New Solo Show Coming Soon!
As promised, I’m back this week for more thoughts on my upcoming show Queericana that will open on August 1 at 6:00 at Calendula Gallery in St. Paul, MN.
If you missed the first installment on my reflections on the works coming out of Studio Utopia you can read Part 1 here.
For the scholars of queer theory in the crowd, I’m thinking about the term in the sense of a verb as opposed to the identity notions we may attach to the term.
When I started encountering queer theory in the early 2000s as a college student (awww sweet undergrad Kandace) it kind of broke my brain. It helped me make so much more sense of the world and it freed me from the confines of my conditioning around my body, political investments, and socialized assumptions about the world order.
While I agree with this write up about the trajectory of queer theory written by Daniel Villarreal in LGBTQNation I would advocate that women of color feminists and third world feminists have been at the forefront of critical thinking that expands all our understandings about systems of power that shape our realities. As such, my formative feminist queer theory text was Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands: La Frontera.
So with this background, queer theory expands beyond sexual identity or sexual behavior to explore the way that assumptions about what is “normal” (i.e. compulsive heterosexuality, the gender binary to name a couple…) are infused in our understandings of ourselves in relation to the structures and systems we build and maintain as humans.
To queer then is to explore and challenge normative assumptions by thinking about what are the cultural norms about a particular concept. The process of naming the processes at work can inform us on whether we want to uphold, challenge, or shift our engagement with the assumed status quo.
As someone living in a rural place, and someone who is deeply invested in the liberatory possibilities of feminist queer theory this is what I’m attempting to theorize with my new body of work - small intimate rural scenes of unique sights.
While what I notice in rural places — small towns, on the end of others’ property or on the side of county highways — are not inherently queer in the ways that term has been firmly associated with sexuality, they are queer in the sense of queer theory that simply reflects that which is non-normative.
I’m interested in deep looking and thinking about what I see in my rural environment. And the cultural assumptions inherent in what becomes “normal” out here.
Rural living comes with a depth of freedom, there are no HOA rules or as many laws enacted (enforced?) for junk piles amassing in yards. Access to wide open spaces of the mixed-grass prairie or wooded forests of rural Minnesota enables people to cultivate unique displays reflected in my paintings. Additionally without urban infrastructure for trash removal rural residents can become creative in repurposing that which is difficult to discard.
I wonder a lot about what is rural culture? Especially as someone who has been connected to rural spaces in a variety ways throughout my life.
I also have been thinking deeply about what it was like for my mama and my familia to grow up in a rural place. And what was passed down to me about those connections to rural life?
Why do I love to hear a rooster crow? Truly, it brings me so much joy.
Why do I feel more whole amongst the trees or in the rolling hills of prairie, than I do in my favorite cities?
What if rural spaces have the possibility of multiple realities - especially as I, a queer person - experience them?
Just some things to think about!
Next week I will have the third and final installment of the artist statement related to Queericana - and hope that it convinces you to join me at the opening!
Please know I would love to see you August 1st at Calendula Gallery from 6:00-8:30pm. I’m planning a special party,
The opening reception will feature an artist talk by yours truly, a work of art cake by Aunt Mona’s Cakes & Pastries and a curated menu of specialty cocktails and mocktails in collaboration with Bootleg Blondie to serve to guests as they enjoy the paintings.
I know our lives are filled with so much pain and suffering, grief, and difficulties - and it is my hope to have a few moments of joy together as we live the world we want together.
I truly see paintings as portals and my teachers, I hope they invite you to think differently about your assumptions you might hold about yourself and/or rural places.
My Ko-Fi Cup Fillers have been getting special and early access to these works in progress and some completed paintings as they’ve come off the easel. If you want a preview of a show, join the others who are supporting Studio Utopia in this special, exclusive corner of the internet.
Other ways you can join in on the Art of KCF action:
I will be at The Middle of NOWhere Art & Music Festival in Rural Iowa with some wares on the MONfest staff vendor table July 12 at the Cellar Winery in Madrid, IA.
I will be at the Urban Art Village on Saturday July 26th outside of Midtown Market in Minneapolis also peddling wares 11a-4pm.
As always, I’m glad you’re here. If you want to support my art practice the number one way you can do that is buy a painting.
If that’s not possible for you right now, I understand, please share this email with someone who you think would appreciate my work.
Let’s spread the love! It’s something we can control in these wild times.
Con cariño,
KCF