Interior Design + Fine Art + Unique Gifts
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Curating the Crossroads Lifestyle
with Marie Bertholet Smith
Kristin Pluhacek
“Plant/Animal: Drawings by Kristin Pluhacek”
Artist Statement
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Many of my studio days start in the floral department of my local supermarket.
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This is a necessity during the long winter months when all there is to look at is white and blue and brown. But it
also makes for some interesting contrasts during the more verdant months, with the perfect specimens slowly, beautifully dying in a vase while their wild cousins flaunt their freedom just outside. Each provide interesting shapes directly related to their respective environments and upbringing, but they seem to invite different types of treatment; one group is pliable, in need of arranging, while the other unapologetically makes itself known.
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Many of my compositions are made from bouquets of flowers arranged and re-arranged on the page. I keep them soft and compliant, sculpting them into controlled, somewhat geometric forms, while working to retain the
liveliness of the natural organic forms. They quietly attempt to reach beyond their prescribed boundaries - resulting in fluttering airiness in some spaces, colorful density in others.
In contrast to these structural manipulations – and maybe in conjunction – it is interesting to me to note the way that objects and space naturally intrude upon one another. Portrait studies provide the perfect opportunity for this sort of observation. So portraits of portraits of people I know are intermingled with drawings which address the plant in the way that one generally approaches the human portrait figure; as a monumental individual in a unique environment.
