about kristi

artist's statement

I am excited by the beautiful patinas on surfaces in our environment that have been degraded by time, weather, and abrasion. I am also drawn to human form and human gestures, as a reflection of who I am as an individual and of who we are collectively as beings. These combined fascinations compel me to make textural, abstracted paintings of human subjects.

Together, human form and rough or degraded surface textures can reflect the fragility of human existence, and how we humans wear down and change over time: we become a little broken, a little irregular, and also a little bit more beautiful in the process.

I work in oils and cold wax medium, creating many layers and frequently varying my substrate preparation, mark-making, supplemental materials, and the techniques I use to selectively remove paint. Working this way allows me to explore the history of the layers I’ve created, to build textural elements, and to invite happy accidents.

  

artist's bio

Kristi Palmer studied photography and painting, first at Cornish College and then at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her BFA is in photography, and she made and exhibited photographs in a series called urbansurfaces over a decade or more. Those photographs share a visual relationship with today's paintings.

Kristi worked for a number of years in non-art fields, and in 2021 - after losing friends and family during the time of Covid - she decided it was time to return to making art. She now paints full time from her studio in Northwest Portland, Oregon.