Cortez artist Karen Kristin dipped her brush in an orange-flame-colored paint and furiously began applying it to her canvas. This time, however, Kristin wasnt painting her realistic skies that have been featured on the cover of Time magazine and provided as backdrops for films and rock videos. This time her canvas was the walls of her gallery as she prepared for its official opening to the public.
Kristin, along with fellow artists Becky Hammond and Joyce Heuman, held a reception June 11 for Sky Art Gallerys first show featuring their work through the end of July. It was well received as approximately 200 people filled the gallery and spilled out onto North Sligo Street for the event.
Somebody said, This is like a New York gallery. I said Ha, Ha, I dont think so, Kristin said with a laugh. But it was fun to hear it.
It was so crowded we couldnt hear ourselves talk, added Heuman.
Kristen has been at the same location, 125 N. Sligo St., for eight years, but has never been open to the public other than a retrospective showing of her pieces about four years ago. The gallery also serves as Kristins studio, where she creates all her paintings in the basement downstairs.
Kristin, Hammond and Heuman gathered at the studio June 16 to talk about their inspirations in creating their art pieces.
Heuman paints in watercolors, and her works have a notable Asian influence. Several of her paintings feature oneness circles, representing the oneness of all beings.
To me, its about the inner world painting what dialogue or what energy comes from inside not from outside, Heuman said. Im not just painting what I see. Im painting about what I feel about what I see.
Heuman has been playing with more brushwork in her recent paintings by using bamboo brushes, that are different than western watercolor and oil painting brushes. It is often round, and, depending on the bristles, it can be hard or soft.
Her paintings are also filled with Southwestern themes, including canyons, bluffs and Anasazi designs from Crow Canyon, where Heuman works as a graphic designer.
Hammond, also a Crow Canyon employee, works with beads, and the framing of her geometric patterns make them unique pieces of art.
I learned to bead when I was 13 or 14. My grandmother taught me to bead. Ive known how to bead, I just never did anything with it, Hammond said, noting that she only picked up the practice again a couple of years ago.
Hammond said her work is mainly inspired by M.C. Escher, an early 20th century artist known for using mathematical components with a three-dimensional design.
Hammonds patterns are mainly black and white, but in her recent Pueblo and Ute designs shes starting to use more colors. She also differs from most beaders with her use of tiny Delica beads from Japan that lock together to present an unbroken surface rather than the Czechoslovakia seed beads her grandmother used.
Kristin, known as the Skypainter, recently forayed into landscape painting and travels around the area doing plein-air, open air paintings. Her larger works on display in the gallery, that were 80 percent sprayed and 20 percent brushed, were inspired by photographs she took of the Four Corners most notable land monuments Ute Mountain, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde and Shiprock.
They pay homage to our area and the kind of skies we have, the landforms we have, the animals we have, and that kind of mystical energy we have, Kristen said. This is my first attempt to mix up all of these elements that Im interested in.
Kristin has studied Taoism for about 40 years. The Chinese philosophy has eight elements: fire, earth, air, water, thunder, wind, mountain and lake, that are represented at the bottom of her four paintings as broken and unbroken lines.
The paintings also each feature an animal representation that takes the viewer through time as a realistic rendition shifting into a human interpretation of the animal in a mystical or spiritual way, according to Kristin.
Viewings of the three artists works are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at Sky Art Gallery. Other times can be arranged by calling 565-8965 or 533-1223 to set up an appointment.
Well be up until the end of July, Kristen said, adding that other artists are also being lined up for a future show in August. Well see how it goes.
Reach Paula Bostrom at [email protected].
