In 1974 Alan Kindler entered the architecture program at the University of Virginia, although he would rather have gone to art school, a path his parents wouldn’t support. After dropping out of college he worked creatively in the construction industry, building several of his own homes and a remodeling business, and raising a family.  During this time an unfinished charcoal self portrait followed him as a reminder of what might be.  That’s the image you’ll find on his logo.  

In the first decade of the 21st century he dabbled in pastels, refined his drawing and color skills and participated in shows in Charlottesville, VA, Wilmington, NC, New York, NY and Savannah, Ga.  He took up oil painting in 2015 and, now based in Crozet, VA, he has been devoted to honing his skills and building a portfolio of work that includes portraiture, figurative pieces, and surreal fantasies.

Kindler and his wife, Rev Susan Karlson, have been certified by the Marin Institute for Projective Dreamwork- a practice developed by Rev Dr Jeremy Taylor in which participants share their dreams in a Jungian framework over the course of six months.  These experiences have given his work one of it’s primary inspirations.

In a slow, thoughtful process a painting will develop as elements present themselves to be included, arising from the unconscious.  These paintings grow from the seed of a feeling like a dream does and are similarly amenable to interpretation afterward.  Kindler says when he begins he hasn’t any more idea how the painting will turn out than you do.

Kindler is carefully reducing his environmental footprint and watching, fascinated, as the human species evolves a sustainable way of living on the planet.  In his work you’ll find an acknowledgement of this fraught process, where elements of the ‘shadow’, Jung’s label for that which we contain but don’t want to recognize, share the canvas with hope and fancy.  He says, “It isn’t the ‘things’ in our lives or my paintings that matter most, but the relationships between those things.”

Not tied to a specific landscape or culture, the world of his paintings is located in the universal and infinite, thereby inviting everyone to share in the collective emotional experience of living.  Our own development as humans is in a reciprocal relationship with others and the entire living environment. His work catalogues his growth and invites you to see your own path reflected.  

Kindler says, “In dream groups, when we reflect on another’s dream we say, ‘If that were my dream…’.  When you look at a painting of mine, I’d like you to tell me what you see, to say, ‘if that were my painting…’”. 

Craft, content, and community are the three pillars of Kindler’s practice that grow with every brushstroke.  He has organized and ran a Visual Arts workshop at The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center in Highlands, NC. where internationally recognized guest artists taught in the outdoors on plein-air landscape painting and found-object sculpture. 

He’s collaborated with the singer/songwriter duo Friction Farm who’ve written a song about the painting “Just Beginning” and with writer Jennifer Chandler on a short story based on “Turtles All The Way Down”.

One collector said, “Alan Kindler’s work is not only provocative and intriguing, but it captures the essence of portraiture to the nth power. His mesmerizing work adds new meaning and depth to the mundane with an emphasis on detail.” - G. Andrew Page, PhD