Kristen Curry, Connections and Entanglements, photography

American, b. 1980, playing from Portland, OR, USA

Kristen is a self-taught visual artist and poetess living in Portland, OR. She looks for beauty and meaning in the stitches and scars of her life, and the lives lived around her. Though she is recognized primarily as an oil painter, she also likes to explore pen and ink, mixed media, photography and the occasional installation. She loves telling stories, and does so in a decidedly feminine strength. Her work has been shown and/or commissioned in Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Capetown, Antigua, and Portland; and has worked and volunteered in arts enrichment and education locally and internationally.

You can follow her art blog and henna website here: Kristenwhiteheart.wordpress.com WhiteHeartHenna.com Kristen Curry, whitehearthenna@gmail.com www.tumblr.com/kristencurryart

Models: Wallace Byron Curtis and Mercedes Orozco (photographed in SE Portland) John Thompson and Carly Rice (photographed in NE Portland) Alison Grayson and Daniel Sinderson ( outside the home they once shared in NE Portland) Kristen Curry (self) and Dana Henderson (outside my home in SE Portland) Kristen Curry and G (unable to be physically photographed)

• Photography assist with _0537 jpeg (of couple wound together w/red string) Thanks to John Thompson for the help securing that string and clicking the button so we didn’t have to hop in string using the timer ☺

Thoughts on the Telephone process

I was, and am delighted by the concept of this project- and excited to see the collaborative end results!

I admit, initially I did not have a strong connection with the images I received. I was especially unimpressed with the 2nd image, and I didn’t feel like I had a lot to go on. So, I sat with them, and asked them to tell me a story. I looked for common themes. And the things that kept resurfacing were the ideas of connection, tension, and entanglements. Originally, I began an oil painting of a Saptapadi ( the marriage knot symbolized by tying one end of the groom's scarf with the brides dress in Indian weddings) imposed over the form of a tension membrane. But then I got the idea to take photographs of people (in both staged and candid poses) with their ex. The idea was intimidating to me, because I am not a professional photographer, but I couldn’t shake the energy behind the idea. ..I ended up lending a camera, scheduling shoots, and abandoning the painting. The attached photographs are the first installment of what seems to be becoming a whole series. Unfortunately, because of severe winter weather and road conditions, (PDX Snowpacalypse 2014) I had to cancel some of the shoots with the couples I was most excited about photographing, and could not reschedule them until after my deadline. But I will still take them, whether or not they get published with the others- I am taking this idea, and running with it. Really, I was thankful for the push..it made me do something I would not have done on my own.