Kaybeez Thoughts

If I haven't mentioned this before..

2010-10-13T14:23:00.000-04:00

I am a major fan of street artists. Banksy is one of my favorites.

Last Sunday, Banksy directed the opening couch scene for the Simpsons.(Anonymously of course..)
Check it out from hulu:

Remember when...

2010-08-12T16:20:00.001-04:00

...it was actually cold outside?? AND we had 2 feet of snow in D.C.?

WHITEOUT, with Bluebrain and the Pink Line Project from The Phillips Collection on Vimeo.

Brian Jungen Exhibition closes August 8th

2010-08-04T12:50:00.000-04:00

If you are in the DC area and haven't seen the Brian Jungen exhibition yet, make your way over to the National Museum of the American Indian and check him out! In short, he takes found or mass-produced objects to create what seem to be authentic works, but not quite...

Jungen's work can be understood on many levels including creative and playful or slightly disturbing and political. Any way you look at his work, he will make you think.

prototype for new understanding #10, 2001.
Nike Air Jordans. 11 x 14 x 23 in.
Rennie Collection, Vancouver.
Courtesy of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Animation Through Graffiti

2010-07-08T10:31:00.000-04:00

I am 1000% impressed by artist Blu. Check out Big Bang, Big Boom below..

Quick (and necessary!) Updates

2010-06-30T13:42:00.006-04:00

Hi friends!

Wow.. It's been a while, hasn't it? I didn't realize just how busy I would be in grad school. Silly me. ;)

It's summer, and I'm still working at the Katzen. I design posters for upcoming Department of Performing Arts events as well as general design for the department and the Katzen Museum. Check out one of the posters from the past year:

I've also been working for The Phillips Collection for the past six months now. It's a great modern/contemporary art museum, and I'm a part-time intern/staffer helping out the Web and Graphic Design Manager. I've just been assigned a great project - to design mesh covers for the scaffolding that's currently covering most of the older side of the museum. My work will actually be over the museum until December. AWESOME.

This past semester in school has been busy, but great. I was in a curatorial practice class where I learned the ins and outs of curating an exhibition. It's over now, but check it out here! I worked with two wonderful up and coming artists, Emily Biondo and Tori Greising.

More to come. Hopefully sooner this time!
(Also, working on a new website! Coming late August: www.kristinbruch.com)

Bilateral Exhibition at the Art Museum of the America's

2010-01-14T22:07:00.003-05:00

Today I visited the Art Museum of the America's Bilateral Exhibition. The exhibition, in the word's of the Museum, "seeks to both demonstrate the historical sweep of WSG member work of the past 25 years while also connecting it with select pieces from the AMA’s permanent collection that represent facets of the concurrent Latin American avant garde."

The art exhibited included a large collection of flip flops with barbed wire as the toe strap called Mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea). The flip flops came together to form this foreboding mass of blue.

This is another of the artist's work made from found objects on a Domican Beach called, Mar Invadido (Invaded Sea).

I do wonder if the work that I saw would have been more powerful with some type of explanation.. Were those sandals found at the beach? Bought at the beach? I imagine there was some sort of significance that I missed, but the work was still beautiful.

The last piece that I found in the exhibit, and ultimately the most interesting to me, was the Linda Hesh's FOR or AGAINST Bench Project. Check out her web page here. It will give you a great idea of what her work is about. These two sum it up for me:

Hope you are well!
K

New Year's Resolution and Reverse Graffiti

2010-01-14T21:56:00.003-05:00

Happy 2010! With the start of the new decade, I've recommitted myself to my blog - with more pictures and less writing. Maybe that way I will have more focus.

My latest grad school paper topic: Reverse Graffiti. Yes - this artwork is made by cleaning a dirty wall.

Check out Paul Curtis (a.k.a. Moose):

And Alexandre Orion...

The Apocalypse.. A Watercolor Study?

2009-09-25T18:04:00.005-04:00

DC artist Bradley Chriss has captured my attention. His current exhibit at Flashpoint titled "Visions from the End of the World" places the viewer in a world immediately after the apocalypse.

The two questions he poses for this range of paintings are: "How can we imagine anything that comes after us? More importantly: Can we imagine anything coming after us as anything but monstrous?" But hear that from the artist himself: http://bradleychriss.com/

The only way I can describe the Chriss' work is wondrously strange. The paintings and the questions the artist asks put the viewer in a state of cognitive dissonance. There is an uncomfortable tension between the ideas he presents and the media through which he presents them. These tiny, "intimate" paintings are done in gouache (think watercolor). The colors range from light and airy to brightly intense, but they are all beautiful pieces. In contrast with these beautiful colors, the artist has placed the viewer in disturbing environments with upsetting images to force them to think about these bigger questions (the world post-humans?). And that perfect mix of medium and image is exactly what makes him and his paintings so successful.

(All of images of these incredible paintings are taken directly from Bradley Chriss's website.)

Talk soon,
Kristin

Grad Assistant

2009-08-25T11:56:00.003-04:00

Hello there!

First Impression of Orientation Weekend: I'm going to like it here.

I started off Friday morning by meeting a few of my fellow Arts Managers wandering around Katzen, looking as excited and nervous as I was. We went to our first orientation for graduate assistants. What's an assistantship you ask? Basically we work for someone in the University in some capacity related to our interests and skills.

My assistantship is with Kat Gannon - who I knew through my undergraduate time at AU. Small world, right? I'll be designing 4 posters for the Performing Arts shows - Oklahoma!, Romeo and Juliet, and two of the dance performaces. It's been a little while since I've been designing, but I can't wait to get back into it.

I'm already surprised by how much free time I have. I'll have to fix that.. I try to remind myself that I need to enjoy some of this down time, but I just can't do it! I blame my mother for that. ;) I'm planning on wondering around the galleries on 14th Street to see if I can work my way into a small internship.

Have to run for now.. more later.. :)

Kristin

New Beginnings, for Me and My Blog!

2009-08-20T10:39:00.005-04:00

It's finally time! After two years in the "adult world", I am returning to the life of a student and heading to graduate school.

I'll be attending American University (my alma mater) to pursue an MA in Arts Management. At this point, you might be asking yourself, "What does that mean?"

Well, here's the master plan: I'll spend two years in graduate school learning everything I can about the business side of art: marketing, finance, management, etc, etc.. Upon completing my degree, Joe and I will head to a city like Santa Fe, NM or New Orleans, LA. I'll work the gallery scene and gain the experience necessary to one day own my own art gallery. I hope to help emerging artists get their start and provide established artists a place to continue to successfully create and sell their artwork. (And one day, I will put my own work on display!)

Tomorrow is orientation. I'll meet my fellow MA candidates (very excited!) and the faculty of the MA program. I'll keep you updated!

:) K

Paul Rousso's 2-D/3-D work

2009-04-09T13:52:00.006-04:00

In early April, I was in New Orleans, Louisiana. When I wasn't eating delicious food and partying with friends, I spent my quiet time wondering around the galleries in the French Quarter and on Julia Street. One artist caught my eye due to the magnitude and ingenuity of his work: Paul Rousso.

I spoke with the gallerist about the piece specifically. Paul paints thick acrylic paint on a greased, nonstick surface, like glass. Once the paint dries, he peels it from the glass and attaches it to a wood panel. I'm sure it's much more complicated than this, but WOW! What an effect. He essentially creates wall sculptures.

When I came home from my trip to the south, I promptly googled him. What I learned: Paul is a well known artist from Charlotte, South Carolina. He decided to pursue art at age 30 and was the first artist on BusinessWeek's Top 40 under 40. Good work, Mr. Rousso.

On to Santa Fe

2008-12-22T15:56:00.005-05:00

I traveled to Santa Fe this summer. It was my first time in the area, and I was amazed by the natural beauty and the created beauty in the area. One of my favorite experiences while I was there was wondering up and down Canyon Road.

While peeking in and out of art galleries, I found one showcasing a style of painting that I couldn't figure out. Javier Lopez Barbosa creates paintings that look like fused glass. They're large canvases and look hard, as if you could knock on the canvas as if it were a door. I asked the gallery owner if he could tell me a little about the process the artist used, and he said it was a trade secret. I guess I'll just need to figure it out on my own! :) Any ideas?

It's something about the colors...

2008-12-20T18:13:00.006-05:00

All of my favorite painters and artists tend to use colors to convey the theme in their art. Kandinsky, Derain, Turner, Monet, Van Gogh..

Like these pieces, my work is colorful and bright. Coming soon, I will have pictures of some of my latest works up!

My favorite “wild beast” – André Derain

2008-12-19T16:00:00.006-05:00

A little background: The public disapproval at the Salon d'Automne in 1905 marked the advent of Modernism. The artists who exhibited there were dubbed "fauves," or wild beasts, due to their paintings’ colorful and primitive nature. The term fauve stuck. While the public ridiculed the fauves, several critics were more appreciative, and some young artists found the new works thought-provoking and exciting.

These were paintings on the edge of abstraction. They negotiated new, unstable territory. Fauve pictures stand at the border between pictorial illusion and the kind of "pure paint" that would become a preoccupation of twentieth-century modernism. The saturated colors of fauve paintings were not descriptive of nature. The colors were unblended, without the subtle shading that suggests three-dimensionality.

Fauve painting did not have the concerted and sustained momentum of a coherent movement. The fauve period lasted only a few years, from about 1904 to 1908. The artists, never formally associated, moved on to work in other styles.

Presenting André Derain:

Derain began to paint his first landscapes in 1900, where he attended painting classes that let him to meet Matisse. Throughout his life, he was affected by war. In 1901 to 1904, he was conscripted into the French army. Following his release from service, Derain attended the Académie Julian.

Derain and Matisse worked together through the summer of 1905 in the Mediterranean village of Collioure and later that year displayed their highly innovative paintings at the Salon d'Automne.In March 1906, the noted art dealer Ambroise Vollard sent Derain to London to compose a series of paintings with the city as subject. In 30 paintings, Derain put forth a portrait of London that was radically different from anything done by previous painters of the city. With bold colors and compositions, Derain painted multiple pictures of the Thames and Tower Bridge. These London paintings remain among his most popular work.

In 1907 art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler purchased Derain's entire studio, granting Derain financial stability. He experimented with stone sculpture and moved to Montmartre to be near his friend Pablo Picasso and other noted artists. Fernande Olivier, Picasso's mistress at the time, described Derain as “Slim, elegant, with a lively colour and enamelled black hair. With an English chic, somewhat striking. Fancy waistcoats, ties in crude colours, red and green. Always a pipe in his mouth, phlegmatic, mocking, cold, an arguer.” At Montmartre, Derain began to shift from the brilliant Fauvist palette to more muted tones, showing the influence of Cubism and Paul Cézanne.

At about this time Derain's work began overtly reflecting his study of the old masters. The role of color was reduced and forms became austere; the years 1911-1914 are sometimes referred to as his gothic period. In 1914 he was mobilized for military service in World War I and until his release in 1919 he would have little time for painting.

After the war, Derain won new acclaim as a leader of the renewed classicism then ascendant. With the wildness of his Fauve years far behind, he was admired as an upholder of tradition. The 1920s marked the height of his success, as he was awarded the Carnegie Prize in 1928 and began to exhibit extensively abroad.

During the German occupation of France in World War II, Derain lived primarily in Paris and was much courted by the Germans because he represented the prestige of French culture. Derain accepted an invitation to make an official visit to Germany in 1941, traveling with other French artists to Berlin to attend an exhibition by Nazi sculptor Arno Brecker. The Nazi propaganda machine naturally made much of Derain's presence in Germany, and after the Liberation he was branded a collaborator and ostracized by many former supporters.

A year before his death, he contracted an eye infection from which he never fully recovered. He died in France in 1954.

-Info from National Gallery of Art and Wikipedia

The Ball is Rolling...

2008-05-15T13:01:00.000-04:00

My first gallery show went well. At least 80 people came out to support us. Thanks to all who made it out! At the show, I sold my first painting, Oil Spill. I couldn't be more excited about it!

Now that I have one show under my belt, I'll be moving on to my outdoor show June 21 - 22 in Ocean City, Maryland. It's a fine arts festival called Arts Alive. I visited the show several years ago when I was participating in a softball tournament. It's on North Pond in Ocean City, and what a beautiful venue it is!

At the show, I have a 10'x10' tent all to myself! Woo! There are about 100 artists, and the show is juried. I'll be participating as a Mixed Media artist, since that's what the majority of my work has been recently. Check it out..

Iris and Tiger Lilies

Shrapnel

Auburn Table Top

If you happen to be in the Ocean City area that weekend, feel free to stop by and check out my work and the work of other area artists.

Until next time,

Kristin

"The world is but a canvas to the imagination."
-Thoreau

A Little Less Recent

2008-04-11T14:05:00.000-04:00

Hi, everyone!

Painting has been a love of mine for a few years, but only recently have I really had the chance to spend some time on it. I graduated from American University last year. During that final year of college, I took two art electives (which happened to be two of my favorite courses!). Both of my professors, Bill Wallace and Zoe Charlton, gave me a lot of freedom, and I definitely appreciated that! I couldn't wait to pick up a paintbrush and dive back into art. It had been years since I did any real painting. Below are a few of my favorite works from that last year of college.

Colorshift - A Dr. Seuss Study
18" x 24"
Oil on Canvas
May 2007

Channels
36" x 40"
Acrylic on Canvas
April 2007

Tree Lady
4" x 6"
Oil on Canvasboard
April 2007

:Inspired by the work of Natasha Wescoat

Sea Lady
4' x 5'
Oil on Canvas
April 2007

:Inspired by the work of Natasha Wescoat

Sunset (1 in a series of 4)
8" x 10"
Oil on Canvas
August 2006

In my next post, I'll show some of my most recent works.

Until next time,
Kristin

"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."

-Salvador Dali

Painting Exhibition

2008-04-08T11:55:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be in a painting exhibition? Yes!

My art instructor is organizing an exhibition in Kensington, MD on Friday, May 2. The following two of my paintings are going to be on display:

Here's a little more information about the show:

http://kensingtonpaintingexhibition.blogspot.com/

Reception: Friday, May 2, 2008
Time: 6:30-8:30

Location: Kensington Framing & Gallery
10805 Connecticut Ave
Kensington, MD 20895

Hope to see you there!
Kristin

"Alice laughed, 'There's no use trying,' she said, 'one can't believe impossible things.'

"'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'"

-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

Welcome!

2008-04-08T10:24:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone!

With the suggestion from my current art instructor, Shara Banisadr (http://www.rumicard.com/), I decided to create my very own art blog. I plan to post photos of my art, events in which I will be attending and participating, and my general thoughts and feelings about art.

Stay tuned!

Thanks,

Kristin

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

-Pablo Picasso