There is a tenacity to the creative spirit; one that resists all forms of repression. Perhaps no creative journey is testimony to this truth more than Ken Herren’s.
Herren’s inspiration landed in his life in a most remarkable way. A semitrailer carrying several hundred gallons of paint lost its load on his City street. A riotous, life-sized abstract painting spilled across his neighborhood street and awakened a full sensory experience of color and mess. When the City learned of the incident, trucks full of sand converged on the site and with a rhythmic thrum of shovels, the child’s source of enjoyment was systematically concealed.
This experience birthed a subconscious calling and Herren was destined to demand more of his life experience than the ordinariness most days deliver. When his creative musings were overshadowed by adult influence and a compliance to pursue the more practical sciences was agreed upon for his future; discontent and dissatisfaction took up residency in a heart that knew how to experience joy. It wouldn’t be long before a 13-year addiction emerged as the first outcropping of a true soul fight ensued.
Now 36 years sober and led on a wild multi-year ride that included nursing, firefighting and ultimately, the opening of a gallery and custom frame studio with his wife; Herren now looks at the “long game” his creative spirit was willing to play to come into full manifestation. And his colorful expressionist pieces hold their presence within the Twin Cities art community as unapologetically as his soul’s mission to express.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Born in the 1950's and raised in a rural community and later becoming "enlightened" in the urban art scene of San Francisco, Ken is challenged with communicating a visual narrative that speaks to the tension of those two major forces. He is primarily focused on bringing those two worlds together using abstraction as the tool to accomplish this task. A simple landscape collides with the energy of the city...
Using color, composition and texture, his paintings convey a sense of the pastoral and inevitable disrepair.