to understand the hidden world around us. Leonardo da Vinci said that nature was his greatest teacher, and he spent most of his time observing nature and the natural phenomena. He studied the flight of birds and observed the extremes in nature and man. He observed clouds, nebulae, and reflections of light, researched painting techniques, and tried to understand the appearance of the world and what is hidden in it. He wrote: “It is not enough to believe what you see. You also have to understand what you see.”
”During my studies, the professors gave us the exact opposite - copying from old authors, a quote after a quote. Today the whole world is like crazy, people just repeat like parrots instead of turning to the source. I didn’t paint many years after I've graduated because I knew I hadn’t learned anything but how to think about art. Until I heard Leonardo’s advice. Deep realisation and understanding have been born in me; despite all the knowledge I have gained during my studies and later from various theories, I knew nothing. I had to redefine my beliefs about everything - what is color? What is visual language? I have realised I have to master painting techniques and materials and develop a sensation of my body and hand to be able to create the images I saw in the visions. The basis of my research was Leonardo's way of painting, sfumato (Italian. smoke, veil). It is a technique of applying thin layers of paint. The materiality of the paint is completely lost and the vividness of the image comes to the foreground, an indefinable depth that draws the viewer into the inner world of the painting. After seven years of intense work, observing nature and Leonardo’s paintings, and reading his notes to understand what he did and how, I was able to paint with such liveliness, softness, and grace as Leonardo. I dare to say that I not only fully understand his process but have also upgraded it.
The same knowledge is found in the Vedic records and alchemist books and was passed on by Pythagoras, Goethe, Tesla, and many others. I realised that the reality is completely different from what I was convinced of. The study, observation and conscious presence slowly and surely led me to true understanding. Now I can play with the essence - with light and darkness and all that exists between them. Instead of applying lighter or darker chades of color created by an external light source, I lure the inner light. I paint by removing materiality from matter and replacing it with light hiding inside an atom. This is possible due to the understanding of the higher level of manifestation of matter and the vibration of colour. Colour as matter does not exist at a certain level of living. So I paint to lure the purest - the original vibration in an image.”
