Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Special Guest Post: Danielle Krysa aka The Jealous Curator on her Brand New Show, This Friday at Assemble

Before we hand it over to Danielle for her lovely guest post, we just wanted to say how happy and honored we are to have her art work at Assemble for her first art show. The work is fantastic, funny and honest, just like her. We were lucky enough to get to know her a bit at her Girl Crush Seattle Tea Party that we co-hosted. Be sure to mark your calendars for this Friday, from 6-9pm. Show up, Skype with the artist on our Mac at 7pm, or if you can't make it (or just feel like having fun and chatting with the artist) come to the Tweet Party: hashtag -- #JealousofAssemble! Tweet Party from 6-9pm. See you there!! ALSO, please look for a special Artist Spotlight section in our shop on Monday, November 12th to purchase Danielle's work.


. . . . . . .

Hello! This is Danielle from The Jealous Curator popping in to do a little guest post! Ok, so I usually write about other artists' work, but today Andie & Emily have asked me to write about my own...gulp. That's a lot harder! Oh well, here we go:

This new series will be seen for the very first time at Assemble on Friday, November 9th {thanks for having me, girls!} The show is titled, "alleglory," a mixture of allegory & glory. Definition: "stories from my glory days." Yep, my mind has always been filled with snippets, almost little snapshots, of memories. From my sunny childhood, to my self-induced/drama-filled teen years -- they are a quick visual flash, that my brain insists on tagging with a one or two sentence story. Prom dates, old cars, and burning couches that boys jumped over at bush parties {seriously}. So, now you know how my brain works, but wait, there's more! I can't just have these images floating around in my head randomly -- that's right -- they're color coded! Here's a little peek:

Grey for my teen years:

alleglory show by danielle krysa the jealous curator teen years

And yellow for my childhood years:

alleglory show by danielle krysa the jealous curator childhood years

There you have it! These tidbits of memories will be with me forever, and now they're on the wall at Assemble! The show opens on Friday November 9th, from 6-9pm. I hope you can come... I'll be there via Skype!

{p.s everything in this show is a combination of gouache, latex, image transfers from my personal photos, and embroidery thread on watercolor paper.}

. . . . . . .

We had a few fun questions to ask Danielle while we had her attention here on the blog. Enjoy!

Assemble: How did you come to be "The Jealous Curator?"
Danielle: I started The Jealous Curator for myself almost four years ago. Being an artist myself I found that I was getting so overwhelmed by all of the amazing artwork I was finding online. I truly was jealous {the bad kind}, and it was eating me alive. Someone told me that jealousy that is kept inside becomes toxic, but when you say it out loud, it can become admiration... and so that's why I started the blog. I decided to shout my jealousy {the good kind} from the rooftops, and turn something terribly negative, into something wonderfully positive. And it worked!

Who are you most 'jealous' of?
I would say I'm most jealous of anyone who can go to their studio every day, and just work... artist block or not!

Who are your favorite artists or designers?

Oh boy, that's a very long list. I've written over 1000 posts, about artists I love, on The Jealous Curator - all of them are on my list!

We loved hosting Girl Crush with you in May, do you have any fun events coming up?
I loved it too! xo! Ok, well, let's see - I'll be speaking at Alt Summit in January {Salt Lake City}, and then in February I'm curating a show in Chattanooga, TN. I've been asked to speak the University the night before the opening, and I'm beyond excited! Speaking of excited, GIRL CRUSH Austin with Alyson Fox is on April 20th, and there a few spots left - who wants to come!?

After your artistic process creating this show, if you could give any advice to artists or designers (even bloggers) what would it be?
Just make stuff. At the beginning of the process, I got so caught up with making 16 new, "perfect pieces". It was paralyzing. I decided to prep 50 sheets of watercolor paper, and then just go for it! Whichever 16 I liked best would go into the show. The others, well, they will never see the light of day! {insert evil laugh here}

What do you like to do in your off-time?
What do you mean "off-time"? ;) I have a 6 year old son, so if I'm not designing, jealously curating, or making my own art you will most likely find me playing some kind of dinosaur game with him!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I don't know if I can commit to any one place, so I'd say Paris for a year, New York for a year, Bali for a year, back home for a year...and repeat!

If you could have one zany and unique talent, what would it be?
Hm. Well, I've always been in awe of people who can tie cherry stems with their tongues.

If you could have one famous person purchase a piece from your show, who would it be?
Kristen Wiig. I love her very, very much.

What's your dream job, besides what you are doing now?
I do absolutely love what I'm doing now, but if I could do a life-do-over, I'd be an actor. Or an interior designer. Or an actor who also does interior design.

Thank you, Danielle!!



Blogging tips