Kimberly Kradel

home \| portfolio \| bio \| as \| contact \| kimba.com	Kimberly Kradel b. 1957, Mt. Clemens, MI For Kimberly Kradel, art was at first just a game she played with her grandmother. When she was a small child, her grandmother encouraged Kradel to sit down and draw, making a game of it and giving herself a break from the talkative, energetic youngster. She also encouraged Kradel to read poetry, took her for walks in nature, and conveyed to her an appreciation for art and the written word. This, of course, was only the beginning for the talented Kradel, who has gone on to a career as a painter. Her continuing hyperactivity has been channeled into paintings and drawings that pulse with energy. In these abstract pieces, Kradel uses a limited palette — simple grays, white, and black — to create dizzying masses of lines. She applies thousands of tiny marks, layering them in a flurry of activity. From the dense marks, molecular structures emerge, coming and going to unseen places beyond the picture plane. "The work is so spontaneous in nature that sometimes I think it is creating itself," she explains. "It’s really a physical representation of my energy." For Kradel, these energetic drawings suggest an important idea: that chaos and order exist alongside one another. Although her works may at first seem full of wild, random mark making, eventually a sort of visual order emerges. With equal parts white and black, for example, her lines begin to form a pattern. Even though she lays down each mark in a burst of creative energy, her works are balanced compositions: Arching forms cross one another to create elegant diagonals. "Maybe calm and disarray are made of the same elements," Kradel suggests. "They don’t necessarily cancel each other out." Kimberly Kradel studied Photography at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated in September 1977. After moving to California in 1978, she pursued a B.A. in Studio Art with an emphasis in Painting at Sonoma State University. She graduated in 1985 and has been dedicated to her work as an artist ever since. By Christine Brenneman for NextMonet.com
© 2007 Kimberly Kradel All rights reserved

b. 1957, Mt. Clemens, MI

For Kimberly Kradel, art was at first just a game she played with her grandmother. When she was a small child, her grandmother encouraged Kradel to sit down and draw, making a game of it and giving herself a break from the talkative, energetic youngster. She also encouraged Kradel to read poetry, took her for walks in nature, and conveyed to her an appreciation for art and the written word. This, of course, was only the beginning for the talented Kradel, who has gone on to a career as a painter.

Her continuing hyperactivity has been channeled into paintings and drawings that pulse with energy. In these abstract pieces, Kradel uses a limited palette — simple grays, white, and black — to create dizzying masses of lines. She applies thousands of tiny marks, layering them in a flurry of activity. From the dense marks, molecular structures emerge, coming and going to unseen places beyond the picture plane. "The work is so spontaneous in nature that sometimes I think it is creating itself," she explains. "It’s really a physical representation of my energy."

For Kradel, these energetic drawings suggest an important idea: that chaos and order exist alongside one another. Although her works may at first seem full of wild, random mark making, eventually a sort of visual order emerges. With equal parts white and black, for example, her lines begin to form a pattern. Even though she lays down each mark in a burst of creative energy, her works are balanced compositions: Arching forms cross one another to create elegant diagonals. "Maybe calm and disarray are made of the same elements," Kradel suggests. "They don’t necessarily cancel each other out."

Kimberly Kradel studied Photography at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated in September 1977. After moving to California in 1978, she pursued a B.A. in Studio Art with an emphasis in Painting at Sonoma State University. She graduated in 1985 and has been dedicated to her work as an artist ever since.

By Christine Brenneman for NextMonet.com