Carolyn Krieg

(American, b. 1953)

BFHU, fron Snapshot series, 2002

Querido, from relic/Memory Map series, 2003

My methods are a kind of metaphor for what my work is about… The transformation of a conventional chemical photographic image allows for fictional gain and generational loss, just like the formation of memories. – Carolyn Krieg

The unique look of the pictures in Carolyn Krieg’s Relics/Memory Maps and Snapshot series owes a great deal to the unique process of making them. The exact combination of steps varies from project to project, but in general begins with a picture from her travels or family archive that is then scanned to make a digital file. That file is output as a Polacolor print that is separated to produce a positive transparency which in turn may be painted or drawn on before being printed on traditional chromogenic development paper with the help of a color enlarger. At each stage the original image is recognizable but progressively altered as original information is successively lost and procedural information gained. BFHU, which takes its title from the Navaho description of dancing, “Blown From the Heart Up,” began with a picture taken in 1950s Silver Falls, Oregon of the six youngest in the artist’s family of eight siblings. Still recognizable as children but not as particular individuals, the figures take on an iconic or archetypical status, their surroundings no longer a specific place but a hazy atmosphere of artifacts and effects from each stage of the image’s transformation.

Carolyn Krieg was born in 1953 in Vancouver, Washington. She holds a BA in French language and linguistics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has continued her studies at Marylhurst College, Oregon; University of Washington, Seattle; American College, Paris; and Portland State University, Oregon. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane, Washington; Art Museum Missoula, Montanta; Sun Valley Arts Center, Idaho; Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, South Dakota; and Goddard Center for Visual and Performing Arts, Ardmore, Oklahoma among other venues. Her work is in the collections of institutions including Biblioth�que Nationale, Paris; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Washington State Arts Commission, Art in Public Places; and University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks.

- Kendra Greene

Adamson, Loch. “Lisa Gray, Carolyn Krieg: Seattle Art Museum”. The New Art Examiner. Summer 1994.

Glowen, Ron. “States of Being: Lisa Gray and Carolyn Krieg at the Seattle Art Museum”. Artweek. March 10, 1994.

Kangas, Matthew. “Carolyn Krieg at Cliff Michel - photography exhibit; Seattle, Washington”. Art in America. September 1993.

http://mocp.org/exhibitions/2003/03/beyond_digital.php

http://www.carolynkrieg.com