Bernie Koehrsen: Inspiration, Energy and Exposition
By Mariah Andrews

Although it’s painter Bernie Koehrsen’s first interview, I can’t tell. He is very relaxed, friendly and somehow…instructive.

We meet at Blue Gallery in downtown Kansas City, where Bernie’s paintings were recently featured with three other artists’ in a show entitled “Surfacing.” I ask Bernie to talk about his work, and he easily launches into a linear discussion - first his education, then his influences, ending with his work’s recent metamorphosis. Yet Bernie isn’t the type of artist to just tell; he teaches.

I barely utter a word for at least 20 minutes. Bernie continues to speak about his work as confidently as a professor at a podium, but as nurturing as, say, a yoga instructor. Which makes sense, since Bernie is a yoga instructor. He pauses momentarily, almost imperceptibly, to see if my face reflects understanding before he moves on to thoroughly explain the next aspect of his art.

There is much to learn about Bernie’s art. First, there is a certain science in creating paintings that, as Bernie describes, look as if they were “painted right into glass.”

Saying that Bernie has a multi-layered technique for creating his paintings would be an understatement. The paintings are constructed on literally layer upon layer upon layer of acrylic paint. Bernie discovered the technique after a year and a half of experimentation, primarily derived from the frustration of painting with watercolors on easy-to-smudge, easy-to-damage paper. (The fore bearers of the current paintings were color studies using spirals - a dominant element in much of Bernie’s art - painted in uniform grids.)

I won’t give away more than a year’s worth of Bernie’s innovation in one article. Suffice it to say that the paintings’ reflective onyx surfaces are achieved with several layers of polymer coating that require a gas mask to apply, and a blowtorch to smooth out all of the air bubbles.

The end result is a series of paintings featuring wispy, brightly hued spirals, layered one on top of another and floating en masse in a sea of black glass. A photograph doesn’t come close to doing the work justice. When I stand before the 48” x 48” paintings, the urge to touch them is irresistible, like the urge to graze your fingers over a sculpture.

Although Bernie’s paintings are considered abstract, their sculptural quality really defies classification. Blue Gallery’s art operatives, Kelly and David Kuhn, insist that they haven’t seen anything like them. One word captures the audience’s reaction: fascination.

Yet Bernie remains humble about his technique. “I would love to say I invented it myself, but it’s a commercial craft product, typically covering wall clocks and bars,” Bernie explains. “I haven’t seen it done in this fashion, but I’m sure someone’s done something similar…still it’s a breakthrough for me.”

Bernie experienced a similar breakthrough that equally influenced his paintings when he discovered the practice of yoga five years ago. Describing his former self as “nervous and neurotic,” Bernie credits yoga with changing the direction of his life. “Once I began practicing yoga regularly, I saw a series of small changes, little mini breakthroughs,” he remembers. “I noticed I was standing up taller, feeling more relaxed and calm, feeling better.”

Bernie, who was once teased about being overweight, says yoga eventually broke through many of his insecurities. “I learned to change the way I treated myself and my body,” he explains. “Before I practiced yoga, I didn’t have a mind/body connection.” Today, Bernie is fit and healthy - and teaches two of his own yoga classes per week.

It is easy for me to see the connection between Bernie’s paintings and the seven Chakra of Hindu yoga. That is, of course, after Bernie explains it.

The Chakra are the seven different energy centers of the body, stretching from the base of the spine, to the top of the head. Bernie’s larger series of paintings depicts six of the seven Chakra. He chose not to paint the seventh since it is said to be invisible.

When Bernie points out the various Chakra centers on each painting, I intuitively understand that the panels represent the physical body. I realize later that this may be because I can see my own reflection in each piece - Bernie’s paintings are propped up against the wall of Blue Gallery since they are no longer on exhibition.

Bernie adds drips on the paintings that flow upward to represent the energy in yoga that always travels upward through the body. He also incorporates dots of paint to increase the sense of energy. The dots and spirals work simultaneously to further enhance the dimension of the work. In fact, Bernie adds dots and spirals between the coats of glaze to heighten this effect.

An additional element of the paintings is a row of colored stripes that look like bar codes. “The stripes represent a compositional break,” Bernie explains. “They are a record of color, or a recording element, like bandwidth colors on a television screen.” The scientific nature of the stripes also corresponds with the outer-space feel of the pieces.

Although audiences often recognize the works as color studies, Bernie admits that almost no one instantly figures the yoga connection out, but that wasn’t his intention. “I wanted to incorporate yoga philosophies into the work, but I didn’t want anything to be too obvious,” he explains. “The spiritual element isn’t that obtrusive - it doesn’t slap you in the face. Similarly, when I teach yoga, I don’t expound on the spiritual aspects. I let my students explore that themselves.”

Yoga techniques also inspire Bernie while he is painting. “I meditate for five minutes before starting each work,” Bernie explains. “The work is very intuitive that way…I let it happen and the images start to come forth.”

Before he attempted his first yoga pose, Bernie studied both painting and printmaking in high school, and earned a B.A. in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute. Ceramics and a corresponding fascination with spiral shapes have had a great influence on Bernie’s art.

“I’ve been drawing spirals for years - since high school,” Bernie reflects. “One of my favorite things was looking up at the galaxy…I loved to investigate natural forms.”

One of the first art forms Bernie investigated as a child was pottery. I’m not surprised to learn that Bernie taught himself how to make his first clay pot.

“I lived in the south, where you could find big wads of natural clay right in the ground,” Bernie remembers. “I lived in a neighborhood where they did construction, and one day I found some clay, made my mother a pinch pot, dried it out and painted it. She still has it.”

Incidentally, Bernie also taught himself to be a computer support technician for his “survival job,” as he calls it, in Lenexa.

Bernie says his current works are very similar to the process of making and decorating ceramics - minus the fire. (But then, there is the torch!) “The surface is similar to the glaze used in pottery…I always used bright colors and drew under the glaze when I decorated pots - and my paintings are very similar,” Bernie reveals. “I construct the surface, draw on it and then glaze it.”

Considering himself a decorative, rather than a conceptual artist, Bernie cites his early work painting decorative interiors as another influence. This experience taught Bernie more about decorative paint processes and how to use surface coatings and other materials in different ways.

Still, Bernie says decorative work wasn’t a viable art form until its resurgence in mid-1998. “Decorative work was shunned because it was still considered a craft,” Bernie explains. “There was a dividing line between craft and fine art. I knew I existed in the decorative realm, but I wanted to cross over into contemporary work.”

While Bernie’s current work, with its sleek, futuristic form, clearly crosses over to the contemporary realm, what’s the next dimension?

“I plan on taking more risks with the layers of the paintings,” Bernie forecasts. “I want to experiment further with the actual techniques involved in the construction of the surface, play more with the composition, bring the stripes up more and add even more dimensions.”

Bernie intends to remain right here in Kansas City, where the arts community itself is nurturing and supportive, and where he can also afford a studio - and a house - for around $600 per month.

As for his yoga, Bernie says that even after five years there are always new challenges. His most recent accomplishment was stretching his foot completely behind his head. And with 900 poses and variations, Bernie expects many more breakthroughs in the years to come.

I must confess that I attended one of Bernie’s yoga classes at my gym almost a year ago, although I did not know Bernie. (This marks the second time in five interviews where I knew the artist from the gym!) A back injury kept me from returning. During our interview, Bernie, ever the mentor, encouraged me to continue and gave me some pain-relieving pointers. But I am now intrigued to learn more about how yoga might inspire my own art.