The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
Krystan Ivey
Fine ArtistReynoldsburg Ohio 43068 United States Cell Phone: 6144461302 Birthday: September 1, 1998 Website: KrissysWork
Bio
Krystan Ivey is a painter with a Bachelor’s of Fine Art from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, OH. Her body of work is built upon a foundation of Art History and Illustration.
Krystan uses a variety of paints and drawing mediums, usually beginning with a preliminary sketch, idea, or phrase. Vivid and grounded in realism, the works combine vibrant colors with purposeful, unsettling scenes. Using repetitive mark making she simplifies visual texture into pattern, recreating figures and her environments to tell narratives. Feminist themes within her work are a result of growing up in Georgia surrounded by unfettered nature and unfiltered southern politics.
To contact Krystan Ivey please visit https://krissyswork.com/ or email her directly at KrissysWork@gmail.com
Artist Statement
My paintings invite outsiders into worlds where the wild is revered as god, where wildlife possess inherent power and intuition. In my work, “wildlife” is inclusive of human beings, particularly women, who maintain access to threads of connectivity that have been systemically discouraged by America’s individualized societal structures. Women and the wild are depicted in parallel or anthropomorphized with one another as a way for me to explore the natural world and how humanity, though disconnected from it, belongs to it.
The relationship between the subjects of my work and the viewer is complicated, the thin line of reality and experience intentionally blurred, forming an intimacy between observer and observed. Those who exist within the painted worlds daringly gaze outward, directly addressing the viewer with an unwavering declaration of their existence. I use this direct address alongside attractive colors and familiar subject matter to force the viewer to peer into the often perturbing scenes, creating an involuntary witness. My subjects are usually my self, each separated from the earthly realm only through thresholds and portals, crafting spaces where I can confront an absurd reality via magical realism and paint into existence indomitable beings of innate, wild magic. Each portrait contains autobiographical mythologies investigating belonging; belonging to the earth, to one another, and to ourselves.
My use of reverence within the paintings serves as defiance against the patriarchal norms, evident in the bold depictions of empowered women and wildlife, challenging traditional power structures and linking the work to current and past feminism’s devotion to resistance and expansiveness. Traces of the mystical are woven throughout, with symbolic imagery such as duplicates and nonhuman folk inspired by tales and folklore, submerging the work in historical references to women and the supernatural. I am engaging with painting through accessible materials including acrylic paint, colored pencils, ink, and paint pens, using these illustrative materials to tether me to the practice of narration. Using vivid colors, illustrative mark making grounded in realism, and patternized texture, I depict wildlife in conversation with domestication. I seek to create within my work a contagious curiosity about existence relating to our current and past contexts.