Born: BOULDER, COLORADO 1967 My artwork explores identity and storymaking. An early example of storytelling art was set for me by a great aunt, who painted rural landscapes and intimate family scenes of 19th and 20th century Alabama. I have ever since sought to combine abstraction with storytelling. Artist Registries/ Links artists' space: Artists File Online Neo-images.net Exploring printmaking and sculpture at the University of Virginia, I graduated in 1989 with an interdisciplinary scholar's degree. In California, I studied under abstract painter Sam Tchakalian, and site/time-based artist Billie Day, receiving a BFA in Painting in 1994 from the San Francisco Art Institute. My paintings build upon the work of artists Paul Klee, Max Beckmann, Philip Guston, and the Surrealist movement. The content is all about storytelling, in the narrative tradition of William Blake, Jorge Luis Borges, and mythology and folktales the world over. Short Films Using paint and super-8 film, the 3-minute animated short "The Thing in the Garden" (1993) references fiction by Aleister Crowley, exploring the psychology of fear and the power of the will (Moonchild, 1917). In 2003, I completed "Jackie Remembers the Battle for Bull Run," a 4-minute digital film short, and am currently working on a film narrative montage of a failed family migration from Mississippi to Texas in the late 1800s. Exhibitions/ Commissions Active in the San Francisco Bay Area art scene, I have presented at the Berkeley Art Center, exhibited in Pt. Reyes and Tomales, and made a 1995 guest appearance at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. I have had two-person shows at the Diego Rivera Gallery in 1994, and the Marshall Art Gallery in 1998. In addition, I have participated in group shows at Gallery Luscombe and the Bucheon Gallery, and in benefit auctions held at Catherine Clark Gallery, SOMArt Gallery, and Fort Mason in San Francisco. In 2000, I presented my work in a video exchange between Bay Area artists and Maori artists of New Zealand as part of Te Atinga's Te Ra Festival at Toihoukura in Gisborne, New Zealand. My commissions include a 14-foot mural in the home of the Dean of the Philosophy Department, University of Virginia, and an al seco panel for Daryl Rush Builders, Piedmont, California. My paintings and sculptures are held in many private collections, including that of a Navy SEALS Special Boat Commander, of international sound art composer, Guillermo Galindo, and of renowned tattoo artist, author, and curator Don Ed Hardy. I make my home today in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with my husband, a hard-edge abstract painter, and our six-year old son. Back to Kristina Pardue main page. Copyright Kristina Pardue. Copyright Pardue & Duran. All Rights Reserved.