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Kahler offers look at batik pieces

Char Kahler is the featured artist for the month at Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont.

She is a well-known community member involved in many groups and organizations. She is also a well-rounded artist who has been successful with several different art forms.

This month, Kahler’s batik artwork will be on display.

Batik is an ancient Indonesian process of decorating fabric with dye using a resist wax technique. To begin, a design is sketched on the natural fabric. Hot beeswax and paraffin is then applied with a brush. The wax permeates the fiber, then cools and solidifies into a barrier that will mask the areas from the cold water dye. The whole cloth is dipped in the dye bath, dried and then the process is repeated after each successive color dye. Colors are overdone on top of preceding colors. The rigidness of the wax cracks, allowing veins of color to enhance the beauty. The wax is removed by boiling the cloth in water and detergent, resulting in colors remaining embedded in fiber.

Kahler learned batik in the 1980s in an art class that took place inside the building that is now Red Rock Center.

In the class, they did simple, decorative designs such as flowers, but as Kahler became familiar with the art form, it occurred to her she could create larger works of people on unprimed canvas, because it is a natural fabric that can be dyed.

Kahler explained how her career as a batik artist really got started.

“My piece ‘Sitting Bull’ won best in show at an art show in Minneapolis in 1983. After that, galleries started contacting me,” she explained.

She had her batik artwork on display in five states across the country, including Colorado and New Mexico.

Kahler has worked with many art forms throughout her life. She received her degree to teach art, but not being able to find a teaching job in the area, she began working at a department store. She also was in charge of advertising.

“Then I started my own business doing logos and graphic and things like that,” she explained.

However, Kahler said her “biggest gig” is her stained glass work that started in the late 1980s.

“I had worked my way through college working for a stained glass business and then when the patriarch wanted to step down, I was thrown into it,” she said. “I was meeting with churches and doing the bidding and then managing the jobs. I’ve worked with hundreds of churches.”

Kahler took up batik again about two years ago after not doing it since the ’80s.

“I still had some of my dyes in anticipation that I would do it again sometime. It’s great to have time to do it,” she said.

Kahler has taught a few batik classes over time, but explained that batik is not a commonly practiced art form.

Kahler said she enjoys focusing on people in her artwork. She has a fascination with using areas of illumination and shadows when it comes to people. In the majority of her batik pieces, the Native American culture is the focus.

“I have a great respect for the Indian culture and a sadness for the things we took away that were so beautiful in their culture and their spirituality,” she said. “What lends itself well for the batik is the earth tone colors that happen with batik, and all the beading and the feathers. It’s fun to do and lends itself well. I try to be true to the decor and the different tribes.”

While many of her pieces are finished in muted earth tones, it’s not on purpose. The process of batik and the way the dyes blend are out of the artist’s control.

“It’s always a surprise,” Kahler said. “The colors leak into each other and they crackle so it’s always a surprise.”

She enjoys the surprise.

Kahler said there are a lot of connections between working in stained glass and batik, just as there are with quilting, because you use areas of color.

While Kahler had some of her work on display at Red Rock Center four years ago, this is the first time her batik will be on display in several decades. There will be an open house from 4-6:30 p.m. today at Red Rock Center. Kahler will be there.

Through her career as an artist, Kahler constantly challenged herself. Now, in retirement, she is able to revisit past art forms and learn new ones.

“You should never stop discovering and trying things,” Kahler said.

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