Interviews
The Directories of American Art Galleries
An Interview with
Kristine Amodeo
by David M. Cambridge
Can you tell us a bit about your background? Where did you grow up?
My parents belong to the Baha'i Faith and its followers travel the world sharing their beliefs. We call this "pioneering". So, because my parents were pioneers, I grew up in different parts of the world. I lived in a small village on Kodiak Island in Alaska until i was 9, then we moved to the Bahama Islands. My Dad was an airline pilot and we did a lot of traveling every year - the Caribbean, the US, South America, Israel & Europe.
So you are a "world citizen," so to speak, not anchored to any particular culture. But wouldn't this rub off on your art and make it universally appealing?
I think my connection with indigenous art comes from having lived and traveled all over the world. My mother collected art from before I was born and her collection now represents all corners of the earth. I have absorbed the sights, colors and smells of so many different places that they all live inside of me and I'm only just now beginning to dig a bit deeper for these stored up images. Whether they will be universally appealing I really don't know, I would like to hope so.
Was anyone in your family an artist?
No one was a painter, if that's what you mean. My dad was good at design and architectural drawings. He used to draw planes, trains, boats and cars for me for fun, and he was a good model for me to imitate and emulate. The way my dad flew a plane--and very often I flew in the cockpit with him--was very artistic!
My Mom used to do those paint by number kits when I was really little, and she would hide them under her bed because the paint was toxic and messy. She was good with fabric and made doll clothes for us, decorated our homes, etc. She could choose any fabric for a project and it always looked perfect. I found a profound enjoyment in the beautiful colors, especially since the fabric of such cultures as Peru and Brazil, for example, were exceptionally bright and vivid. The weavings from my mother's Swedish relatives, from Haiti and Peru, too, were handmade with intricate and colorful motifs and as a child I couldn't help but to react to this beauty. So, in her own special way my mother was an artist and role model.
One of Kristine's favorite abstract pieces. Mixed Media. Sold
What inspired you to become a painter? I mean, why not an airline pilot? What was so special about being a painter that you chose it as a career? But perhaps you didn't choose it. Perhaps it came accidentally?
I was very attracted to flying actually, but I love creating more. My first love was colored pens and I did a lot of drawing and designing before high school. Then I discovered painting. I fell in love with oil painting when I was about 34. Just the smell of the paints reminded me of once when I was about 6 years old and discovered the hidden paint set. I opened them up and smelled them all! The colors were pretty boring looking but the picture looked good when it was all finished. Actually, my oil painting is probably a stage that I'm at. I would be creative with something even if you took all my art supplies away..it sort of oozes out. Once when I had very little money and very little art supplies I used an old telephone book, old cardboard and one packet of wall paper paste for a dollar to create little papier mache boxes, then painted them with some old decorative paints. It worked so well that I designed my own frame around a little mirror and painted that. My children were really young and I'd gotten out of touch with my creative side. This simply reminded me that it's always there inside of you.
How long have you been painting?
Well, i remember painting at an easel in kindergarten....so age 5. My first piece was a large orange pumpkin and when i painted the green stem it dribbled down into the pumpkin....my first art trauma! But my mother says i used to draw in her books and she has a small drawing of an animal that i made at about 18 months.
Did your parents encourage you to paint?
Yes, in many ways. To mark my 11th birthday my parents gave me an entire set of acrylic paints which is embedded in my memory.
What fine arts educational institutes have you attended?
When i was 15 my high school art teacher recommended i take the Advanced Level examinations from University of London two years ahead of schedule. (I was in a British parochial school in Nassau and our final exams were all sent overseas to London before we matriculated). Once i was finished with all my exams i had to prepare for
Upper Dana Meadows, Yosemite Park, California
university in the United States as there were no colleges in the Islands at that time. I was only 16 when i matriculated and my parents made me wait a year before leaving home.
During the summer we visited the California Institute of the Arts and i was accepted on the spot after an interview with the Dean. But when i discovered that the average student age was 22, i couldn't bear the thought of moving 3,000 miles away from my family to go to school with people i considered to be "grown-ups"! I ended up finding a small college closer to home (Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida) and spent two years doing every studio course i could fit into my schedule. After two years i was chosen to be one of 9 students to do a year long graphics course in Florence, Italy. I chose instead to spend a year in South America traveling and studying art in Peru and Brazil.
Chuck Waldman examining one of Kristine's paintings
done in his Tuolumne workshop.
While in Brazil I applied to the University of California at Santa Cruz, was accepted, and spent one year doing graphics and art history. A year later I got married and my husband and I moved to Ohio where I attended Ohio State University and studied art history. Within a year we moved to South Africa where we stayed ten years. Back in the United States I finally graduated from the University of California in Santa Cruz with a double degree in fine arts and literature.
Who are the artists that you think were a key to your artistic development?
While visiting Sweden in my teens I discovered Carl Larson, the Swedish painter. Also at about the same age we walked into Nathan Galleries in New Orleans and I discovered a poster of an Israeli artist named Tobiasse. His work was bright and bold which led to an immediate love also of Marc Chagall. The work of Larson chronicled a long gone era, but these artists were so alive and full of dramatic color that they really spoke to me. Next came the French Impressionists and, finally, I discovered California Impressionism. I was never attracted to the Old Masters until an adult but am now enthralled with all those artists I thought were dull in my art history classes!
After moving to California I studied women artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, and got to know the artists in my own community. I've painted en plain air with both Leslie Hurst & Chuck Waldman. Leslie is a colorist and I was attracted to her work first thing. Chuck works in a more traditional style and I've done two workshops with him which has helped me ground myself in outdoor painting. Most recently I did a workshop with Robert Burridge and my love for bright, BOLD color was almost satiated! I say that with a little tongue-in-cheek because I REALLY LOVE bright color.
An abstract piece. Mixed Media.
Burridge is a fascinating artist and his medium is acrylics. Chuck Waldman paints in oils, as does Leslie Hurst. Do you paint in oils or acrylics?
Right now I'm painting in oils, but I also paint in acrylics. Burridge uses both oils and acrylicsand watercolour as well. Sometimes he uses acrylics as an underpainting and then paints oils on top. A lot of his work is classified as Mixed Media. :o) He is such a facile artist that he can switch easily from one medium to another without a problem. I'm beginning to do the same. I'll paint en plein air all morning and then back in my studio do a quick study for a still life in acrylics. Studies and underpaintings are great to do with acrylics because of the quick drying time.
Kristine with Robert Burridge.
Which of the two mediums is your preference, and why?
I enjoy painting with just about anything..even food colouring on easter eggs are fun! However, oil is my favourite medium. for me even making a chart of all the tubes of paint I use is funjust to handle the paint! The oils have a texture which cannot be mimicked by any other paint. Acrylic is plastic bottom line, and I find that I spend a lot of time trying to get rid of the fake look. Oils have depth to them that causes a richness, a deep glow or luminescence. My biggest gripe about acrylics is that I will get lost in my painting and come back to find my blob of perfectly mixed colour dried up to a shiny mirror puddle. Then I have to try to remember how I mixed it in the beginning. Acrylics are lots of fun for working in mixed media, and I did an entire series of pieces using tissue and gesso with acrylic. I constantly felt pressured by the drying factor and the fast pace was a bit stressful. Maybe that is why I like oils so much, they are so forgiving. They wait for you! You can speed the drying time a bit with Cobalt Drier or an alkyd medium like Galkyd or Liquin if you prefer.
Who are some of the artists that you like most?
Well, I've said that I'm most affected by color, so it follows the Impressionists affect me greatly (Morisot, Monet, Renoir, & Cézanne particularly). Only recently have I begun to get a similar internal emotional response from the Byzantine or Medieval art period. Maybe one simply needs to mature a bit in understanding the purpose of art from that period of history. The Russian icons and gilded pieces rich with antiquity really speak to me now. The loving care that was taken through the centuries to keep these works restored has been impressive.
As for my present infatuation with en plein air, it started with an article I found on John Cosby (an artist in Laguna Beach, California). After reading the whole thing I copied down all the colors in his palette and ordered all the ones that I didn't already own. I figured that the first step to getting that dazzling color and light, was to get the same color palette. I discovered that there is just a BIT more to it than that!
What might this "BIT more" be, for example?
Well, if you watch an experienced painter give a demonstration it usually looks so easy. But when you are learning a technique for the first time, it's like learning a new recipe for bread. You need to follow every little detail the first few times til you get the hang of it, all the while trying to suppress the feeling "I know how to do this already." It's almost also like trying to brush your teeth with the opposite hand.you want to just grab it in your dominant hand and get it done right! But to be fair to learning a new technique you force yourself to stick with it through all the steps as taught by the demonstrator. In the case of Cosby's colour palette, all I had was the palette, and nothing really to go on for his technique. It was basically a hit and miss type of exercise. How does he use this terra rosa? I love the blue there in his sky, but did he start with cerulean or cobalt? That type of thing.
Do you do commissioned and custom work?
I have done, but it's not my favourite. There's a lot more work involved than just the painting part. You have to really communicate from the very beginning and get it all in writing. People remember verbal ideas differently. I've done murals, and other smaller pieces, but I find it more stressful than painting a series of works on my own.
You are -- how could I put it -- "lesser known," or an "emerging" artist. Does popularity scare you at all?
I don't really think about that. Does that mean that I don't think it possible? Maybe. Essentially, that's not my goal. I view fame as an illusion here today gone tomorrow, and no substance to it whatever. My goal is to keep working at becoming a better painter. I can see each stage as a stepping stone to not only better technique, but more meaningful images. I would like my art to touch people's hearts.not just be pretty decoration. I've had to learn that not every piece that I paint will have real impact or great meaning. Some of my pieces are based on spiritual ideas or quests of my own. For instance, one series I did was titled "The Ocean of Light" and dealt with my visions of the next world [life after death]. I had lost my husband, my mother and 2 friends all in the period of 3 years, and this is one way that I delved into myself about death being the closure of one stage and the door to another plane of existence.
Do you have any doubts as to your career in the world as a painter?
That's just a bit overwhelming for me to think about at this point. I don't expect to make much of an impact on the world as a whole. If it were to happen I would psyche myself up to getting used to the idea. I'd rather work on the daily aspect baby steps as I call it. Take care of the everyday, a little at a time. Before you know it, you're at a huge new step and because you've not been stressing over an "eventual", it is easier to just slide right in.
Does competition scare you?
My first juried show was a bit hair raising. I did worry about even being accepted. Personality wise I tend to shy away from competition, but because it is a part of life as an artist, I just grit my teeth and go on with it. In the process I've learned that one acceptance, or one ribbon is not the crowning glory on your work, nor is it guaranteed to win a ribbon at another show next month. It's totally arbitrarily up to the jury or group of judges doing the show, as to what catches their fancy at that moment! The biggest advantage to entering competitions and shows is that you get out and see what others are painting in your area, you meet other artists, find out about classes, new shows, and other art opportunities. I try to do every "opportunity" that opens up that is within my range. Moderately speaking, of course. It keeps you on your toes, gives you a challenge, nurtures your creativity.
Are you doing anything now that is helping you to establish yourself as an artist in the world?
Well, one thing that I firmly believe in is sharing with others. This interview for example. Also, I teach. I've found more out about myself by teaching others.there's no way to even quantify it. It gives me the greatest pleasure, and I always receive more back than I give. Robert Genn is a good example of a giving artist. I've never seen his work in real life but admire him greatly. He gives of himself, his time & knowledge. He shares and inspires so many others through his internet letters and site. Robert Burridge also gives greatly of himself in his teaching. He shares all the aspects of how he paints as well as how he markets his work and my three day workshop with him was so full, that I'll be digesting it all for weeks to come. I think the idea of the starving artist in the garrett has got to go. I don't work well in a vacuum.i need inspiration, people around, other artists to work with and receive feedback from.
As a woman I would like to be respected as an artist. For so long I've been appreciated for mothering or just being a female, and not for my worldly accomplishments. I would like to be known as an artist of integrity not some flashy icon serving a fleeting capitalistic monster.
What are your immediate and future goals?
My immediate goals are to reorganize my painting studio more to service the way that I paint. I tend to crowd into a corner and limit myself to not being able to splash around and make a mess. Because I teach on the opposite side of the studio, I am self conscious of how tidy the studio looks, and tend to not get very messy. After doing 32 paintings in three days with Burridge, I'm in desperate need of storage space for wet paintings.. So, my space is constantly evolvingone new item I will be including is a huge glass piece to be my palette. That's a Burridge inspiration and really facilitates painting large and getting further away from the canvas. He even uses long twigs attached to his brushes.I'm not there quite yet. I'm near-sighted and find myself creeping closer and closer to my painting work.
As for future goals, my agent has set up a one-person show coming up in April in Sonora, California, and several other integrated shows are brewing in San Francisco and Laguna Beach. But I try not to think about these shows too much. However, in the back of my mind is the constant reminder that I will be starting a new body of work for these shows, and I want it to be very striking and unusual. I'd like to surprise everybody with something wonderful. I know not what it will be just yet.
Kristine's website: www.sierra-arts.net
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