Welcome to Leelanau Women Aritsts
Artist Interview | Kristin Hurlin
Q:What was your first memorable experience with art?
A: My mother says I began drawing as soon as I could pick up a pencil. In Junior High I won an award for a detailed pen and ink drawing from Hudson's in Detroit.
Q: Can you explain when you first knew you wanted to become an artist? Who/What turned you on to Art?
A: I never wanted to become an artist, I just was. At career day in junior high I wanted to be an archeologist and travel to remote areas of the globe.
Q: Is there any single piece of artwork that has impacted you as a child? An adolescent? An adult?
A: I lived in Italy and Turkey from age 4-7, and my parents were avid sightseers. I was impressed by the work of Michelangelo and the beautiful tiled mosques. I especially loved the Pieta (which I touched - before the hand was broken off).
Q: What artists influenced you the most? Current Influences?
A: I never studied art history, or payed much attention to other artists, and I do not want to be influenced by other artists. What influences me is nature, and the random repeating patterns.
Q: What do you like most about the medium and surface you use?
A: I use paper and crow quill pens and watercolor. Most of my drawings take many months to complete. The true black of india ink on white paper slowly emerging into a form is interesting.
Q: What ideas are behind you current work?
A: Lately I have been interpreting water and working on botanical tree drawings.
Q: What do you want people to respond to in your work?
A: I hope my work serves as a decorative teaching about the interconnectedness of nature - all my relations.
Q: Do you have a predetermined idea of what your finished work will be like, or do the ideas emerge in process?
A: My work emerges slowly and I never quite know what it will look like until it is done, even though I do extensive preliminary sketches in pencil. Most of the landscapes are imaginary places indicative of a familiar habitat.
Q: How would you describe your work to a visually disabled person?
A: Imagine a quilt you are rubbing your hand over. There are small and large patterns - some are velvet, others are silk, corduroy, roughly woven wool.
Q: What are your goals for your work in the next few years?
A: Keep on working
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