Recollection by Kristy Childress
Like Here, Only Different
“My biggest source of inspiration is the landscape around me,” artist Kristy Childress explained. “As a central Indiana native, the flat, open farmland is at the heart of much of my work, either as the strong horizon lines in my paintings and drawings or as the shelves of my installation pieces.”
This month in the Gallery Annex, Kristy Childress presents her latest body of work entitled Recollection.
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As a young girl in Elwood, IN, Childress was always interested in making and learning about art. After she graduated from high school and studied for a stint at Herron School of Art and Design, she moved away from Indy and spent the better part of a decade living in the Northwest. She even called the United Kingdom her home for a little while before settling in Minneapolis where she was awarded an artist’s residency. While in Minneapolis, Childress finished her BFA at the University of Minnesota.
Vestige: Autumn
“I moved back to Indianapolis last year,” she said, “Partially because I liked the idea of coming full circle and returning to where I started.” In this spirit of coming full circle, Childress’s work investigates the experience of relocation and displacement, and the search for the familiar.”
This body of work, themed from Childress’s fascination with the act of collecting as a way to capture memories, features the first major paintings that she has completed since her homecoming. “The new works contain the same visual elements—houses, mountains, and trees—interpreted in different ways,” Childress explained. “Like repetitive dreams, they signify a collective memory of a single space, a moment in time, and a different view.”