Kristin Goering is a studio artist based in Kansas City. Born and raised in rural Kansas, she was inspired to pursue art from a young age. She received her Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in printmaking from Bethel College in 1992. Her early career was spent as a freelance artist and illustrator with the Mennonite Press and Hearth Publishing in Newton Kansas. Her current work emphasizes layers of rich color and texture. Her stylized brushstrokes and intensified palette move beyond simple representationalism, conveying an inherent energy that extends the viewer's concept of the natural world.

 

I grew up in a small Kansas town surrounded by miles and miles of farmland. My interaction with these vast and sparsely populated landscapes created a connection that is emotional as well as conceptual. My paintings are often a visual representation of that life-long connection with the land and the natural forces that shape it. I am always on the lookout for the elements within a landscape or an experience that tether them in our memories as a reality. These elements are not always visual but when they are, they often have an intensity that borders the unnatural or unreal.

 

Through painting, I get to explore these visual elements. I am inspired by what I find around me...the land, the way colors change as the day progresses and the seasons change, the rhythm of trees and crop rows, the color and texture of my garden or the bowl of fruit in my kitchen. I often find myself painting untouched, natural places to reconnect with the openness of the land where I grew up. My paintings rarely start in the studio, I scout and gather my subjects and return them to the studio as sketches, photographs and memories, using my work to recreate the impressions I had while viewing them. I rarely paint from a single image or sketch but add and improvise from my reference materials. At some point in the process these are often discarded or forgotten as I respond to the evolving elements in the painting—brushwork, color, pattern, texture... I am happiest when my work conveys some energy or complexity found in everyday life, captures exaggerated colors and lighting and transforms the ordinary into the unforgettable.