Bindings Series #1
Kristen Arden
Name: Kristen Arden
City/State: Minneapolis, MN
Email: kristen@kristenardenstudio.com
Website: www.kristenardenstudio.com
MNartist.org profile: Arden,
Kristen
Facebook page: Kristen Arden
Twitter: @kardenstudio
Bio~
I graduated
with a BA in Painting and Drawing and spent my 20’s working in various
art-related jobs, including completing a Master’s Degree in Art History with
the thought I could teach and do art on the side. When it became clear I had to choose between
Art History and Art I returned to art-making after I moved out to San Francisco.
I fell in love with building, sculpture, and working with metal (both casting
and fabricating) while taking classes at CCAC and working. In mid-2003 I moved to Minneapolis from San Francisco
and started working out of my Northrup King Building studio. I currently work full-time doing custom
commercial and residential work and have work in corporate and private
collections including with Loram, the Westin, and United Health Group.
Bindings Series #2
Tell me about your work?
What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
I work in series. I come up with an idea or premise, start to
work it over in my head and then work it out through sculptures, both wall and
free-standing pieces. I rework it as
many times as I feel the idea or series can remain fresh.
I’ve recently begun working
on some new series, and am continuing work on others. The most recent series I’ve
been working on are my Architectonic
Series that are installations based on architectural styles, and what I’m
calling my Botanic Series, first inspired
while thinking about Carl Linnaeus’ drawings and approach to the ‘natural
world’. I’ve also started thinking about
symbolism, but am still working some of that out. In both these series I’m abstracting,
enlarging, and then reassembling snapshots of either a design or plant as an
installation. Both new series have a
relationship to my past work, but are more sculptural in nature than my Earthworks Series, in particular.
Nothing in Progression Lies on its Original Path
How did you decide to
become an artist?
I grew up drawing and spent
hours looking through my Dad’s collection of art books. I found them endlessly fascinating and still
remember those books vividly. It was
pretty exciting and eye-opening to me as a kid, looking at all those paintings
and thinking about the artists that created them. I think I’ve always felt
compelled by art, and always wanted to create, draw, build, whatever. I was also endlessly fascinated by my Dad’s
shop and would watch him work in it. It
wasn’t til after college that I realized you could put the two together.
What was the best advice
given to you as an artist?
Probably the best piece of
advice I’ve gotten was from a teacher who remarked how important taking time
out while you’re working on a piece to think about what you’re doing and why is
just as, if not more, important than how determined and tenacious you are in
your work. It may seem obvious but it
really resonated with me.
Natural History Museum Project: Map and Boat
Many artists struggle to
find ways to sell their art. How do you sell your work? How do you
market yourself?
I found having a good
website was critical for getting my work out there and found by people
(www.kristenardenstudio.com). I think
it’s also important to do a lot of day-to-day things that may not seem significant
but at the end of a year add up to a lot of proverbial ground covered.
Botanic Series #1
Who are some of the
Minnesota artists you enjoy?
Maren Kloppmann www.marenkloppmann.com
Eleanor McGough www.mnartists.org/Eleanor_McGough
Jennifer Davis www.jenniferdavisart.com
Danny Saathoff www.dannysaathoff.com
Shannyn Joy Potter www.shannynjoypotter.com
If I were to follow you
around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
When I get the chance I
love going to any of the bigger museums – the MIA (www.artsmia.org), the Walker (www.walkerart.org), and the Weisman (www.weisman.umn.edu). The sculpture
park at the Walker is always fun, as is Franconia Sculpture Park (www.franconia.org). And of course
some local galleries too when I get the opportunity to go to an opening, like
Gallery 360 (www.gallery360mpls.com).
In addition to
www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources,
whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world
locally and otherwise?
I actually see a lot of
interesting art and artists pop up through Facebook and perusing online papers
like the Huffington Post.
Architectonic Series #1
What can we expect to see
from you in the future?
I have some new work up at
Gallery 360 for a show featuring another artist, Natasha D’Schommer (www.natashadschommer.com),
that opened in March. I recently installed
a larger-scale window installation at a business storefront in mid-March, and am
working on some new pieces that I’ll show during Art A Whirl (May 17-19, 2013) in the Northrup King Building and then move to a
gallery. In addition I have some commission work I’m working on, and continue
thinking about where I want to go with my work next.
Kristen Arden
