Michael Killen's 'Sustainability' a Vivid Climate Reminder

Abstract, rough and powerful, artist Michael Killen’s “Sustainability” gives viewers a sense of consciousness and foreboding towards the importance of conserving Earth’s limited resources. 

In Killen’s exhibition, “As Bold As California,” hosted inside , “Sustainability” spreads over four canvases to create a dominating painting about five feet high and twenty-four feet wide. Killen utilizes a unique combination of brilliant colors, thick brush strokes and varied textures to focus the eye and the mind on pressing environmental issues.

“[Painting is] my need to communicate important messages with the public,” Killen said. “It is also to help people and myself think clearly and deeply about important developments of our time.”

Killen first began painting “Sustainability” after receiving an email from NASA asking him to create a piece to hang in a new, sustainably designed building. Although he found difficulties adhering to a theme about “things that don’t move,” as the word “sustainability” implies, Killen was inspired by what he says is most important; it is children and grandchildren that matter most.

This belief was reflected in his openness towards eight-year-old Lily Frank, who was given a chance to put her own original touches to “Sustainability” when she happened to visit Killen while he was hanging the painting for exhibition.

Killen uses the infinity symbol and depictions of renewable energy sources to represent sustainability in his painting. Heat, for example, is expressed as a pair of lovers painted in a vivid red, Killen said.

When he paints, Killen aspires to interact with viewers and develop his ideas through his artwork.

“It is to do what no other artist or few other artists would dare to try to do,” Killen said.

Prior to becoming an artist, Killen used to be the president of the research company Killen & Associates Inc., but his life changed dramatically after a bad surgical operation that left him unable to walk. It took six to seven years and five more operations before Killen could walk again, but during that time, he developed his passion for painting.

Yet despite not having any formal artistic training or any previous interest in painting, Killen was able to reproduce Matisse’s “Blue Nude” and Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” as his first few paintings after being introduced to the joys of a blank canvas and paints through family friend Leonard Breger.

Killen became interested in conserving nature and climate change in 2006.

“I was also increasingly concerned with the Bush Administration's willingness to put political people in charge of science organizations, and to edit or censor what the scientists wanted to say about climate,” Killen said.

“And, I was concerned how the Bush Administration was actively reducing regulations on energy businesses to make it easier for those businesses to make money while hurting the environment.”

Killen imagined what might happen if people continued to do things that increased the rate of climate change and harmed the environment. His painting, “Beginning After the End,” sprung from his musings, and this would be the start of his many environmental pieces.

“I hoped a few of those people would become more active in slowing growth of climate change and more interested in protecting the environment,” Killen said.

“I believed only a hundred or so people would see the painting; regardless, I wanted to do what I could to make a positive difference.”

According to Palo Alto Mayor Sid Espinosa, Killen fuels the national conversation about climate change and sustainability through his exhibition, “As Bold As California,” in the community.

“We all know that art has the power to inspire, enrage, enlighten and motivate us,” Espinosa said. “Thank goodness that Michael Killen is using this powerful medium to spark conversations about the most important issue—climate change—facing the planet.”

“As Bold As California” will be in Palo Alto City Hall until July 28, and on the 29th it moves to Santa Clara County's San Jose headquarters.