Chaos, destruction and reconstruction comprised an essential experience of my childhood in Germany during and after WW II. This caused a deep longing in me to bring order into disorder, clarity into confusion, stillness to quiet the inside and outside noise. Art for me is a spiritual language, it is a way to come in touch with the invisible and give it color and shape, mark and line. Eschewing a predetermined concept I mostly begin my abstract work with vigorous brushstrokes, with movements and gestures. Merging marks, lines, textures, shapes and colors, I work in many layers, moving paint around, scrubbing off and out, scratching and wiping away, generating chaos to find order, destroying to build up again. Each painting undergoes multiple metamorphoses, following traces of the past, of memories and dreams, of feelings and sensations. I like to compare this ongoing process with nature's cycles of birth, death and rebirth, of creation, destruction and building up again. The best is to step out of my own way, be in a state of no-mind and to let happen what wants to express itself naturally. Barbara Nerenz-Kelley from Germany started her study of painting in her early twenties. Following a career as a social worker and therapist, she began as a professional painter after relocating from Munich, Germany to Asheville, NC in 2004 where she lives with her American husband, the writer Robert Eaton Kelley.Barbara Nerenz-Kelley, dk Gallery Non-Representational Abstract Artist