Happy New Year, folks! Shocking news, but I once again fell behind and this post is overdue. That said, I have decided to move this series to a monthly schedule to give myself more time to connect with a variety of artists around the island. If you happen to know of an artist on the Big Island or are an artist yourself, feel free to reach out! I’m always looking for more individuals to photograph!
Kristie Fijuyama Kosmides
I randomly discovered Kristie’s work on Instagram this fall. Her paintings really grabbed my attention and I was excited to see that she is based right here in Hilo as well! Something you lovely readers may not know about me is that reaching out to people for something like this is quite out of my comfort zone. Even after five sessions, I get a bit nervous reaching out to new artists. But, if I’ve learned anything during our time in Hawaii so far, it’s that getting out of your comfort zone is an absolute necessity. So, I reached out shortly after following her, and luckily she was interested in taking part in this series! After some scheduling challenges, we were finally able to connect last month for a session in her studio.
Kristie’s studio is a great space right in downtown Hilo. It’s just a few blocks to the ocean, which seems perfect and appropriate given one of her frequent subjects (peep the giant painting behind her in the photo above for a hint). Her space is really like a gallery with the expanse of white walls and beautiful wood floors. It made me reminisce about graduate school and my time with a proper studio and walls to hang things on, though that space wasn’t nearly as nice looking!
When I arrived at the studio, Kristie mentioned that she had debated cleaning things up a bit for our shoot. I am so glad she didn’t because those details of a studio as it would be on an average day are some of my favorite images to take. I love the paint tubes all over, the brushes in jars here and there, and the random bits of supplies stacked up on tables. It’s those details that make the space unique and also are sure signs of an artist being present.
It is very evident as soon as you enter the space that Kristie is busy and productive. There were paintings leaning against most of the walls and spread out all over the floor. It was awesome to see so many examples of her work in person and really gave me a better feel for her as an artist. Being surrounded by all those paintings felt like a small window into her artistic mind. It was also like an explosion of color, which made for some fun images!
One of my favorite questions to ask the artists I photograph is how they got into art. It waited too long to write this up, so hopefully, I don’t get any details wrong, but Kristie’s story of how she broke into the art world is an awesome one. She told me about how she had been trying to make it as a painter in LA but had more or less decided to quit at one point. She was in an elevator with a few of her paintings in her hands to bring home when a woman in the elevator saw them and asked about them. She expressed interest and more or less gave Kristie her big break, on the day she had decided to quit! I’ve been told this time and time again, but the reminder to stay persistent and continue to put myself out there was a good one.
Kristie’s work is representational and draws heavily on the natural world around her. Even the more abstract pieces feel like moments spent reminiscing about ocean creatures or forest wanderings. Many of the paintings even feel dreamlike, with their soft colors and marks. They also feel as though they are in transition, perhaps from blowing wind or other natural forces, or maybe a result of shifting memories (this is where my mind always goes, given my conceptual work). The sensation of movement that she creates in her paintings truly is amazing.
She starts her paintings with big, abstract shapes of color, and builds up detail to bring out a more defined subject bit by bit. You can see an example of this in the painting on the easel that she was working on while I was in her studio. I was lucky enough to go back to her studio a few weeks later to document her finished commission and was able to see the completed painting, which I’ve shared below. It sure went through a massive transformation from the time I saw it!
Just like the artist of my last post, Bailey Ferguson, Kristie paints based on intuition. She reacts to what is in front of her as she goes. Using palette knives and a variety of brush sizes, she pushes around the oil paint to convey that sense of ethereal movement that is always present in her pieces. Watching her work was very interesting because her movements would go back and forth between big sweeping motions with a larger brush, to very precise, tiny movements with a small brush. Seeing the different types of mark-making that go into one painting will always be intriguing to me.
We ended the session with Kristie working on finishing touches on one of her water paintings. The level of precision and detail that goes into these works is really impressive. It seems very meditative and calming and actually prompted me to get back to work on some pieces of my own that I had been putting off!